How to use Hashtags to be a top 9 post?
Managing an Instagram account on behalf of a business can be challenging, especially when you are representing the voice that connects with your consumers or audiences online. Content marketing is so multi-faceted, and so it can be a struggle to go through lists of hashtags every day, when you have a multitude of tasks to get done. It’s also hard as a Social Media Manager to find the time to implement the right hashtag strategy, if you don’t yet understand the full potential reward of using the correct hashtags for your account.
If you’re reading this and you’re still not 100% sure on if using hashtags are worth it, let’s quickly cover some of the key reasons you need to be using them in 2020.
If you are a social media manager and want to learn how to improve your reach via Instagram hashtags, take a look at this simple guide, just for you.
Why hashtags can’t be slept on
Hashtags are a valuable tool to up the ROI of your social activities by capturing new audiences that might not have otherwise heard of your brand.
Instagram cares about it’s user experience (alot) and want to push the most relevant content to the correct audiences – hashtags help Instagram understand what your account and content is about, so by using high quality and relevant hashtags, you can help Instagram help you.
#1 Create a simple hashtag strategy that’s easy to execute 📈
When you’re just getting started, you want to follow a strategy that helps you succeed. Not something that adds stress to your workload!
Firstly, make sure you’re avoiding the common mistakes people make when it comes to using hashtags.
- To get the results you want, you should be ranking in the ‘top posts’ section of a hashtag, so think of this as your ‘goal’ with every post.
- You also need to use hashtags that are the right size for your account, and make sense in relation to the content you post to better your chances of ranking.
- Always use 30 hashtags per post
- Don’t use flagged/banned hashtags
Start with the end in mind 🕵️
Secondly, create your hashtag lists ahead of time and organize them in a way that makes using hashtags easy when it comes to posting.
Start by drawing up a list of hashtags or keywords that are relevant to the type of content you post. Base this on what people would search for on Instagram, if they were trying to find content like yours.
Always Remember Your Goals!
This means when you start searching, our tool will automatically give you hashtags that you are likely to rank on, based on your account analytics.
Start by searching the hashtags on the lists you’ve created, to get relevant hashtags to these keywords that you are more likely to rank on. Save these into different collections, based on the posts you’re going to make in the future – and voila, your strategy is off the ground.
#2 Using branded hashtags for increased awareness 👋
A branded or campaign hashtag is one of your best friends when it comes to fleshing out your image beyond your website, advertisements or press coverage. By implementing a solid branded hashtag, you not only create an image bank for which valued customers can tag their content into, but you also provide a recognizable tagline that people can reach when they feature your product or service. This is also essential when you collaborate with other creators, as it brands the post that they share as part of your campaign partnership. It’s a softer way of reaching your consumers, as it allows an influencer’s audience to independently check out all of the content posted in that hashtag, rather than being directed to your page first.
Pick a hashtag that fits well with the name, feel and tone of the brand you are representing. You can also have fun with campaign hashtags when you release new products, or initiate launches, making posts instantly recognizable and associated with your brand.
#3 Benchmark your hashtag performance 💡
Another way to increase your reach via hashtags is by looking around you. As a social media manager, it’s likely you will have a list of competitor accounts that you look to, to see what other people are posting in your industry or vertical. Just like you would benchmark your performance in terms of the type of content you are posting, you can benchmark your performance in terms of the type of hashtags you are using. If an account within your industry has great engagement in comparison to their following, try and take a look at the types of hashtags they use when they post.
Draw up a list of some of the key hashtags you see, that are also relevant to the type of content you produce. You can use these as the basis of your hashtag research in Flick, which will suggest niche, high-performing hashtags tailored to your account.
#3 Stay relevant 📲
We say it all the time, but it’s important that the hashtags you use are relevant to the content you post. If you are the social media manager for a tech company, for example, you want to specifically reach audiences that are interested in tech. If someone searches for the hashtag ‘#howtoSEO’ for example, they are specifically looking for resources on Instagram that will help them improve their SEO strategy. Take a look at the consumer profiles your team has drawn up, and start to think about what they might search when they are using Instagram hashtags. Put yourself in their shoes, and apply this to your hashtag strategy.
TIP: If you haven’t drawn up consumer profiles based on your Instagram strategy, communicate with the rest of your marketing team. Ask them for their consumer profiles so you can stay aligned on who you are targeting and make sure your work is facilitating your wider goal.
Once you have done this, you should have a good baseline in terms of what kind of hashtags you can start with, that are relevant to each post you make.
#4 Organization is key 📁
As a social media manager, excel sheets and calendars are probably familiar arsenals in your toolbelt, in order to stay organized and this also applies to hashtags. Categorizing your hashtags into Collections will help you save time, whilst also increasing your reach and potential for new followers.
#5 Know the hashtag metrics that improve your performance 📊
Another way that you can categorize your hashtags is by looking at their competitiveness in relation to your account. This can be shown using a number of hashtag metrics, such as Average Likes, DAPC (Daily Average Post Count), and Total Posts.
Test and error will make you succuss to become a top 9 post. You will enjoy the organic growth with the hashtag skill soon.
Denis Robinson
As your budget progresses and evolves, continue referring to your SMART objectives. Stay focused and remember your goals – they will always inform what your next step will be!
How To Get Instagram Followers: 4 Tips
Tip #1: Have A Complete Profile To Get Followers On Instagram
When someone discovers your Instagram profile, they will probably decide in less than a minute if they’ll follow you. Ultimately, you have 60 seconds to impress. Let’s talk about what you can do to entice people to follow you. Have a theme across the whole page. Not just your photos, but your Instagram story highlights, profile photo and your bio. Your Instagram page needs to look like a whole brand. Take one for example. Her profile is cozy and authentic as soon as you discover her. All her photos complement each other; the story highlights match the color palette of her page; her bio is clear on what she and her account are about; her profile picture uses the same filter as her main photos.Instagram Profile With Clear Cozy Green ThemeMake sure you plan out how your feed will look to new visitors so they are more excited to follow you. Be active in stories. People will likely click on your Instagram stories when they first discover your feed. Make sure you always have something going on in your stories. That content should be exciting for anyone who comes across it, clear, aesthetic and creative. Don’t post low-quality images of your breakfast. Post stuff that is relevant to your account! Focus on the photos. Even though we said that your whole brand needs to be consistent, photos, of course, are the most important thing. So make sure that when you look at your Instagram feed, it’s consistent, quality and creative.
Tip #2: Learn How To Photograph And Edit
If you really want to get new followers on Instagram, then you need to step up your photography and editing game! Using a phone camera and Instagram filters will only get you so far. While they are great for beginners, it’s time to get professional.
Invest in a good quality camera whether that’s a more up-market phone or a DSLR camera. If you have the money, definitely get a DSLR camera. There are some really great affordable ones for beginners! You can just update your lens when you feel it’s time to improve your photography again.
Get Specific
As for editing, it’s time to retire from Instagram’s own filters and invest in some great editing apps.
Lightroom. This is what the professionals are using. Thankfully, the Lightroom mobile app is free! If you get the PC version though, you get a lot more options and it’s easier to use. If you’re just trying it out though, get the mobile version. From there, you can purchase Instagram presets from influencers and Etsy shops.
- Instagrammers like Phil Chester create their own Lightroom mobile presets for affordable prices. Filters like this can take your photos to a whole new level and help you get a consistent theme.
- Another great app that a lot of professionals use is VSCO. It’s free to download and some of the filters are free. But if you invest in the yearly membership ($19.99) then you’re in for a treat! You’ll get over 100 filters and great advanced editing tools. You can change the hue, saturation and lightness of each individual color in your photo.
- Color Story is a new editing app with great filters! It has a yearly membership cost which is similar to VSCO. It comes with over 100 editing filters, too. You can also use this app to plan out your Instagram feed so you know what your photos look like side by side.
- Once you find the app you like for general filters, why not experiment with special effects? Apps like Afterlight, Prequel, A Design Kit, and Photofox all have special effects that you can add to your photos like stickers, backdrops and dust effects!
Tip #3: Use Instagram Stories To Get Followers On Instagram
Your Instagram stories should be as planned out as your feed. Sticking to a consistent theme within your stories is super important, too. While it’s good to experiment from time to time, have a general theme to your stories. Maybe choose a few different filters you’ll use and stick with them. Instagram stories have it’s own special filters when you go to record. You can save them and they will come up first when choosing your Instagram story filter! Plus, they are all free. However, if you have a VSCO membership, you can actually add filters to videos, too. It’s a great idea to add your normal filter to your Instagram stories so that followers make the connection between you and your story. Another great tip is to use Instagram story templates from brands like Unfold or StoryLuxe. They are totally free apps with lots of great options! It’s a good way to make collages or fit your landscape photo into Instagram story dimensions. Once your Instagram stories are aesthetic and interesting to your audience, more people will see them. Continue working hard on your Instagram stories to get new followers on Instagram and eventually, grow your audience!
Tip #4: Build Authentic Relationships
Above all, it’s important that you use your Instagram account to build lasting and authentic relationships with your followers, customers and other brands. This is your online place to shine and make an influence in a specific community. Make sure you’re always kind, approachable, smart and creative. It’s not hard to build an audience on Instagram if you follow these steps, but maintaining that audience is the tricky part! Every time you post, you want it to be as awesome as possible. Kindness and laughter is the greatest way to do that above everything else. Project yourself into your Instagram captions, ask questions, reply to comments and DMs, and don’t buy your followers.
Build the relationship with your customers. build your trust with your customers. you will build the first deal with your friends.
Denis Robinson
As your budget progresses and evolves, continue referring to your SMART objectives. Stay focused and remember your goals – they will always inform what your next step will be!
Instagram Community Guidelines: What Are They?
Since Instagram has over 1 billion users now, there have to be some rules set in place. These are called the Instagram community guidelines. However, we all know they’re not guidelines, because if you break any of these guidelines, then you could have your account permanently deleted.
Instagram was created to be a space for creatives to share photos and updates of their life. Designed for photography and visual arts, Instagram has definitely steered away from that a little bit. It’s now one of the most popular social media sites, meaning it can get quite saturated with the wrong thing sometimes.
Instagram wants to make sure their community guidelines help keep Instagram a safe and authentic space where everyone is treated with respect.
What Are The Instagram Community Guidelines?
The main guidelines include:
- Post only your own photos and videos. Instagram frowns upon stealing or reposting other people’s permission.
- Always follow the law. It’s a bit vague but hopefully they clear that up later on!
- Respect everyone. Instagram has been in the spotlight for being a place that isn’t great for mental health. Of course, this comes down to the people on Instagram rather than the app itself, so Instagram are taking online bullying more serious.
- Don’t spam people.
- Don’t post nudity.
Instagram celebrates a diverse community of people, but this can only be successful if people are respectful. These community guidelines are here to encourage respect and kindness in this massive online community.
When you sign up to Instagram, you agree to their terms of use, which include all of the guidelines listed above.
So, what happens if you violate the terms of use?
Well, Instagram has the right to delete your content, disable your account, and other restrictions.
Let’s look at each community guideline in more detail.
1. Only Share Your Photos
Instagram’s first community guideline is to only share your own photos or videos, or content that you have the right to post.
This means that you either post pictures you have personally taken, and therefore own the right to them. On the other hand, you can get permission from others to share their content.
One way to do this is to purchase an image. You can purchase an image directly from a creator, or their website, or an online source.
Another way to get permission to share content is to ask. Perhaps you’re a small business and you want to share a customer’s photo of your product. Usually, this is a pretty simple thing to do. You can reach out to the customer and ask permission to share their images. They’ll usually say yes, but of course, the decent thing to do is credit them so they get extra exposure, too.
2. Be Appropriate For A Diverse Audience.
The next Instagram community guideline is to make sure that you post content that is appropriate for a diverse audience.
This is a very important section of the guidelines for every user. Instagram claims that they understand that nudity in images is often an expression of creativity. However, for many reasons, Instagram do not allow nudity on their platform.
A big reason for this is because of the age of Instagram users. You only need to be 13 years old to sign up for Instagram and nudity isn’t appropriate for younger people.
Instagram aims to be a clean and neutral platform that is safe for kids, adults, seniors, and people of all attitudes, religions, races, and sexuality. Therefore, nudity is against their guidelines.
This includes content that shows sexual intercourse, genitals and sometimes buttocks and female nipples. Photos of mastectomy scarring and breastfeeding are okay. Nudity in paintings and sculptures is also allowed.
In terms of children, it’s okay to post your kids on Instagram. However, Instagram may remove images where nudity or partial nudity is captured. Instagram says they understand your intentions aren’t malicious, but there are other people on the platform that could use the images inappropriately.
Know Your Digital Goals
3. Be Meaningful And Genuine
It’s important for Instagram to remain a place that fosters genuine and meaningful interactions. Therefore, they ask that you play your part in limiting spam. This includes purchasing bots to artificially collect likes, comments, followers and shares.
You might notice increases in spam on the website. Unfortunately, it’s an ongoing issue. Often you might notice your follower count drop drastically. This is usually when Instagram does a crackdown to get rid of users that are violating this community guideline.
Although Instagram doesn’t require that you use your real name on the site, they do encourage users to provide accurate and up to date information. It’s against their guidelines to impersonate other people and to create accounts with the intention to spam or bully.
Kindness is key on Instagram.
4. Follow The Law
Thankfully, Instagram goes into more detail on this community guideline.
They claim that “Instagram is not a place to support or praise terrorism, organized crime or hate groups. Offering sexual services, buying or selling firearms, alcohol, and tobacco products between private individuals, and buying or selling illegal or prescription drugs (even if legal in your region) is also not allowed. Instagram also prohibits the sale of live animals between private individuals, though brick-and-mortar stores may offer these sales. No one may coordinate poaching or selling of endangered species or their parts.”
These may seem like obvious rules but in a community this large, these things happen more often than one might expect. Therefore, Instagram will take legal action if anyone violates the law.
You must always follow the law when offering to buy or sell goods. If you want to promote online gambling, real money games or the lottery, you need to get Instagram’s permission first.
Instagram also has a zero-tolerance when it comes to sharing sexual content involving minors or threatening to share intimate images of others.
It’s great that Instagram is so on top of these rules to ensure the online environment is as safe and secure as possible.
5. Respect Others Online
Along with Instagram’s guideline to be kind, they also ask that their members are respectful. Instagram will remove any content that contains threats, hate speech, targets private individuals to degrade or shame them, blackmail, harassment and repeated unwanted messages.
In fact, if you feel this happens to you more than you’d like, you can turn your comment sections off to limit unwanted comments.
On the other hand, Instagram does “generally allow” stronger conversation about celebrities, better-known influencers, and politicians since they believe it is that individual’s choice to have a career that is so public.
Instagram does not tolerate bullying based on someone’s sex, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, national origin, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities or diseases.
Instagram celebrates a diverse platform and wants it to remain a safe space for each individual.
Threats are also not tolerated whether that’s a threat of theft, vandalism or financial harm.
6. Be Considerate When Sharing Newsworthy Content
When something major happens in the news, social media picks it up fast. While this is important for spreading awareness, graphic photos and images violate Instagram’s community guidelines. It’s important to remember there are young people on the platform, too.
Instagram add, “We understand that people often share this kind of content to condemn, raise awareness or educate. If you do share content for these reasons, we encourage you to caption your photo with a warning about graphic violence. Sharing graphic images for sadistic pleasure or to glorify violence is never allowed.”
Community is the next level to interaction with our customers, If you did you can easy to swift your customers to different social media. (Email and facebook group is the greate place to build it)
As your budget progresses and evolves, continue referring to your SMART objectives. Stay focused and remember your goals – they will always inform what your next step will be!
