Hello, I am Benjiman,
I therefore inviting you to follow my step by step guide to my first 1000 followers with this greatest instagram hashtags strategy .
I did a lot of research which I shared with you:
- First of all, I explained to you how to switch your personal account to a pro account , and all the advantages that this entailed.
- Then, I have listed all the best Instagram apps and tools to use to have a top Instagram feed!
Today I decided to devote myself to my Instagram hashtag strategy
It should be noted that Instagram hashtags are an essential part of the discovery journey for users on the platform, allowing brands to access specific niche groups and areas of interest.
They can help you increase your reach , connect with your target audience, and even build brand awareness .
Why use instagram hashtags strategy?
2 main reasons:
- Help find your content / account more easily
- Effective way to get more followers, increase engagement, and expand your reach and brand awareness
Here is all the advice that I gleaned from the web, that I am sharing with you today, and that I will of course put into practice.
1. Do your research
It is important to research hashtags before using them because the more relevant and targeted the hashtags you use , the more likely you are to reach a target audience who will interact with your posted content.
Find topics related to your theme
A good place to start is to research hashtags related to your topic (the keywords you are currently using are a great place to start your hashtag research).
How to do ?
In the Instagram app:
- Tap the magnifying glass icon
- Type your keyword
- Then select the category “hashtags” (#)
The results of each search reveal all of the main hashtags that are closely related to the hashtag you searched for. Which will give you ideas for even more hashtags that you can use to reach and engage with your audience.
Find your target
Rather than placing random general hashtags at the end of your Instagram posts, take a more targeted approach. This will increase your audience by researching the hashtags that your target is currently using and inserting them into your posts (making sure to only use hashtags that are relevant and contain keywords that users interested in your topic are actually looking for).
Avoid hashtags that are over used .
Think in terms of the long tail , because generally speaking, the narrower the reach of a given hashtag , the more likely users are to be involved in topics posted with that hashtag.
For example, suppose you are going to post a photo of Tokyo, Japan. Instead of just using the hashtag #tokyo (nearly 49 million posts), you can also use #tokyolife (just over 754,000 posts). And even better: #exploretokyo (less than 123,000 posts) to reach a larger audience with less competition in the search for hashtags.
See what the leaders are doing in your theme
One of the most effective ways to find the hashtags you should be using is to follow Instagram influencers and businesses (or bloggers) who share your audience to see which hashtags they are using. This will give you a good idea of which hashtags successful people are using.
Use a hashtag research tool
- Best-hashtags.com : completely free
- Ingramer : the free version is limited but that’s enough for me to build a list
- Hashtagify : basic tool for Twitter hashtags but it works very well for Instagram hashtags, at least to find ideas
It’s up to you to see which tool is right for you.
The technique I adopted:
- I listed the different themes I wanted to address on my Instagram account: travel, blogging, quotes
- I analyzed the hashtags of competitors or influencers in these themes> construction of my first lists of hashtags
- Enriching these lists with related hashtag proposals (I love this feature!)
- Then I continued to refine my lists with the hashtag search tools
- And I kept everything in a google sheet so that I could finally access it!
2. The art of using Instagram hashtags
There are many studies on Instagram! And depending on which one you come across, the best number of hashtags to use will vary between 5 and 30 (the maximum number allowed by Instagram).
The reality is that the key to successful Instagram hashtags is to use them strategically , whether you choose three specific hashtags or 30 carefully chosen.
And I analyzed a lot of Instagram accounts with a large number of followers, and it is true that there are some that use the 30 authorized hashtags, and others 5 …
Good to know: Being as specific as possible with hashtags narrows the target audience pool, which makes it easier to create a more engaged audience .
General rules for hashtags:
- Test the 10/10/10 strategy : use a balanced combination of:
- 10 niche hashtags (a few thousand posts)
- 10 intermediate hashtags (tens of thousands of posts)
- 10 popular hashtags (a few hundred thousand posts)
- Also include a hashtag of your brand in every Instagram post
- You should alternate the hashtags you use except your branded hashtag.
- Example : I have created several lists on my “citations” theme, so that it is not always the same on all my citations publications. The majority of hashtags are identical but not placed in the same order, with a few other hashtags in addition
- Place your most important hashtags first , because they’ll be seen first
3. How to hide hashtags
To keep readers focused on your caption, it’s a good idea to hide your Instagram hashtags a bit. Because the hashtags that we see appearing in a visible way in the posts often seem cumbersome and similar to spam.
2 ways to hide your hashtags:
- Hashtags in the legend : by making several line breaks after the legend
- Hashtags in the first comment of your post
4. Place hashtags in your Instagram Stories
Adding hashtags in Instagram Stories – in text, a sticker, or a location tag – gives your content another way to be found by new audiences.
I’m not going to dwell on this subject because as I told you in my other article, I’m not going to do stories at the beginning. Everything in its time.
5. Add hashtags to your Instagram bio
Instagram hashtags can be placed in your profile description. A feature that gives bios a much needed extra oomph by providing links to hashtag feeds .
Just put a “#” before any keywords you think are important in your profile and it will automatically become a clickable link.
6. Avoid banned hashtags!
In order to keep the content of the platform compliant with its terms of use, Instagram prohibits – temporarily or permanently – certain hashtags, preventing them from appearing in search results.
While there isn’t a complete list of banned Instagram hashtags, logically Instagram bans violent, offensive, pornographic, illicit drug-related, gun deal-oriented, and hate-group hashtags. , organized crime and terrorism.
But also hashtags that look harmless and commonly used like #curvygirl, #happythanksgiving and even #newyearsday, due to overuse and misuse .
How do you know if the hashtags you are using (or plan to use) are banned?
- Click on the magnifying glass icon to access the Explore page.
- Type the hashtag in question in the search bar.
- If the hashtag does not appear in search results, it is banned (temporarily or permanently). Or you can also come across this kind of message:
Do this research well before using hashtags, because using banned hashtags will be very bad for your Instagram account !!
7. Monitor the performance of your hashtags
If you have an Instagram business profile, you will be able to see how effective your hashtags are (or pas) and use that data to tweak your strategy to get more views and engagement.
Keeping track of the hashtag performance of each of your posts will help you better target your strategy.
To access this valuable feature, open any post, then tap the blue “View Stats” link below.
Then swipe up to see full details about the post, including followings, reach, and impressions and how users found out.
Be aware that while Instagram Insights limits the time period for which you can see stats to 7 days for regular posts and 14 days for Stories, there are third-party apps that can provide more in-depth data. It may be worth using them if Instagram is your # 1 social network.
Tip: It’s important to continuously track, analyze, experiment, and test the hashtags that effectively attract new followers and increase engagement.
To sum up :
- Make sure every hashtag you use is well researched and relevant to your content.
- Avoid using too many generic hashtags, which will only lose your post in a generalized feed.
- Track down your ideal audience and spy on the competition for new hashtags.
- Follow your own branded hashtags to stay up to date with what people are saying about your brand.
- Follow the hashtags for your topic to stay on top of the latest news and trends.
- Keep all of your hashtags organized in a spreadsheet where you can add statistics.
- Store your most used hashtags in your smartphone‘s notes for quick and easy access.
- Create an Instagram hashtag strategy integrating different hashtags by topic.
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