Hashtags, hashtags, hashtags! We’ve all been hearing about them for years, but do they actually work? And most importantly, are you using them strategically in your business to get new qualified leads, really dial in on your avatar, and grow your business? If hashtags are all kinds of confusing to you, listen up! This blog post is all about how to use hashtags to get new leads.
Are you strategically using hashtags?
Now, this is what you need to understand…hashtags can get you new leads, organic leads that is. They can allow your Reels, for example, to go viral. If you do not understand the power of hashtags, you can’t sit there and put your head in the sand and say, “it’s just a trend.” No, it’s definitely not. They’re not going away, and are absolutely legit. And I have proof!
If you post your Reel on Instagram and you have hashtags in the description, did you know you can put them IN your Reels and hide them too? So try this for me. I want you to pick a hashtag that makes sense for your audience. Put the hashtag on your Reel, or put it in your story, and then drag it to the side, so it’s off the video. I do this with tagging all the time, and people can’t see it. It’s actually populating in the feed for that. Isn’t that fun?
Strategy is key.
When you use a specific hashtag for your Reel, what actually happens is, that hashtag will do some work for you. The first thing you need to know is, you have to be strategic about it. There’s an app I love called Preview. I like Preview because you can build out different groups of hashtags, and then just copy and paste. So you use this hashtag, #mompreneur, for example, which is one of my target audiences, Mompreneurs. Now what happens is, if you go to the hashtag #mompreneur on Instagram, you’ll be able to see the most recent and trending content for that hashtag.
I have tested this out, and this is actually how I build my hashtags. I use a new hashtag, and then I’ll wait about an hour or two, and look to see if it is showing up in the top 10 posts section. If I can make the top 10, I will keep the hashtag.
How large should they be?
When looking for hashtags, you want it to be somewhere between 100,000 to 150,000 for times it’s been used, typically no more than 300,000. For our example hashtag, #mompreneur, it says it’s been used 3.7 million times. That’s way too competitive for you. You can put it in your post if you want to, but it’s not going to help you get in front of new people. Find your sweet spot where a hashtag has been used 100,000 times – it’s popular enough that people are using it. They’re searching for it. But it’s not so popular that it’s too competitive and you can’t get discovered.
Know your audience.
The next cool thing about hashtags is, when other people interact with content that has #mompreneur, they’re telling Instagram, “I like #mompreneur, show me more.” Your content will end up in their newsfeed because they liked other content with the same hashtag. Drop the mic. All you have to do is figure out what your target audience is watching and consuming.
Who is your ideal customer following? Go to visit other accounts she is following. Go to those people’s posts. For example, my audience loves Rachel Hollis. I know this for a fact! I could go to Rachel Hollis’s profile, look at her posts, and view her hashtags. I’m going to see Rachel Hollis is using #mompreneurlife. There’s a new hashtag I can explore. I want to see if I can trend with that, so I put that hashtag in my posts and Reels. I will use it because my audience likes that type of content. Because my audience is enjoying this type of content, it’s telling Instagram to show my content to Rachel Hollis’s audience too, because they also like #mompreneurlife.
Get in front of new people.
Instagram is very competitive. They want you to be interacting with new profiles, building your network, and spending more time on the platform. Hashtags allow you to get in front of new people and be discovered.
Our goal is to get in front of new people every single day. The only way you can do that is first, show up every day, and second, be strategic with your content. Are you guys committed to using hashtags?
Let’s do this, Goal Diggers!
If you want to check out this blog in video format, watch my latest #getLIT training!
Learn more about hashtags through Goal Digger University’s, Crushing it on Instagram.
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