A handy guide to using hashtags in social media
In 2014 the word ‘hashtag’ was officially added to the dictionary, but do you know what a hashtag actually is, and how best to use them in your social media marketing?
When you post any content on Instagram, the platform will present it to accounts that follow you. If your marketing goal for using Instagram is to reach lots of people to help grow your business, having your content only shown to your existing followers may be restricting the opportunities you have to create new business.
Hashtags are a free and easy way to help maximise your reach and push your content to new and potential clients. Put simply, hashtags are an effective tool to help index your content so that people who don’t yet follow you, can find your content.
The most important factor when considering your hashtags is to ensure that they are specific and relevant to your account and your content.
So, now you know why hashtags are good, how do you know which hashtags to use?
Finding the best hashtags takes a bit of work. The easiest way to get started is to break your ideas down into categories – here are some helpful questions to keep in mind:
What is your content focusing on? Is there a theme to your content that you could turn into a hashtag?
What is your business, industry or hobby? Breakdown the industry you work in – perhaps you are a graphic designer, why not then use #graphicdesigner #smallbusiness #entrepreneur
Who are you ideally targeting? Perhaps you are aiming your content at parents, or entrepreneurs, or graphic designers – who ever it is, remember to be specific and really break that headline down as far as you can.
Now that you’ve got a bit more clarity on the areas you want your hashtags to focus on, it’s time to do some research. Using the magnifying glass icon on your Instagram home-page, you can search for different # ‘Tags’ keywords. As you begin to type into this box, Instagram will provide you with similar options that may be better suited to your content.
Sometimes it can be useful to click on engaging content that uses these hashtags to see what other hashtags they may have used – it’s a great way to get inspiration! However, be careful not to just copy and paste all the hashtags as they will only be relevant to that post and not to you, or your content.
You will see when you search for hashtags that there is a number underneath it – this shows how many times a tag has been used on Instagram. Whilst many people think that you should use hashtags that are popular (1 million+ uses), or even the opposite (less than 100k), it is really important to mix it up and use a couple of very popular hashtags, a few 100k-500k; a few between 10k-100k and more between 1k-10k to give your content the best chance of being seen.
How many hashtags?
The number of hashtags you can use varies based on the content type you are posting on Instagram:
Main feed – you can add up to 30 hashtags either in your caption or your comments.
Stories – you can post up to 10 per Stories slide. These don’t tend to get pushed but if you’re joining in with a challenge or a competition, they can be really useful.
Reels – tag with up to 30 hashtags. Reels are still being pushed hard on Instagram so make sure you use your best hashtags here!
IGTV – up to 30 hashtags per video.
How do you know if your hashtags are working?
It can be tricky to know which hashtags are working and which ones aren’t. The easiest way is to keep an eye on your Insights. Your insights allow you to see the % of accounts that are not following you that have seen your content and you can check how many ‘Impressions’ have come through from your hashtags – the higher the number, the better your reach.
The best way to keep on top of your hashtag research is to keep researching and refining.
If you’re struggling with any of it, feel free to get in touch, otherwise #GoodLuck.
