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Why Your Instagram Hashtag Strategy Isn’t Working

August 14, 2024

Do you feel like your Instagram hashtags aren’t helping your reach? This guide will help you fix that.

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If you feel like your hashtags aren’t working or aren’t helping you get more reach on Instagram, you’re not alone! Some of the top questions that I get asked are related to Instagram hashtag strategy. 

Today I’m going to break down why your hashtags aren’t working and give you 4 steps that you can take to make sure you’re picking the right hashtags. Hashtags that increase your chances of reaching more people — leading to more likes, more engagement, and more followers! 

Plus at the end of this post, I’m going to share the number one reason why most hashtag strategies FLOP! 

As always, if you’d like to watch instead of read, click the video below. 

Why Your Instagram Hashtags Aren’t Working (and How to Fix Them)

Have you heard the term, “Hashtags are dead”? I’ve seen that term thrown around on social media a lot, especially when people find that they’re getting less reach with hashtags.

But here’s the thing, hashtags aren’t dead. 

However, the expectations that we place on hashtags, and the way that we’ve been trained to use them — are dead. 

Hashtag Expectations v.s. Reality

First things first, we need to adjust your expectations around hashtags. 

Back in 2016, hashtags on Instagram were the only way that users could find photos in the same niche. For example, if you were a portrait photographer and you wanted to find other portrait photographers, your only option was to search #portraits or #portraitphotographer on Instagram. 

But let’s face it — that was 8 years ago and a LOT has changed on Instagram in the last 8 years. 

So, the way we use hashtags needs to change as well. 

Be honest with yourself, when was the last time that you searched for a specific hashtag on Instagram or TikTok? 

These days when we search on any platform we usually start by typing the word, phrase, or question into the search bar. 

Adam Mosseri (the head of Instagram) was asked if hashtags help your views, and this was his response: 

Not really. They do help us to understand what a post is about which means it might be more likely to show up in a place like a hashtag page for instance, but in general no, I wouldn’t try and think of hashtags as a way to try and get more distribution.” 

What’s the Point of Hashtags?

Well, if the head of Instagram is saying that hashtags don’t help increase your views, then what is the point of hashtags and why should we use them? 

Hashtags are a tool that helps you better categorize your content for the algorithm. When the algorithm better understands how to categorize your content, it can make sure it’s seen by the right people. 

Hashtags aren’t the solution. They aren’t the *secret weapon* that’s going to help you explode on Instagram. They’re a piece of the puzzle that helps support your content. 

In 2024, it takes more than great hashtags to grow on Instagram. 

4 Steps to Picking the Right Hashtags for Your Content:

  • Establish your strategy
  • Come up with targeted content ideas
  • Create your content with intention
  • Optimize hashtags to work in tandem with your posts

Now, those probably feel a little vague — like when someone tells you to ‘pick a niche’. But don’t worry, we’re going to dive into each one of these in more detail.

 

There are two ways that you can approach this strategy. The first is a DIY option and the second is to use a tool like Slay.so. I’m going to show you both ways in this post so that you can pick the route that best suits your needs, budget, and time. 

Step 1: Establish Your Strategy (DIY)

Grab a piece of paper and write these things down:

  • Industry: 
  • Target Audience:
    • Pain Points:
    • Solutions:
  • 3-5 topics that you talk about:
  • Main Instagram goals: 
  • Services you offer (optional):

Here’s an example: 

  • Industry: Travel
  • Target Audience: Solo female travelers
    • Pain Points: Want to travel, but nervous to do it alone. 
    • Solutions: Sharing tips so they can feel confident and safe traveling alone.
  • 3-5 topics that you talk about: Safety, Money/Budgeting, Traveling Light, Transportation, My Travels
  • Main Instagram goals: Reach new eyes & grow followers
  • Services you offer (optional): none

You can also automate this process with slay.so (previously Hashtag Slayer).

Step 1: Establish Your Strategy (Slay.so)

Create an account with Slay.so. You can get your first month for free with the code: MILLIE. When you first sign in, you’ll give slay.so the information about your business. This will be your industry, target audience, services, main goals, etc. 

Once your account is created, fine-tune your strategy by plugging in your brand values, brand voice, and content pillars. 

Their AI will then help you come up with content and prompts that are in alignment with all of the information you’re giving it.

Step 2: Coming up with Targeted Content Ideas (DIY)

If you’re doing this Instagram hashtag strategy yourself, circle keywords from the information that you already wrote on your piece of paper. 

From the example I shared above, that could include things like Solo Female, Save Money, Feel Confident Traveling, Safety, Traveling Light, Money/Budgeting.

Think of the keywords or phrases that your ideal audience might be searching for on Instagram. Those are going to be your content ideas. 

Once you have those initial ideas, you can do a brain dump. Continue to write down as many ideas as you can think of that would resonate with your audience. 

Step 2: Coming up with Targeted Content Ideas (Slay.so)

When you use Slay.so, all of that information you gave them in step one is going to be turned into content ideas for you. Slay’s AI will generate a list of content ideas specifically for you! 

In other words, they’re doing the keyword research for you. 

Pro Tip: As always AI should be used as an inspiration launchpad. You’re not going to say, “Wow this is perfect, copy and paste” because that’s when you’ll start sounding like a robot. 

Read through the ideas given to you by slay.so and use them as your launchpad. Choose the ideas that spark inspiration for you. 

Step 3: Create Your Content With Intention (DIY)

When I say create content with intention, I mean that you need to continue to use those keywords that you’ve been collecting so far. 

Remember, I’m not teaching you (in this post) how to create viral content for Instagram. If you want a detailed guide to going viral on Instagram, watch this video.

This step is still fully related to your Instagram hashtag strategy. For your hashtags to support your content, you need to have a powerhouse combination of keywords sprinkled into everything you do. Remember, keywords are going to work with hashtags to help you get reach. 

Where do you put keywords on Instagram?

  • Nameplate
  • Bio 
  • Caption
  • Reels (audio)
  • Pop-up text (on your posts/reels)

I could spend the entire video talking about Instagram SEO and how you can optimize each of these spaces for keywords, but I’ve actually already done that for you! If you want to take a deep dive into Instagram SEO, watch this video. It breaks down Instagram SEO into easy-to-follow steps, so easy even a caveman could do it. 

Step 3: Create Your Content With Intention (Slay.so)

Now, of course, there is the Slay way. Slay writes the captions for you. Their tools help you focus on your keywords to make sure that the caption provides just as much value as the hashtags. 

If you want to see an example of this, watch the video above (but skip ahead to 15:50). As always, the AI-written content isn’t going to sound exactly like you, so make sure you’re editing it before you post! 

Step 4: Optimizing Hashtags to Work in Tandem With Your Post (DIY)

Once you have your post created and caption written with your keywords sprinkled throughout, you are going to start choosing your hashtags.

How do you pick the right hashtags? 

The hashtags you pick should describe:

  • The visual elements of the post 
  • The topic of the content 
  • Your page/niche

It’s really important to find relevant hashtags every time you post. Don’t use the same hashtags over and over. 

Step 4: Optimizing Hashtags to Work in Tandem With Your Post (Slay.so)

You can also automate your hashtag selection (you probably saw that coming, didn’t you?) 

The great thing about slay.so’s system is that you don’t have to do hashtag research at all. slay.so will scan your Instagram, read your caption, and do all the hashtag research for you. Once you enter your caption, you’ll get the right hashtags for your post without any effort. 

The #1 Reason Why Your Instagram Hashtag Strategy Has Flopped

So what is the number one reason why most people’s hashtag strategies don’t work? 

It’s normally because of the quality of their content. I know that sounds harsh! Let me explain. 

When people create a post that flops – maybe they even get 0 reach, they’ll usually try again. They’ll make a new post, and add new hashtags, and that post might take off! 

Most people’s immediate thoughts are “Wow! I must have used the right hashtags, my post performed well. I’m going to use those hashtags every time now.” 

When in reality, your post was already performing well on its own, and then Instagram suggested it to more places (like the hashtag page, explore, or search.)

The content didn’t get improved reach because of the hashtags that were used. The content had improved reach because the piece of content was already performing well. 

That higher quality content is what causes their improved reach. 

So if you’re goal is to rank higher in the feed, explore, or search results, your goal should be to create quality content. And I am always reminding my students to create quality content over ‘quantity’ content.  

In 2024, putting all of your successes or failures into the “right (or wrong) hashtag” is an outdated strategy. Hashtags help support and categorize your already successful (or unsuccessful) content. 

If you follow these steps you will see an improvement in your reach and hashtag strategy on Instagram. But if you have more questions like how many hashtags should you use? Or should the hashtags go in the caption or the comments? I dive into Instagram hashtag strategy even more in this post

Follow your joy! 

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