How to Find Optimized Hashtags for Instagram
By far, one of the most common things business owners are confused by when it comes to social media is hashtags.
They’re sneaky little guys that just appeared on all the social platforms one day. We see them. We acknowledge them. Some of us even interact with them. Or follow them. But what they are? Why they’re there?
Those are questions that sometimes it seems only the internet gods know the answer to.
I’m here to solve all those burning hashtag questions and give you a simple strategy that optimizes each one of your posts!
What is a hashtag?
Before hashtags were cool, they were called pound signs. 😎
While the symbol is the same, hashtags carry a lot more weight than pound signs.
Hashtags are words or phrases preceded by a “#” that help social media platforms categorize your content.
As you’ve found out through our lesson on keywords, posting to social media for your business is all about helping the algorithm best categorize your content so it can get pushed to the best audience for you.
#Guidelines
There are a couple of rules when it comes to hashtags.
Topic: Most importantly, you need to make sure what your hash-tagging connects to what you’re posting. The whole point of using a hashtag is to tell Instagram what it is you are posting about. If you’re posting about a new sweater in your shop but your tagging #happymonday, that might not be the most ideal caption for you.
The strategy I use is to pick two hashtags that describe my business, two hashtags that describe my location, and two hashtags that describe the post they are tied to.
Size: Another important thing to note is that you need to pay attention to the size of a hashtag before you use it. Before you add a hashtag to your post, Instagram will tell you how many posts are tagged to that hashtag. For people that follow hashtags, they normally will see the most popular or most recent posts. If you are tagging to a hashtag that has over a million posts, there’s a very slim chance that people following that hashtag are going to see it.
The strategy I use is to choose hashtags that are between 10k and 900k. I normally pick two in the 10k - 50k range, two in the 100k - 500k range, and two in the 500k to 900k range.
How Do I Find Hashtags for My Business?
The easiest way to find hashtags is to add the “#” symbol at the bottom of your caption (you should create a space between your caption and your hashtags by pressing “Enter”).
Once you press “#” and start typing a keyword, you will be able to see popular hashtag options with that keyword and their sizes.
My favorite way to do hashtag research is through Meta Business Suite. To find the hashtag research button on Meta Business Suite, act like you are setting up a scheduled post, then in the caption section press the hashtag in the bottom right hand corner.
This will bring up the Meta Business Suite hashtag research pop-up. In this pop-up you can type in a keyword, see tons of hashtag options and their sizes, and save your favorite hashtags to use later.
If you want more information on how to set up a post to schedule in Meta Business Suite, check out this tutorial.
If you’re struggling to find Meta Business Suite, check out this tutorial.
Your Challenge: Find your Base Hashtags!
Head on over to Instagram (act like you’re going to post something in order to get to the caption page) or Meta Business Suite’s hashtag tool. Then:
Find five hashtags, that are various sizes, that describe what your business is or does.
Find five hashtags, that are various sizes, that describe your business’s location.
These ten hashtags are your base hashtags. Add them to your notes and mix and match them for each of your posts. And don’t forget to add two post specific hashtags when you are posting!
