Hashtags are quite crucial in social media, especially on Instagram. In this post, I will go through
•what hashtags are
• why it is essential to use relevant hashtags
• what to consider when selecting and using the hashtag
I will also give you 3 hashtag tips at the end.
What is the purpose of hashtags on Instagram?
Hashtags are an excellent way to get more audience to your posts. When having a business account, using the “right” hashtag can get your post well noted on the search page on Instagram. Now, before you think that you don’t need to be known nation/worldwide, I will tell you there is more to it. You decided to take your business on Instagram for a reason to build a community and get your business in front of your audience, who can be your future customers or your business partners. Hashtags are great to help you with this. It is good to note that in the social media world, anything is possible. Also, the more you get noted because of the hashtags, the more you can “beat” the algorithm. Meaning if your post’s engagement is “poor,” it will just end up at the bottom of the pile, and even your followers don’t see your post in their feed.
What is a hashtag?
A hashtag is a word or sentence written all together as a one-word. It aims to highlight the subject of the post in question. Hashtags are bringing the post up for more eyes to see it, but they also are a way to search for some specific topic.
It is possible to add a maximum of 30 hashtags on one Instagram post. I will tell you later how it would be good to divide the hashtags and why?
My mentor has underlined that it would be good to maximize the use of the hashtags. Meaning that each post would have 30 hashtags on them; well, the line is drawn to 25-30; the choice is yours in the end.
Why are hashtags important?
The more hashtags there are in one post, the more people can find and see the post. The more eyes and more likes the post gets, the higher it climbs on Instagram feed versus ends up at the bottom of the pile, and eyeballs on the post are the minimum.
Hashtag tip 1 – Represents the company
I have mentioned earlier that the Instagram account should represent your company. And when talking about hashtags, it should be the same. They should describe the post in question, which is aligned with the company, of course. You can use the name of your business, for example, on each one of your posts. But, let’s say that you are a yoga teacher and offer services relating only to yoga, then it wouldn’t be relevant to use hashtags about pilates. This is quite obvious, right? All this makes it also make it substantially easier to plan your posts.
Hashtag tip 2 – The language used in hashtags
I am from Finland, so that is why I’m taking this example. If all your posts are written in Finnish, or let’s say, in Polish, I don’t recommend for you to use English hashtags. In my opinion, they are going to be wasted this way. Why? Let’s say someone who is following the hashtag #yogateachers finds your post from the hashtags. And, most certainly, doesn’t understand a word you have written in the caption. How likely would it be that this person would end up being your most loyal follower, or customer? Of course, it is always possible that someone follows you just because of the excellent content you have, but most likely, the hashtags aren’t effecting the optimal way they could.
Hashtag tip 3 – Dividing the hashtags
Searching and dividing the hashtag is something that I recommend you to take time to. By dividing, I mean the size of the hashtags. In other words, how many posts that particular hashtag has. If you choose to use the hashtag #personaltrainer, your post ends up to the group of 33,3 million other posts using the same hashtag. Therefore, most likely, the post is not getting the attention it deserves. But if you use the hashtag #personalcoach, your post will end up with 472 000 other posts. These kinds of large hashtags should be used selectively. The guidelines that I am following are that there is a maximum of 5 huge hashtags on my posts. Furthermore, it is better if the hashtag size is a maximum of one million posts, preferably less than that.
Next is the world of middle-range hashtags. It means that the size of the hashtag is a maximum of 800 000 posts. Again, I’d say, preferably less than that, for me, it means 500 000 posts. The hashtags of this size you can select 10 for your posts. Of course, small nations, like Finland, those huge hashtags don’t even exist or are very few.
The last group is the small hashtags, the ones that don’t have that much competition. The size is now under 100 000 posts. In practice, you can choose anywhere between 25 000-100 000. Very small, fewer than a hundred posts hashtags is better to leave aside, unless you have an excellent reason to use one. But it is again the matter of eyeballs on your posts.
There you are, now you know a little bit more about the secrets of hashtags.
PS. Did you know that you can check the insights under each post and see how well the post has been discovered through the hashtags?
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