Hashtag Strategies for Instagram
The performance of your Instagram account is largely dependent on using the best hashtags. Using the right hashtags at the right time will increase engagement, followers and conversions. Although most people know what a hashtag is, many do not know which ones to use or how to use them. Businesses using well planned hashtag strategies will stand out on a highly competitive platform.
In this post you will learn:
- Hashtag basics
- Where to find the best hashtags for your business
- Which hashtags not to use
- How to organize your hashtags and save time
- Analytics for hashtags
- Following hashtags
Why Instagram?
As of writing this post Instagram has 1 Billion active monthly users Worldwide and growing. Over 500 million use Instagram stories on a daily basis and there are 25M registered businesses and 25 Million active advertisers. In order to reach your target market you need to be where your customers, clients or patients are.
What is a Hashtag?
According to Wikipedia “A hashtag is a type of metadata tag used on social network and microblogging services which makes it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content.” In other words a hashtag is like the search words used in Google search.
Hashtag Basics – What You NEED to Know
- Hashtags are used on Twitter and Instagram.
- Instagram allows up to 30 per post – any more than 30 and your hashtags will NOT post.
- You can use numbers and Emojis – Fun!
- Create clean posts without visible hashtags by placing them in your comments rather than the description.
- Up to 10 hashtags may be used in Instagram stories.
Where do you find the best hashtags for your brand?
- Research your competitor’s hashtags. What are they using and on what types of posts? Do they have a lot of followers and engagement on their posts? Make note of hashtags related to your business and research each of those.
- Find hashtags common to your target audience or ideal customers. Search your ideal customer’s Instagram accounts and discover with hashtags they are using. You may try researching your competitors followers and see which hashtags they use.
- Use specific hashtags. A specific hashtag may be one that is custom to your brand. Revolve, an online women’s clothing store, uses #revolvearoundtheworld for travel posts and clothing.
- Explore related hashtags. If you are doing a weekend post #weekend has over 65M posts. When typing in #weekend in the search bar on Instagram, related hashtags will come up (as shown below). These may be more effective. Using hashtags with fewer posts increases the likelihood of ranking higher and more often in the feed.
Which hashtags should you use?
Now that you have a list of potential hashtags do the research and decide which ones to use.
1. Related hashtags with a smaller number of posts.
As with the example below, these are the number of posts for each of these related hashtags.
#weekend 131,049,045
#weekendvibes 20,384,132 posts
#weekends 4,618,074 posts
#weekender 673,090 posts
#weekend2 98,885 posts
#weekendoff 447,583 posts
#weekendgetaway 4,337,856 posts
#weekend2020 1,297 posts
#weekendbag 68,167 posts
#weekendmode 354,296 posts
In this example choosing #weekendbag with only 68,167 posts versus #weekendgetaway with 4,337,856 posts will increase the probability of being seen in the feed. In order to rank higher use hashtags that don’t have as many posts. I use a combination starting with as few as 5,000 posts up to 3,000,000 posts. For a weekend post one combination could be #weekender, #weekendoff #weekendtrip #weekendbag. Be a fish in a small pond. To take this research further I will look at each one to see if my target market is using them.
2. Descriptive hashtags
Descriptive hashtags are the Where, What, When & Why.
- Where was the picture taken or where is your business located? palmdesert #medinapark #seattlepublicmarket #onthebeach.
- What is this post about? Describe it. #prettyflowers #walkingintherain #creatingmagic #cutebaby
- When did you take this picture? #valentinesday2017 #sundayfunday #graduationday
- Why? For #nationalroseday #congratulations
3. Industry hashtags
These are found the same as competitors. What hashtags specific to your business are being used? What are the results? For example, as a plastic surgeon some industry hashtags are #cosmeticsurgery #femaleplasticsurgeon #doctorslife #srubbinin etc. I might find those hashtags on a post like the one below. To take it even further look up each one to check for relevancy.
4. Well timed hashtags
By timing I mean NOT using a hashtag such as #summertime in the Fall or #Fathersday2019 on New Year’s Day. These wouldn’t be considered timely.
Time of day is different than timing but also important. Pay attention to Instagram analytics to see what time of day you get the most engagement and create a Instagram schedule based on the results. One of our future blog posts will cover time of day. Follow our Instagram and you’ll see when it posts.
5. Use different hashtags for different types of posts.
Check out our list of things to post on Social Media to get post ideas.
For a post about anti-aging cosmetic treatments you might use #lookyounger #dermalfillers #cosmetictreatments #lifeafter50.
Whereas for a post about a weekend getaway you may use #weekendfun #weekendbag #travelpics #travelphoto.
Other Stuff
Keep your hashtags organized and easily accessible to be more effective and save time.
It is really time consuming researching hashtags and making lists. Do all these things in advance. Create lists in the notes app on a smart phone. For scheduling posts create a list that can be accessed from anywhere. Organize your lists by category. Client’s lists are organized by service type and topics. Categories for one business may be: Injectables, Laser Treatments, Skincare Products, Staff and Events. Under each of those categories are up to 30 researched hashtags.
Analyze your hashtag performance.
To check individual hashtags simply type it into the Instagram search bar to see if your posts are in the top feed. If you can’t find your posts consider using a different one.
Which hashtags should you avoid using?
- Ones with large numbers of posts
- Hashtags that don’t reach your target market
- Ones that are NOT related to your post – these may cause people to “unfollow” you.
- Avoid hashtags that are used to solicit follows such as #like4like, #follow4follow, #tagsforlikes, etc. . These will make you seem desperate or spammy.
Having a well planned strategy and understanding how to be more effective using hashtags will ultimately lead to greater success and sales using social media.
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