Instagram Hashtag changes

Now that Instagram allows users to follow hashtags, it’s more important than ever to use relevant hashtags in your posts.

Users can now mark your hashtags as something you don’t want to see. If you are using hashtags that aren’t relevant to your post, users can mark that they don’t want to see because it isn’t relevant. Once a user followers a specific hashtag, if they see a suggested post they can select “don’t show for this hashtag’. This is a way for people to mark content as to be not interesting or relevant.

If you are using a few ‘sneaky’ hashtags that don’t match your content, you may get flagged and not be shown for that hashtag at all. If too many of your images are flagged this could have a negative effect on your account and can possibly affect all your content.

Make sure your hashtags are relevant to your post - each individual post should have its own hashtags. Even if all your content is of a similar theme make sure you use different hashtags each time.

Don’t just use popular hashtags to get a few more likes. Use hashtags to reach your ideal demographic. Use niche hashtags ideally that have under 1M posts. If you are targeting people in a certain location be sure to use some of those location hashtags! For example, if you are in Perth #perthisok #thisiswa #perthsmallbusiness

Save your hashtags in groups of 30 that match your posts. Group these sets of 30 by themes so you know which hashtags to use for each post.

Make sure your hashtags are relevant to your account, brand and target demographic.

Experiment with hashtags, get rid of ones that don’t work. Find new hashtags in your niche they might work better. Use your insights to see how many impressions you gained from hashtags and go from there.

Use hashtags to engage with your community and remember to keep it relevant!