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Hashtags play a large role in any good Instagram strategy. Did you know you can include up to 30 hashtags in one post? It can be an effective marketing strategy to increase your Instagram reach and engagement. Reaching your target audience is of the utmost importance and you can use hashtags to do so!

Choose Relevant Hashtags

Choosing relevant hashtags is more important than ever with Instagram users having the ability to “follow” hashtags in addition to “following” other Instagram users.

Want to reach more of your target audience and set yourself apart from the widely used and popular hashtags? There are a couple of things to keep in mind when choosing the best hashtags for your business.

1. Niche down. For example, let’s say you’re a food blogger. The hashtag foodie has millions of posts associated with it. The possibility of getting seen on the explore page for that hashtag is slim. Now, let’s say you’re a food blogger that specializes in gluten free recipes. GlutenFreeFoodie has significantly less competition than foodie . Not only do you have a higher chance of being seen but you’re also niching down and getting seen by people who are truly interested in what you have to offer.

2. Another hashtag strategy you can try is by searching for a hashtag that you think would be a good fit for you. For the sake of this example, let’s stick with the flood blogger idea: If you go to the search bar and search for the gluten free foodie hashtag you’ll see top posts and recent posts that come up that use that particular hashtag.

Click on the top posts and see what the other posts are like that are using that hashtag. Get inspired by what you see other profiles are using that is landing them on the Top section of the search results.

Keep It Fresh

Don’t be redundant. Copying and pasting old hashtags into each of your posts will make your account appear spammy and could possibly be flagged by Instagram. You also want to be sure to not include the same hashtag twice in one post.

Generating new, relevant hashtags in new posts can feel difficult; however, by being intentional you can reach your target audience with much more precision. To further avoid the spam perception, by sparingly using popular hashtags and incorporating more, “niched” hashtags, you have a chance to receive higher engagement even though there’s less traffic.

Bottom line: you’ll have the best chance of reaching your ideal target audience by researching relevant hashtags that others in your industry are using and niching down.

How Many Hashtags Is Too Many?

“How many hashtags should I use?” is a common question for many of us when using Instagram. The maximum number of hashtags that you can place on any post is 30.

However, you don’t have to stress hitting 30 every time. Don’t make it more difficult than it has to be. If you have 20 hashtags that are relevant to your target audience, that’s better than having 30 just for the sake of having 30.

Instead of focusing on how many hashtags to use, refocus on how the hashtags will relate to your audience. To produce the best hashtag results, get in your target audience’s mindset and apply the best hashtags that relate to the content in your Instagram caption and pictures.

The Best Social Media Agency in Richmond, Virginia

Whether you choose to keep it simple with your hashtags or use the maximum amount of hashtags, remember to always keep your hashtags relevant to your content and target audience. Bellrae Marketing recommends being intentional and performing your own tests. Experiment with the hashtags in each post to determine what hashtags produce the best results. Remember, a large part of marketing is performing tests to see what gets the best results.

If you’ve been struggling with using social media to get results for your business, send me an email. I’m more than happy to help you alleviate your marketing struggles and put time back on your side. Email [email protected] to get started.