Visibility. Reach. Being discovered. These are all things that business owners want for their business on social media. But being active on social media isn’t enough; enlisting a number of different strategies to help bring this into fruition is vital to success.
One of these strategies is through the use of hashtags.
Yes I know, hashtags can be annoying if they’re not used in the appropriate time or place. But they are super important for visibility and discoverability, mainly on Twitter and Instagram. I’m going to talk just about Instagram here!
One way to measure success with hashtags is to see if your post ends up in the Explore feed (well done, you!) or ends up in the ‘Top posts’ gallery for any particular hashtag.
A couple of days ago I had the honour of getting a post from the Queen of Swords Media Instagram account into the Top Posts gallery for FOUR popular hashtags in the marketing / social media niche (if only for a couple of hours!)
I did this by crafting an engaging long-form caption, using a related, beautiful image (the white horse) that I edited to my own specifications (thanks Unsplash), and utilizing as many relevant hashtags as possible.
#1 for #socialmediamanagement
Ahead of Social Media Examiner no less, who had the #2, #3 and #4 spots containing images from Social Media Marketing World 2018.
#1 for #socialmediamarketing (with nearly 4.6m posts!)
#2 for #facebookmarketing
#3 for #socialmediamanager
I should note that it’s not just the hashtag that counts towards getting in the Explore feed or getting your post in ‘Top posts’ gallery. Recency, engagement (how many likes and comments the post is getting) and image quality is also vital for success – but maybe I’ll go into these things in another blog post.
For now, here’s a few tips you can utilise to help make the most of hashtags on Instagram, better your chances of getting in the top spots, and ultimately getting seen!
The number of hashtags
You can add up to 30 hashtags in your posts. Research says that the optimum number of hashtags for engagement is 11. You can go with that, or I usually recommend using as many as possible as long as they are related and appropriate.
Use niche-specific hashtags
Use hashtags relevant to your niche. What is being used in your industry, what ones are your competitors using? What seems to be working for them? Try using a mix of popular ones (e.g. #socialmediamarketing) and less popular ones and/or more specific ones (e.g. #socialmedianz)
Do some research
Use free tools to find hashtags you may not have thought of before or found from your competitors. I like using this one. And see what Instagram suggests for you when you search for a particular hashtag.
That’s it for now, have fun finding some new hashtags to use and get discovered! See you at the ‘top’ 😉