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Today, let’s talk hashtag strategy. Do you love hashtags or hate them?
{ groan }
I personally have a love-hate relationship with them.
But, regardless of your answer, you should be researching and using hashtags in your social media marketing. Keep reading to find out why!
Before I continue, let me say that there are various different opinions out there about some elements of hashtag strategy. It’s also important to know that things are always changing. The information in this blog post is being provided to the best of my knowledge at the time of publishing.
What Are Hashtags
The #hashtag was first used on Twitter in 2007 by Chris Messina. Over time, its use became widespread on various social media platforms.
A hashtag is the use of a #keyword that is relevant in some way to what you are posting about. They are clickable when posted and allow social media users to easily find more content containing the same hashtag. Specific hashtags are researched and used related to businesses, industries, locations, events, feelings, special interests, and more.
Throughout this blog post, we will be talking mostly about Instagram, but it’s important to know how to use them on other platforms as well. We’ll talk more about that below. On Instagram though, you can also follow hashtags – so you can find specific hashtags that are relevant to your business and follow those. For example, if you are a restaurant, you could follow the #foodphotography hashtag to network with fellow foodies and to get inspiration for taking better social media photos.
Why Do You Need to Use Them?
Hashtags are a great way to get your social media content seen by people who aren’t already following you. Because people search and follow hashtags, your content could show up in one of their searches. If they like what they see, from there they can come to your profile and follow you if they would like.
Here are some screenshots from two of my recent Instagram posts so you can see what I mean.
This first post had 75 impressions, and of those, 31 of them saw my post because of a hashtag I used. That means that 41.3% of the people who saw this post were not even following me on Instagram.
This second post had 186 impressions, and of those, 127 of them saw my post because of a hashtag I used. So, 68.3% of the people who saw this post weren’t even following me!
As you can see, the use of hashtags can significantly increase the number of impressions that your post receives on Instagram.
Researching & Building a Hashtag Library
There are several third-party tools on the market that are built to help you do effective and efficient hashtag research. I’m not going to discuss any of them here. Instead, I’m going to discuss how to do your research natively within Instagram and Google.
Hashtag Research within Instagram
So, whether you are using Instagram on your desktop or on your mobile device, there is a search option at the top that you can use to search specific hashtags and keywords. As you start to build your hashtag library, I suggest starting with a list of keywords that are relevant to your business, industry, location, and any other applicable topics you plan to post on a regular basis.
Keep an Eye on Hashtag Use Numbers
As you are researching them, you want to pay attention to how many times each hashtag has been used. You don’t want to really use many (or any) that have over 1 million posts, because your post will likely just get “lost in the shuffle.” If you want, you can use 1-2 large ones per post – but you want to focus on those that are less than 1 million, even less than 600,000 or so is a good idea. At the same time, you want to make sure the hashtags you choose aren’t too small. I try not to use any that have been used less than 5,000 times.
Search Similar Accounts
You can also search similar accounts to see what hashtags they are using. Now, I’m not suggesting that you just go to a competitor’s page and copy all of their hashtags and use them. However, sometimes seeing what someone else is using can spark inspiration for you to find a new set of hashtags you may not have thought of. And, you aren’t going to use the hashtags in the same group on the same day, so it’s really just another way for you to gain inspiration as you build your library.
Use Google Keyword Data
Another good tip is to use Google Analytics and Google Search Console keywords data. You can assume that if users are searching certain keywords to find your website, they would search similar hashtags to find you on social media. Take that list of keywords and perform some hashtag searches as well.
How My Hashtag and Content Libraries Save Time
I use a spreadsheet to store the hashtag libraries I have created for myself and my clients. It gives you a relatively fast way to build your hashtag groups as you are creating your content, instead of having to continually search for more hashtags on Instagram.
I also keep a backup version of all of my social media content in Trello. This also lets me easily go grab a group of hashtags I may have used in a similar post from 3 months ago so I can reuse them.
Frequently Asked Hashtag Questions
So, how many hashtags should you use on Instagram?
This is one of those things that has varying opinions … but you are allowed to use up to 30, and I always use all 30 of them in my posts.
What types of hashtags should you use per post?
I also try to make sure they are a combination related to business, industry, and location, as well as a handful of them that are specific to each post. It’s also a great idea to have a few branded hashtags that are specific to your company. For example, I always use #digitaldarcy as one of my hashtags.
Should you post the hashtags in a group/paragraph or on separate lines with breaks?
This is up to you! I like to write my caption, return down a few times, and then put my hashtags in a group. Make sure you are putting a space between each hashtag (like #digitaldarcy #marketingconsultant). I like to use this IG Line break separator tool to help me make the spacing clean and proper on Instagram and Facebook.
Should you post the hashtags in the caption or as the first comment?
Again, this is up to you! Instagram doesn’t have a preference, but you can only use 30 total whether you post in the caption or in the comments.
Hashtag Strategy on Different Social Media Platforms
We’ve talked mostly about Instagram throughout this post, but you also want to use hashtags on other platforms!
- Facebook – they were recommending no hashtags for a while but have recently brought them back. As I type this, I am currently using 3-6 hashtags per post on Facebook.
- Twitter – as I shared above, hashtags were born on Twitter! When I post on Twitter, I usually use 3-5 hashtags.
- LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. also encourage hashtag use. I usually use more hashtags than Facebook but fewer than Instagram when I post to these platforms, usually somewhere around 15 hashtags on these platforms.
A Few Words of Caution
As you are using hashtags, especially on Instagram, you want to make sure you don’t use the same group of hashtags every single time. This can make your account appear spammy, and you have a risk of getting what they call shadowbanned by Instagram. This has the potential to make hashtags not work on your profile for a time (how long is determined by Instagram.)
It’s also a good idea to make sure you are continually doing hashtag research and updating your hashtag library. Refresh the hashtags you commonly use, at least quarterly is a good guideline.
You also want to be aware that there are some banned hashtags. The list of which ones changes over time. You used to be able to easily tell which hashtags were banned because they wouldn’t show in your Instagram searches, but the last time I checked them they were showing anyway. So, just be aware that some hashtags are banned, and you can pretty easily find updated lists of them by doing a Google search.
