When used with a little extra thought put into them, hashtags can greatly improve your visibility. Smarten up your hashtag strategy with these top tips.
Go Public, or Go Home
This is a bit of common sense advice that can slip your mind if you’re not too familiar with the privacy settings on your account. For marketing purposes and growing a following you will need to make sure your social media accounts are set to public, not private so that new followers can find you!
Hiding Hashtags on Instagram
Instagram is a visual platform. The focus needs to remain on the image content of your posts. Your caption should be directly connected to the image. Instead of crowding the caption space with hashtags, make a separate comment on your post containing the hashtags. This allows you to gain the benefit of your posts appearing in those tags without cluttering your caption space.
Change It Up
Copying and pasting the same batch of hashtags for all of your posts is easy, sure, but it is also limiting. Using the same hashtags repeatedly limits your exposure to those hashtags alone. It also gives viewers the impression of complacency. If you want to show your audience that you are engaged and “listening” so to speak, cycle through a variety of hashtags on your posts. Not only will you expose your content to a larger group of people, you will also create a feed that lets followers know you’re there and ready to engage with them.
Quality Over Quantity
Could you litter your posts with every hashtag under the sun? Yes. Will that tactic get you a lot of likes? Probably. BUT, it can also reek of greediness. When you’re doing it right, social media isn’t about collecting likes. It’s about creating engagement. Followers who eventually become customers are genuinely interested in your content. These are the people who you should be trying to engage. So, focus your net.
Choose your hashtags carefully. Make them specific and relevant to your posts. Using hashtags that are smaller in scope, but more closely connected to your content will increase the likelihood it will be seen by real people who also have a personal connection to that topic.
Emotive Hashtags
Humans are emotional creatures. As consumers we find it easy to connect with content that has an emotional element. Incorporate an emotional element into your hashtags. Think about the moods and feelings evoked by the topics you’re posting about, and create hashtags with this in mind.
Become an Early Adopter
Every second a new hashtag is born. Sometimes those hashtags become viral sensations. Keep an eye on the trending lists of hashtags so you can hop on the bandwagon when it’s still fresh and new. Viral hashtags can be great for exposure if you use them early enough in their rise to the top. Use them too late and you’ll look like you’re just following the crowd.
A Hashtag Just for You
Ultimately hashtags are a filtering tool. They make it easier for users to find content they are interested in. Make it easy for your followers to find your content by creating hashtags that fit your niche. You can also use unique hashtags to organize your content. Remember to include any hashtags that are unique to your content and brand in your bio.
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