Hashtags have become indispensable for social media marketers. These straightforward yet effective tags enable discoverability, content organization, increased reach, and more interaction. Using hashtags deliberately will help your material stand out among billions of entries vying for viewers.
On the other hand, employing too many or pointless hashtags might backfire and perhaps result in a ban or flagging of your postings. This page provides guidelines and best practices for efficiently using hashtags without overstretching oneself.
Defining Effective Hashtag Use
Before delving into strategic optimization, let’s first establish what constitutes effective hashtag use:
- The hashtags used should be relevant to the underlying message or media being shared. Using unrelated hashtags simply to gain more discovery comes across as deceptive.
- The hashtags themselves should clearly and succinctly communicate the broader category or sub-categories they represent. Cryptic or convoluted hashtags help no one.
- While broader hashtags cast a wider net, ultra-specific tags better attract the right audiences. Finding the sweet spot for each post enhances discoverability.
- Consistent use of select hashtags over time, where apt, helps associate your brand or persona with certain categories.
- That said, hashtags shouldn’t be identical on all posts, either. Tailoring them to each piece provides more contextual discoverability.
- Properly placing hashtags at the start or end of captions optimizes visibility and click-throughs.
This way, you can attract a new part of the audience to your page or blog. In addition, you can increase your Instagram followers today via GoreAd, if you do not quite understand working with hashtags.
Researching the Best Hashtags to Use
Instagram posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement than those without. But, finding relevant tags with enough traction to expand reach requires some research.
Analyze Competitors and Influencers. List in your area important business executives, rivals, and community leaders. Look at the hashtags they often use to include their following. These are usually popular and tested tags that would also fit your material perfectly.
Explore Content Categories. Search by broader categories and sort content by most popular first. Scroll through the types of hashtags used under each category to find promising options.
Use Discovery Tools. Platform-specific tools like Instagram’s Hashtag Search tool and Twitter’s Hashtag Finder reveal trending hashtags and their estimated impressions. Third-party tools also provide additional analytics.
Optimize for SEO. Compare ongoing search volumes and trends for relevant keywords using Google’s Keyword Planner and integrate fitting hashtags to improve visibility.
Track Performance. Use analytics to identify tags that consistently drive more engagement and conversions for your posts. Double down on those that perform best.
Assessing these signals helps determine optimal hashtags to adopt across various content types.
Choosing Hashtags for Different Post Objectives
While following broader posting best practices, hashtags can be selectively optimized for specific objectives:
Building Community – For Fostering Connections. Use consistently across posts to establish your brand’s niche community with hashtags like #startuplife, #entrepreneurlifestyle.
Driving Conversions – For Promotions and Offers. Combine campaign-specific promo tags like #blackfridaysale with product or offer tags like #couponcode for more targeted visibility.
Boosting Engagement – For Interactive Content. Integrate popular tags like #contestalert, #giveaway, #AMA, and niche interest tags relevant to the content format.
Increasing Advocacy – For Thought Leadership. Include broadly followed category tags like #growthhacking, #productivity, and #SaaS, along with original hashtags that followers can propagate.
Enhancing Recall – For Key Messaging. Devise original, memorable hashtags that creatively communicate your USP, slogan or positioning, like #stuffdreamsaremadeof, and #thinklikeagiant and use them across relevant content.
This way, the hashtags used vary based on the different types of posts and the exact objectives prioritized each time.
Optimizing Hashtag Placement for Better Discovery
Where you place hashtags influence visibility, as most scans start from the top or bottom of captions. Keep these placement guidelines in mind:
Lead with 1-2 Relevant Tags. Placing one or two key hashtags pertaining to the post topic right at the start of the caption allows them to be indexed upfront.
Mid-Caption for Context Embed. In the middle of the copy, insert additional related hashtags where they make sense within the narrative to tag related entities.
End with a Few Broad Tags. Ending the caption with a few popular or generic tags at the end makes sure they’re tracked as the readers finish reading.
Of course, the distribution would differ on a caption-by-caption basis. So, just don’t overstuff a single section with too many hashtags.
Curbing Excessive Use of Hashtags
While using relevant hashtags definitely helps extend reach, going overboard can make posts seem spammy. Too many hashtags also diminish caption readability and engagement. Here are some tips to avoid hashtag abuse:
Limit Overall Count. As a rule of thumb, use no more than 2-3% hashtags relative to the caption word count. For a 100-word post, that would be about 3-5 tags.
Check Platform Recommendations. Review platform-specific guidance, too. For instance, Instagram currently allows up to 30 hashtags per post but only indexes the first 20 tags.
Assess Context Fit. More than absolute numbers, it’s also important to assess contextual relevance before embedding a hashtag mid-sentence. Don’t over-optimize at the cost of readability.
Use a Mix of Tags. Blend popular tags that extend reach with niche tags relevant to loyal community members for balanced discovery.
Make Some Hashtags Exclusive. Devise 1-2 original hashtags per post that are exclusive to your content or community. This makes the tag more ownable over time.
Curating hashtags judiciously based on these factors prevents discoverability measures from becoming counterproductive.
Maintaining Hashtag Authenticity
While using the right hashtags can vastly amplify reach, inauthentic tag practices risk account suspensions or bans. Ensure legitimacy with these measures:
Link Hashtags to Content. Only include hashtags closely linked to the underlying post so they drive genuine discovery through contextual relevance.
Avoid Irrelevant Tagging. Resist adding popular unrelated hashtags simply to gain more visibility. This will confuse readers and lead to poor engagement.
Prevent Tag Spamming. Be mindful of repeatedly using identical sets of hashtags across unrelated posts, as this behavior may be flagged as spam.
Credit Trending Tags. When adopting a trending community hashtag, credit the original coiner both in captions and through tags if possible.
Follow Platform Policies. Stay updated on platform-specific policies around permitted hashtag use to avoid violations that could prompt account restrictions.
While staying topical boosts discoverability, forced integration drags authenticity. Focus on contextual over generic optimization.
Tools to Schedule and Manage Hashtags
Carefully identifying hashtags and embedding them into captions can get time-consuming. These tools help schedule and manage hashtags efficiently across channels:
Buffer. This social media management platform lets you save hashtag lists and add them across scheduled posts for different profiles.
Hootsuite. Another handy social media scheduling tool that enables saved hashtag libraries to be inserted into planned content.
RiteTag. An AI-powered dedicated hashtag generator and suggestion tool specifically for Instagram posts. Provides customized recommendations.
Display Purposes. This platform offers a hashtag tracking and analytics feature to manage performance in addition to scheduling.
Tag Omatic. A unique tool focused solely on hashtags – suggesting them for posts as well as tracking historical performance.
The right tools can simplify recurring optimization, leaving you to focus on content quality.
Conclusion
When used correctly, hashtags can improve discoverability and increase interaction for social media material. But rather than adding popular tags at will, a systematic approach based on context and relevance avoids both under- and over-optimization.
Balance more general reach hashtags with particular tags meant for each post depending on stated goals in terms of community-building. Put them appropriately in captions to optimize clicks and views. Keep authenticity by using contextual matching instead of forced insertions.
Review platform instructions and community practices often to modify your strategy matched to changing algorithms and user preferences.
