Hashing out Hashtags
Written By: Abbey Higgins | Supported By: Lexi Wulf
What’s the Deal with Hashtags + How to Use them?
While the algorithm on Instagram and many social media platforms has changed to prioritize discovery via content versus hashtags, hashtags should still be an important part of your social media strategy. Read on to explore why and how to use them, an example of a hashtag strategy, and how many to use. Don’t miss scrolling to the bottom for our top 3 takeaways.
Happy hashtagging!
Why Should You Use Hashtags?
The use of hashtags on instagram is one of the most important tools in growing engagement for your profile. The right hashtags can showcase your content in front of your target audience, attracting new followers that haven’t connected with you before. According to Fohr Insights, “A post with at least one Instagram hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement than posts without a hashtag.” Therefore creating and implementing a hashtag strategy is a smart investment to grow your social media engagement.
One thing to note as platforms evolve and algorithms change to prioritize discovery via content instead of through hashtags, a hashtag strategy alone cannot be the only tool in your social media strategy toolshed. Use hashtags alongside your content strategy to effectively and authentically attract the right audiences.
Types of Hashtags + Your Hashtag Strategy
The first step in creating your ideal hashtag strategy is understanding the different types of hashtags such as brand, community, product, event, campaign, location, niche, etc. Write down words or phrases that apply to your business and start to bucket them by “type.” From there, explore these phrases on Instagram and start jotting down the hashtags that populate. Research posts from competitors, from thought leaders in your space, and check out variations of these hashtags. Lastly, expand your search to influencers in your space - what are they using? What are commenters responding with? What type of engagement does that hashtag typically see? Jot down those that resonate and show strong engagement for each “type” of hashtag.
PRO TIP: A good way to find hashtags is by searching anything related to your brand or business, for example, if you own a restaurant, search #restaurant. When it comes up, underneath you will see a number of posts that have used that hashtag, you will also see other similar hashtags that include that word. This can help to find hashtags that are trending and lead you into other suggested hashtags that fit your niche.
Next, we like to utilize the rule of thirds in our hashtag strategy by taking all hashtag “types” and breaking them into three categories: high volume of use, medium, and low or niche brand hashtags. High-volume hashtags are those used regularly, likely with millions or hundreds of thousands of uses. We want to use these hashtags to be “playing in the same sandbox” as others in your space. Medium-volume hashtags are more narrow, closer to your audience and product. We use these to gain more visibility in conversations closer to the actual product, service, or location. Low-volume are niche, more exact to your brand and your audience. We’ll create brand consistency by always showing up in these conversations. Put all hashtag “types” into these three high, medium, and low-volume categories. With every post, go to your pool of high, medium, and low hashtags and pull forward relevant hashtags that align with the content. Always include your brand hashtag(s) and campaign hashtag and the rest should be a mix of the three categories that apply to the content and purpose of the post.
Let us repeat! Your hashtags should be related or relevant to the content you post!
How Many Hashtags?
How many hashtags should you really be using? Instagram allows up to 30 per post, including the post copy and comments, but should you max out on every post? The long and short answer is yes, and no.
Using the maximum 30 hashtags is most beneficial if well thought out and if the hashtags truly apply to your content. If all 30 hashtags have quality usage, popularity, and the type of content you want your brand to be alongside, go for it! If your post can speak more clearly to only the audiences in 9 or 11 hashtags, keep the trimmed down number. Quality is key over quantity.
There has been a lot of research on the “perfect” number of hashtags and research has shown that 11 is the magic number. We suggest a minimum of 9 to get the party started; 3 from each category.
Image credit: CommentSold
Top 3 Tips on how to incorporate Hashtags on Instagram
Find and use hashtags that have an engaged audience that are relevant to your product and industry. Find the types of hashtags your audience and influencers are using, and utilize a mix of high-usage, medium-usage, and low/niche-usage hashtags from each type that relates to that particular post. We suggest a minimum of 9 hashtags, with 11 being called the golden number by many. The rule of thumb is quality over quantity.
Add Instagram hashtags to your Stories. With the ability to add up to 10 hashtags to your Story, this is a great way for your content to be discovered in another way and possibly gain more impressions and reach. Besides populating when/if someone is searching that hashtag, Stories tend to get higher algorithm preference - a win, win!
To keep your posts looking tidy and neat, there are few ways to organize your hashtags so your post doesn’t look jumbled. One way to do so is by hitting the return key multiple times and hiding those hashtags under the caption or by putting those hashtags in the first comment on the post.