Social media can be a total pain to learn how to use strategically for your business. As soon as you think you've mastered one channel, algorithms change. Or a different platform becomes the one to use for marketing. But there's one thing that seems to be sticking around on multiple channels: hashtags. They started on Twitter, moved their way over to Instagram, and are slowly being embraced on Facebook, and Google+. So what does your hashtag strategy look like? There are a few different types of "hashtaggers":
So what does your hashtag strategy look like? Are you a 1, 2, or 3? Here's how to properly use hashtags to ensure you're engaging the right audience and turning your followers into customers.
Finding that sweet spot will depend on the particular hashtags you're choosing, but try to find ones where the last post using it was less than one day ago but not as recent as 5 seconds ago. When the hashtag is used throughout Instagram every few seconds, your post will likely get lost in the noise and won't attract any new followers.
There's nothing worse than strategically searching for a hashtag, hoping to find something in specific, only to come across "follow4follow" accounts. Make sure your hashtag is directly related to the photo and topic of your post.
Would someone search for your hashtag? Would they search for those terms in Google? Treat your hashtags like keywords. For example, someone looking for a personal trainer probably wouldn't search for #instafit on Instagram or Google.
If you're also adding keywords to help tell readers and followers what your business is about, make sure they don't need to read it a few times to understand the hashtag. Keep it short and simple by capitalizing the first letter if there are multiple words. #KindOfLikeThis
Planoly Social Media Planning Tool
Think of a common pain point your target audience experiences. Turn it into a hashtag! For example a journal company might start an #OrganizationProbs hashtag. Or maybe you'd rather establish yourself in a community of likeminded entrepreneurs by starting a #JournalersUnite hashtag. Whichever you choose, create a graphic using a tool like Canva and share it on your Instagram! Tag fellow IGers you feel would love to join in on posting using the hashtag.
Just because you're allowed to use up to 30 hashtags, doesn't mean you need to. Using the tips we've covered, you'll probably find that you don't need to use all 30 for each post. If you're just choosing ones at random to max out your capacity, you're probably bringing in the wrong audience.
You work hard to write engaging descriptions for your posts, so why clutter them with hashtags? Pepper in one or two if they flow with the sentence but put the rest of your hashtags in a comment. I personally create a notebook in my phone with a few lists of hashtags to use, depending on the topic of the post. A great tool you can use to plan out your hashtags before posting is Planoly.