The goal of using hashtags is to get your target audience to naturally see your content more often.
1.) They help instagram label your content so it knows what type of content it is and who is most likely going to enjoy it.
>> SUPER important because instagram is becoming more intelligent everyday by implementing things like, ‘Recommended posts’ when you click on a post in your Explore feed.
>> If instagram isn’t confused about your account you can definitely pop up here.
2.) When you “rank” in the top 9 of the hashtag you will be seen by people searching that hashtag quickly.
>> You will also be introduced with people who engage with those tags.
Now before you post that picture putting a couple generic ones in the caption like #love #beautiful #fitness….
… you might want to know you are wasting your time
The goal is to RANK (be seen) after all, not get lost in the sea of wannabe fitness buffs who take pictures with their shirts off and DM your girlfriend.. bastards..
In order to take full advantage of the hashtag system you are going to want to ‘Stair Case’ the hashtags.
Now you’re confused. You want to build followers not fucking stairs…
…hear me out..this is how it works!
6 Hashtags you can DEFINITELY rank in
6 Hashtags you can usually rank in
6 Hashtags you can sometimes rank in
6 Hashtags its really difficult for you to rank in
6 Hashtags that seem out of this world for you
= 30 total Hashtags per set
Now if you believe if you use 30 hashtags on a post IG will put you on the naughty list then use less?
But… I used the same 3 sets of 30 hashtags to build my account to 350,000… just to stick it to someone who said they didn’t believe..
...I’m pretty fucking petty (:
>> We construct our hashtags like this so that as you rank in hashtags your engagement will increase.
Therefore as your engagement increases on a post it’ll push you to the next set, and then the next set, and the next set.
This way you fully maximize your potential.
When choosing your hashtags you don’t want to JUST be able to rank in them. You want them to be relevant so people interested in that tag will more likely engage with it.
!!! [EXAMPLE] I run a beauty account. Obviously there is hair, makeup, skincare, eyebrows, & nails etc.
>> Ideally you want to develop sets of hashtags for each specific content aspect you deal with. So 1-2 sets for makeup content, 1-2 sets for eyebrows etc..
This way you’ll diversify your hashtags because you definitely don’t want to repeat them over and over again.
*** How to FIND good Hashtags ***
Honestly finding hashtags is the easiest shit in the world. It blows my mind and you’re going to be a little pissed off at the common sense.
Oh I’m not judging, I was RIGHT were you are right now.
..feeling like a dumbass because I didn’t think of it
1.) Open Instagram.
2.) Press that magnifying glass thingy (search).
3.) Click on hashtags.
4.) Type in something generic (fitness).
5.) Log the data from the Top 9 (Can be found on computer version of IG).
6.) Click on a suggested tag that pops up.
7.) Rinse & Repeat.
Doesn’t that piss you off!
This is why I preach Instagram is literally a Time vs Money platform. There are a ton of tedious tiny things that 90% of people do to execute on and it adds up.
You’re going to want to cultivate 70ish tags per subject. So 70 for Makeup, 70 for nails, 70 for hair etc..
The reason for this is you have to hand select the tags later depending on their stats and where your account is at.
*** Making Sense of Gibberish ***
>> To track the data, open up Google Sheets and make columns for Likes / Comments / Total Posts / Posts Per Day / Other (Notes).
You want to look at the Top 9 only. Briefly scroll through the top 9 and fill in the average amount of likes and comments each post gets.
>> If you are dealing with smaller hashtags or local hashtags, make a note of how many posts use that tag on average per day.
>> Dive into the posts below the Top 9 to retrieve posts per day.
You definitely want to know if anyone is using it at all or not.
I add in a notes section because sometimes you’ll get hashtags that rank with only 300 likes and you’re like WTF HOW!! And then you think it means you can rank in it..
Although you can literally just get lucky. A lot of the time you miiight want to look at when they posted it.
A lot of times it was like 3 seconds ago.. then you think.. OH SHIT.
>> Fill in the ‘Total Posts’ also! Those are found on the bottom right.
A lot of people who don’t know what the fuck they are talking about and are like “OH USE THAT NUMBER”.
….just fucking stop Jenny god damn it :)
This number is super important because it lets you know how active the hashtag is.. but not the sole tell of if you should use it.
*** How to Read the Data ***
So now that you spend a couple tedious hours filling out data and doing research… you’re ready to put the tags together!
>> Google Sheets is super helpful because you can directly compare the tags and how they stand.
It’s also common sense:
Whats your average likes/comments on a picture??
Let's say it’s 50 likes and 3 comments.
Look at the first hashtag.
;) It’s #alexisthebestever
It has 3000 likes and 129 likes on average and it’s total posts are 2 million.
It’s a little out of your league to rank in… but hey every great account uses it so lets just add that into one of your 30 ;)
Next one.
>> #IGcommonsense has 40 likes / 1 comment and 20,000 total posts.
So you can DEFINITELY rank in that and people are using it. Make a note of it, or colour coordinate so you know thats for the first set of six.
Rinse & Repeat this process until you have a bunch.
*** Then look through them and compare ***
#IGcommonsense: 40 likes / 1 comment / 20,000 total
#alexwillkie: 30 likes / 3 comments / 50,000 total
#thewillkieway: 60 likes / 0 comments / 10,000 total
#insideinstagram: 50 likes / 6 comments / 100,000 total
So in this example if I had to pick only one hashtag I personally would choose the #alexwillkie
Even though it has half as many posts as #insideinstagram, I am much more likely to rank in it, therefore giving me the benefits I want.
>> Keep in mind comments do have a more drastic effect on ranking than likes do.
When you have done your research you will notice that there some really popular hashtags that have a low engagement threshold in comparison to the others.
You definitely want to select those as much as you can because those are money.
X You DON’T Want to Do These… X
X Listen to Jenny
X Post 6 times a day and use the SAME set of 30 tags every single post.. your ass is getting banned for sure then
X Post 30 hashtags in the caption with a bunch of dots to really take up their feed..
This one is currently under debate. I have read articles by damn Jenny who say instagram no longer tracks hashtags in the comments…
Which unsure if that is a change that will happen or is the works but currently from my testing I still rank using them in the first comment
X Stick with the same tags forever (like me).. swap them out as your engagement grows to continue building on more and more engagement.
*** [BONUS] Using Geotags & Local Hashtags ***
Geotags are the locations you tag in your posts.
If you have a local service based business, this is where you can really do some damage.
You can discover and track the data the exact same way with geotags as you did with hashtags.
These are awesome because instagram can associate people in the location with your brand and show them something local when they are searching for it.
!! Local Tricks That Work: !!
>> mix in hashtags that my local targeted audience would use for extra exposure to the local market.
>> Add geotags to where your target audience lives
Usually you can rank in geotags really easy, therefore your brand could be in multiple communities of your audience.
>> Geotag popular spots during their peak times
>> I would tag downtown restaurants where my corporate customer base would eat lunch, during lunch ;)
>> I would also tag the office building they worked at hahah.
I’m savage :)
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Hashtags and geotags won’t make you famous. But it is one of the instagram tactics that adds up. Both used effectively allows for much more organic profile views.
Which leads to followers who then become customers.
If you need any help or have any questions you need answered I am here to help.
