Do you have a strategy behind the hashtags you use on Instagram, or do you just go with the flow?
Social Media Examiner came up with a formula that you can follow in order to maximize your post’s performance every single time. When narrowing down your 30 hashtags for your post, you’ll want to use:
5-7 popular hashtags (100k – 500k posts)
5-7 moderate hashtags (10k – 100k posts)
3-5 niche-specific hashtags (<10k posts)
1-3 branded hashtags (exclusive to your brand)
This can obviously vary, but that’s a good rule of thumb. Here’s why this strategy works!
The algorithm analyzes how well a post performs by looking at the engagement it gets from both followers and non-followers. And here’s where the magic happens.
Popular hashtags – your post will only be at the top of the page for a few seconds to a few minutes, so you’ll get an immediate burst of activity.
Moderate hashtags – your post will stay at the top of the page for up to a few hours. This tells Instagram that your content has a long lifespan.
Niche-specific hashtags – this is where you get to stick out! Since the popular and moderate hashtags are keeping your content spiking with activity, there’s a good chance that your post will appear as a top post in the searches for the niche-specific hashtags you choose.
Makes sense?!
Now that you have a solid strategy in place, it’s time to choose the right hashtags to use.
Content hashtags: hashtags related to the content you’re posting
Industry hashtags: hashtags related to the industry you’re serving
Niche hashtags: hashtags that are specific to the target audience you’re trying to reach
Branded hashtags: hashtags that you and your customers use to showcase and tag your content on Instagram
For your own brand, you’ll want to create a list of hashtags to satisfy these various categories. Now, let’s get to work!
Click here to download your Hashtag Discovery Workbook!
