5 Hashtag Secrets to Help Grow Your Following!
I know what you are thinking…”Everyone says to use hashtags to grow my following blah blah blah”. No one wants to read another very long and sometimes confusing blog on how to use hashtags. So I made this short and sweet. 5 hashtag secrets to get more followers and higher engagement!
Stop using single word popular hashtags
If you go into instagram right now and type in the hashtag #love, you will see that that particular hashtag has been used over 2 BILLION times!! What do you think the chances are of someone seeing your post because you used that hashtag? Slim to NONE my friend. Thousands of people are using that hashtag every minute so someone would have to probably scroll for hours to find your post because you used the hashtag love. Not worth it!
2. Use Midsize hashtags
Ditch the popular words and focus on midsize words and phrases! Sticking with hashtags that have only been used 10k-900k times gives you a far greater chance of being seen. Lets go back to the #love...Used 2 billion times BUT #loveispatient has been used under 200k times. My bet is on that one that more people will see your post because not as many people are using it!
3. Be Strategic with who you engage
If I want to reach a particular audience with a certain post I am very strategic with my hashtags. By knowing who my audience is, you can cater to them better and also make connections and potentially gain followers! (That’s what our goal is right?)
Have a hashtag you use all the time? Example: I use the hashtag #blackmotherhood whenever I post something about my son. I also follow that hashtag so that I am able to see whenever anyone else makes a post using that hashtag. Sometimes I like to scroll through that hashtag, like photos, comment on photos and follow people who use it. Why? Because that is an audience that I have things in common with.
As a result of this, I also show up on their timeline because others are following that hashtag. They see my username, maybe click on my page and then decide “She looks cool, I want to follow her!”
4. Don’t Overuse the same hashtag
I do not know why more people are not saying this. This is one of the biggest mistakes on social media! You should constantly be switching out hashtags, trying new strategies and changing things up to keep up with the ever changing algorithm. Using the same hashtags day in and day out and not seeing new followers? Umm friend, its time you switch it up so you are reaching new people! Also, if you use the same hashtags with every single post, Instagram might recognize your page as a bot/fake account and shadowban your account.
5. Create Hashtag groups in your phone notes!
Since creating hashtag groups 4 years ago, my engagement has skyrocketed! Posting about hair? Create 2 or 3 hashtag groups with 10 or less hashtags and rotate those 3 groups out whenever you post about hair. That way you have a greater chance of new pages seeing you. In my notes I have about 14 different hashtag groups! When I am ready, I just go to notes and copy and paste my hashtags to my post or comment section of that post.
Don’t rely on the popular tags, take some time to research pages that have success with them. Just by taking these 5 steps, you can be well on your way to growing your following and getting higher engagement by reaching new communities! Thanks for reading fam!
