«Instagram hashtag strategy, what a load of rubbish», many will think. «What you need to do is add the 30 hashtags that Instagram allows you to add to each post, so that as many people as possible can see them. The more hashtags, the better. And on to something else." Oh, if only everything were that easy…
But it isn't. Actually, doing this is a stupidity a mistake as big as believing that light products do not make you fat. Just ask the nutritionists. Dear friends, dear families, today we are going to see how to cook up a tasty, rich and well-founded Instagram hashtag strategy. The sprig of parsley is optional.
If Arguiñano puts it on, we were not going to be less
Before we even heat up the stove, we need to know the ingredients. This means knowing some basic Instagram stuff so that your recipe doesn't turn into one of those inedible messes that they sometimes serve you when someone invites you to eat and on top of that you have to be polite and say "it's good" while you're trying to see if you have any Almax on you. Here we go.
a) Instagram has an algorithm
And like every algorithm in the world, its exact makeup is secret and changes very frequently. That algorithm is what determines what your followers will or won't see of what you post. Just like on Facebook, Your followers don't see everything you post, not posts, not Stories, not Reels, but what the algorithm decides they see. And the algorithm, like cotton, cannot be fooled.
b) Instagram is an advertising platform
Therefore, Its purpose is to make it difficult for a business to get many followers or reach many people without paying for it.Although this is not the purpose of this article, if your Instagram strategy does not include advertising investment, it is more difficult than trying to make a meringue pie in a toaster.
c) Better quality than quantity
If you stuff yourself with greasy pastries filled with custard, even if they are a pure delicacy created by the best pastry chef in the world, you will gain weight. And if you do it every day you will probably die of diabetes, a heart attack or both. If you eat a small one occasionally, nothing will happen to you.
It's not about posting 20 stories and 5 photos a day. It's about creating engaging content that makes people stop scrolling through Instagram. and see what you want to tell them. It has always been about that, about quality content, capable of generating interactions, on this network and on any other. In the case of Instagram, that content is visual.
d) Hashtags are not an accessory or an ornament. Instagram is the paella of social media, because it is made of scraps: Stories are a copy of Snapchat, Reels are a copy of TikTok and hashtags are a copy of Twitter, to name a few examples. Just like on Twitter (what am I saying, a lot more) the function of hashtags is to tag a post so that it can be seen by people who don't follow us but who do follow that hashtag or perform a search. It is not a "decoration" that we put on to look cool or a way to write a very long sentence without spaces. Using hashtags correctly is vital for your brand to grow on Instagram.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Instagram
Now that we have the ingredients clear, we heat up the stove, prepare the pots and get to work.
We're talking about creating a strategy. Strategy = reflection = work = written document. If you're not the reincarnation of Einstein, don't expect to have this or any other strategy in your head. Even the best chefs have to consult the most complicated recipes, even though they've written them themselves. Let's go step by step:
You have two alternatives: go for the most competitive hashtags with the largest number of posts and followers (examples: #fashion, #bags, #trends #shoes….) or use a long tail strategy. That is, if you sell bags, use things like #bags2021, #leatherbags #redbags #fabricbags #handmadebags, etc., etc. Yes, just like in the keywords for the SEO or advertising on Google. Obviously, if you can't compete with the big names (Manolete, Manolete, if you don't know how to bullfight, why do you get involved) because the power of your brand doesn't allow it, You will have to resort to the long tail. It is more work, but it will give you better results.
Long tail strategy: the red zone of hashtags is the one that interests us the most
The one that does it right, of course. If they continually repeat hashtags, they are NOT doing it right. Look at what hashtags they use, how they do it, how often they repeat them, how many posts there are under those hashtags, what is published… Decide, in short, which ones are interesting for your own Instagram hashtag strategy and copy them miserably and without remorse.This copying in marketing is called, very finely, «benchmarking». Just so you know.
Repeat the previous step but with influencers. But proven influencers, not cheap, please.
Do you think I'll become an influencer with this hairstyle? – Shut up and smile, Paco.
In an undisguised tribute to Instagram, we are going to take the hashtag #paella as an example.
As you can see, the hashtag #paella has more than 3 million publications. It would be interesting to see how often images are posted there, but if you choose it for your post you probably won't get much visibility, since It will hardly be among the highlights and will disappear from the top positions of the most recent ones very quickly..
But Instagram itself offers us help, as it shows us a list of hashtags that contain that word, with fewer publications but that can give you much more visibility. From this list I would choose first place #paellalovers, because we Valencians are very particular about calling any kind of monstrosity Valencian paella, but that depends on you. And although it may seem like a joke, it is not, we will see it later in the list of things you should not do.
How far down should you go? It depends on the size of the niche market you want to reach. A hashtag with 200 posts is a lousy hashtag at first, but be careful, it can be very useful if it is something very focused and we know there is demand. That said, a hashtag that a) has less than 5,000 posts and above all b) has very infrequent posts should make you think 3 times before using it.
To avoid the shadowban, which I will tell you about later, You should not repeat the same hashtag in more than two or three posts in a row., and in any case, assuming you post daily, no more than twice in the same week. This forces you into rotation.
And that's why you shouldn't use 30 hashtags on every post, unless you have an army of CMs working just for Instagram. It's virtually impossible to use hashtags correctly if you use 30. I wouldn't put more than 5-7 on each post, because a simple application of the combinatorial theory we learned in high school will show you that the chances of screwing up if you use 10, 20, or 30 hashtags are astronomically high.
There are many types, so it is advisable that in your Instagram hashtag strategy you do not focus only on those related to the product you sell (because you are not limited to posting photos of products… right?). Here are some examples/ideas:
This is obvious for news-related ones, but not so obvious for more neutral ones. Hashtags don't last forever, they have their moment and then they get abandoned, so it's very important to check the validity of the ones you're using, looking at when the last post was made, what and who is still posting, etc.
Creating your own hashtag is super cool and very tempting, but the worst thing in the world is that it is a hashtag in which only you post. You have to master Instagram very well and have a critical mass of followers willing to play along (excuse the redundancy) with you. Of course you can encourage them with a promotion, a contest or a giveaway to use it, but when the promotion is over, so is the hashtag. What critical mass are we talking about? It's hard to say, but in my opinion if you don't have more than 15,000 followers and/or your posts don't have a reach of 15,000 people, don't even try.
In addition to the ones I've already dropped along the way, here are some more things that will condemn you to Instagram hell if you do them:
Aside from the obvious, which is that you will gain followers, engagement and reach on your posts, the insights of each post give us a fantastic clue, as they tell us the origin of the impressions (views) of each post. If you have them well placed (the hashtags) they should be, by far, the first source of impressions on your post, as seen in the image below:
If your hashtag strategy is good, Most of the accounts reached should not be followers. Also, hashtags should be the first source of impressions, with quite a difference over the others.
Tip: Give the post a few days to sit before checking the insights. Hashtags rarely rise to the top position as a source of impressions in the first 24 hours. It's best to check back after 7 days.
The shadowban is the bogeyman of Instagram.
It's the culinary equivalent of having mayonnaise crack repeatedly. It's important to say that Instagram does not officially recognize using the shadowban, in fact, has even denied its existence on occasion, but he does recognize that may remove priority or visibility from posts and/or users that they misuse Instagram. However, the empirical evidence, although it is not officially called a “shadowban”, is that Instagram does apply restrictions without the user knowing it.
It is a restriction, usually temporary, which Instagram applies to your posts in such a way that they do not appear in almost any of the hashtags you use, or in none at all. That is, your posts will only be seen by the part of your followers to whom the algorithm shows them. The funny thing about it is that If you are shadowbanned, Instagram will not notify you about it, You will simply notice it by a sudden drop in the reach of your posts, the likes you get, interactions, etc.
Easy. When you go to look at the insights of a post that has several hashtags, you will see that a) the % of accounts that do not follow you is very small and b) the impressions originating from the hashtags are very few or do not appear at all. If this did not happen to you before and it starts to happen from one day to the next, you have a shadowban.
Generally, for violating that part that nobody reads: Instagram's terms and conditions of use. You may have posted non-permitted content, followed too many people or given too many likes in the same day, used some kind of bot to automate posts, bought fake followers... As far as hashtag strategy on Instagram is concerned, It is common to get a shadowban if there is a hashtag that you use continuously in all your posts, since that is considered spam by Instagram. Another reason not to repeat them over and over again.
Since Instagram doesn't make explicit causes for a shadowban public, there's no hard and fast rule for getting your shadowban removed, other than the obvious: find out the cause and eliminate it. Once the probable cause has been corrected, Let your Instagram account rest for at least 2-3 days and then post again without making the same mistake. If this doesn't fix it, you can try contacting Instagram support, but I advise being patient as they can take a long time to respond… if they do at all. But again, trial and error tells us that it's rare for a shadowban (or whatever they call it internally at Instagram) to be permanent.
To finish off, and this is getting longer than the recipe for Roscón de Reyes, the usual advice for social media: work, work and work. There are no shortcuts or magic tricks. Good content is the best ingredient to make your Instagram account worthy of the best gourmet.
Images: Depositphotos
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