If you’re an entrepreneur or a budding Instagram influencer who’s looking to increase your followers and none of your strategies are working thus far, you may need to take a long, hard look at the hashtags you’re using.
You can post 20 epic photos per day but you’re not using the right hashtags, you won’t receive any new followers or audience engagement it’s as simple as that.
Before I start laying out some strategies to grow your audience, let me explain what hashtags in Instagram are actually for just in case there are newbies out there.
Think of hashtags as a form of directory.
Whenever you post a new photo you need to use the right hashtag to correspond with your photo otherwise you won’t attract the right people.
So what’s the importance of Hashtags yo may ask?
Well, millions of Instagram users usually jump from one hashtag to another, sometimes stopping to see if there’s a new, interesting Instagram user they might want to follow.
You don’t want to miss out on capturing the attention of these Instagram users right?
But the big question is, which hashtags should you actually use to gain new followers?
Well if you’re thinking of using standard hashtags like #me #cute #beautiful #fun #happy – you’ll be competing for the attention of millions of other people.
Plus, these hashtags are too broad so if you’re thinking on laser-focusing on the right audience, you’re barking up the wrong tree pal.
If you want to laser-focus on your target audience here’s what you can do:
Be precise with your hashtags
Standard hashtags like #cute #fun and #happy have wayyy too many eyeballs on them so you can’t engage new people because they’re too broad.
Focus on your target audience and I bet you’ll get more engagement.
Try to use hashtags with less following.
For example, if you’re a fashion designer and you decided to post one of your creations on Instagram. If you click on hashtags, Instagram will actually give you hashtags other people have been using.
Here’s the trick to using hashtags, if you’re going to use hashtags like #fashion #fashionblogger #fashiondesigner #fashionista or #fashionable – you’ll be competing with MILLIONS of people who use the same hashtags.
However, if you use hashtags like #fashiondesigns #fashiondesignerlife or #fashiondesignerslife you’ll be competing with fewer people so there’s a higher chance of your photo staying at the top posts of that specific hashtag, therefore, you’ll get more eyeballs on your photo which can lead to more targetted followers.
Hashtags pretty much act as a GPS in navigating Instagram users to the right photos they want to see.
Here’s a step by step process you can follow:
– Put together a big list of hashtags you can use so you can just copy and paste when it comes to posting a new photo. Be as specific as you possibly can.
– Type a standard hashtag that is related to your business or field so you can laser-focus on your audience. For example, type in fashion as per above and you can immediately tell which hashtags are popular based on the post count on the right-hand side of the hashtag.
– Use some of the really popular hashtags in your industry but use more of the hashtags with less post count. Make sure you save these hashtags so you can just copy and paste next time.
– Another awesome way of finding the right hashtags to use is to steal some of your competitor’s ones. Click on some of your competitor’s photos and make a note of the hashtags they are using. You can add these to your database.
Put hashtags in your comment section, not in the photo
Putting over 20 hashtags on an Instagram post looks really spammy and it looks like you’re trying really hard to get some attention.
My recommendation is put around 2 to 3 hashtags in your photos and then you can put 20 or more in the comment section of your photo. This technique just makes your post look neater and you’re not rubbing too many hashtags in people’s faces.
People don’t need to see what hashtags you’re using, they just need to find you.
Use no less than 3 and no more than 30 hashtags
30 hashtags are actually the maximum amount of hashtags you can post on your photos’ comment section so you don’t really have any choice but to cap it off at 30.
According to Buffer, more than 11 plus hashtags have more engagement so the more the merrier as long as its less than 30.
In conclusion
More than 800 million people all over the world use Instagram on a constant basis so it’s definitely a social media platform you HAVE to tap for your business.
The thing is, you can post as many photos per day as you possibly can but if you’re not using the right hashtags, you’ll get nowhere.
As long as you follow my tips above and regularly post compelling photos on Instagram, I guarantee you’ll be able to easily rake in 100-300 real, targetted followers per day.