6 steps to choose the best Instagram hashtags for your business

Choosing Instagram hashtags for your business can seem daunting – there are so many Instagram hashtags out there, how on earth are you mean to pick the best Instagram hashtags? There’s a nice little Instagram hashtag research process that I like to go through each time I do hashtag research, and today, I’m sharing this process with you. Warning: It can be a little addictive, so don’t do this on a day when you have a lot on your to-do list!

 

 

 

(Psst! You might also be interested in this blog post with the best Instagram templates of 2018)

How to choose the best Instagram hashtags for your business

I've looked a lot at Instagram marketing these last couple of weeks. Everything from how to grow your Instagram following to learning how to build a connection with your Instagram audience. Instagram hashtags are a great way to reach new people in your target audience, so today I’m looking at some simple ways to find the best Instagram hashtags for your business.

I'm a weirdo; I really enjoy doing Instagram hashtag research. It's a fun process and it's just one of those things where I pop my headphones in, put a good playlist on and spend some time getting stuck into it.

There are plenty of hashtag research apps out there and some of the Instagram scheduling tools have started including hashtag research functionality, but this is how I do it without using any extra apps.

Download my free Instagram hashtag cheat sheet.

Step 1: Review your existing Instagram hashtags

Have you been using the same hashtags on every post since 2014? Well, it might be time to switch it up or even start from scratch.

There were some rumours that Instagram was shadow banning people or using the same hashtags over and over again, but Instagram recently came out and said that shadow banning isn't actually a thing and that it was just a glitch in their system. Regardless, you should still be alternating between a few different hashtag sets, just to make sure you reach the relevant people for each post and to reach as many people as you possibly can.

Go back through your posts and look at the past hashtags you've used. Have you been using really broad ones like #vegan or #fitness? Have you been using hashtags with millions of posts? It's probably a good idea to cull these hashtags as your posts don't really stand a chance of being seen and you'll just attract lots of spammy bot engagement instead.

Have you been using any really narrow hashtags? If barely anyone is using the hashtag you should probably cull it too, because it's unlikely anyone is going to find you via that hashtag. If you've got an Instagram business profile (and I highly recommend you make the switch), you can actually see how many people have discovered your post via your hashtags by clicking post insights (underneath your post) and looking at the Discovery breakdown.

Were there any posts that had a higher than usual discovery by hashtags? If so, make a note of the hashtags you used and consider saving these as a hashtag set for future use.

Step 2: Think about the different Instagram hashtag sets you're going to have

For example with Wildbloom we have a couple of different hashtag sets, based on what the post is about.

Write out a list of the different hashtags sets you want to create based around what your post content is usually about.

Step 3: Stalk!

Is there anyone in your space who has a really good Instagram engagement? Stalk some of their posts to see what hashtags they use and copy any relevant ones over to your own hashtag sets list.

If a particular hashtag is relevant for more than one set,  you can include it in both or just in one – it's up to you. Repeat this process for a few other accounts in your space until you have a couple of hashtags saved in each set.

Step 4: Dive deeper into your Instagram hashtags

Now, I want you to dive a lot deeper into each Instagram hashtag you've written down so far.

So, open up the Instagram app. Type in the first hashtag and see what else Instagram recommends along the top. For some smaller hashtags it won't recommend things, so you might have to try this with a few different hashtags.

Write down any relevant Instagram hashtags and click into these to see what else it recommends. If you're anything like me, you'll end up going down a huge rabbit hole of related hashtags. And, that's a good thing!

A good rule of thumb is to avoid Instagram hashtags with over a million posts as these are generally a little bit too crowded to be noticed and, on the flipside, avoid any with under 1,000 posts as these are usually too niche. Note that I said “usually” because if you're operating in a small niche this might be something you can't avoid.

Step 5: Save your hashtag sets

Some of the Instagram planning apps like Planoly allow you to save your Instagram hashtag sets. Others don't. If you're manually posting your posts, save your hashtag set in the notes on your phone to copy and paste across.

Step 6: Review your hashtags

After you've been posting with your new hashtag sets for a while, I want you to go back and review how they've been performing. Are there any that have had a higher reach? Or lower? Maybe there are some hashtag sets you need to get rid of completely or some that you need to use more often.

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