So, you’re on Instagram because you’re a small business and you’re supposed to, right?
You create content every few days and try to post as often as your packed schedule allows.
One day, you get a sudden wind of inspiration. You create something and it’s good. Like, really good. You just know your audience is going to like it and you will make a ton of sales. You write the caption, slap a few hashtags on it, hit that post button and…. Nothing.
Like, nada. Zero. Zilch.
You might get a couple likes from some friends or that account that you just followed but that’s it.
What the ever-loving hell?
That’s it. You give up. Social media just isn’t fucking worth this headache.
I have seen this play out a million times. This is not a unique story.
Let’s look at how Instagram works, shall we?
Instagram is a business. It’s job is to make money for its shareholders like any other business. It does this by creating a place where people want to be, giving those users an experience that will keep them on the platform as long as possible so they can shove ads in your face and collect ad revenue from the people who want exposure to the users.
And how do they keep people on the platform so they can keep showing them ads? By pushing content that they will like and engage with over and over again.
This means if you are an account that creates the content that keeps the users on the platform, Instagram will use it to bring more people in and keep them on longer. Make sense?
But no matter how good the content is, if you don’t get in front of the right eyes, it will never get engaged with and die a quick and lonely death.
This is what hashtags are for. They are the only organic way of targeting your audience with your content.
If you haven’t read my last posts about hashtags, you can find them here:
How To Use Hashtags To Grow Your Business
How To Grow On Instagram With Hashtags
How To Find Hashtags For Your Business
Hashtags can help get your content in front of the right people who need what you have to offer and not charge you a single penny for it.
But so many of you aren’t taking them seriously. You write a post and put all of your energy into content creation only to throw it into the wind and hope someone notices it.
I don’t know about you, but I am not about to do all that work only to leave things up to chance. I like to be in charge.
So, first- how do you know when your hashtags are working? About 24 hours after you have posted your content, if you look at the post insights and check your reach, you will have a little reading underneath that tells you the percentage of people that weren’t following you. If this number is over 50% you know that your hashtags are reaching new audiences.
You can also scroll down a little further and see the number of impressions that came from hashtags.
Here’s the thing though- impressions and reach seem like nice, big juicy numbers but they don’t mean much. They are more like symptoms of your strategy. If they are strong, the strategy is working, if they are weak, then it is dying.
However, it shows you whether or not the hashtags you already spent so much time researching are worth reusing or ditching.
But if your hashtags are consistently underperforming, then this could be why:
- It’s not as relevant as you think it is. I know you are all rockstars who already took the time to go back and read my last posts on how to build a sustainable hashtag strategy. Good for you, I’m so proud. You already know that your hashtags need to be relevant to both content & audience. But if you are finding that your hashtags are not performing, maybe you need to look again at whether you know your audience and what they want. Maybe you are projecting what you think they should want instead of what they actually want.
My Social That Sells students hear me say at least once a week that marketing is all about putting what your customer needs into a package that they want. They are not the same thing.
2. Your content isn’t that great. Hashtags don’t work without great content. You can’t stand out in beige. You need to have imagery that stands out in the crowded landscape of that hashtag and have captions and content that promote engagement.
As I explained above, Instagram only pushes content that keeps people on the platform for a long time and keeps them engaged. If your content is boring or not relevant then it doesn’t matter how great your hashtags are, your post will flop.
3. You are posting at the wrong time. Instagram curates your feed on both recency and relevancy. It has to be both current and on topic for them to put it at the head of your audience’s feeds. And they have to have a history of engaging with you in order for you to get top placement.
Your post has only an hour or so to prove to Instagram that it’s worth pushing out to more of your audience before it gets left in the dust. If you are posting when your audience isn’t online, your post has a way smaller chance of being seen, engaged with and pushed out to your ideal client.
You can check when your audience is most active in your insights to know when to post on any given day. It gives you a 2-3 hour window, so you may have to give it your best guess within that time frame and do some testing. You can also invest in some apps such as When to post to get more accurate data.
When my clients use their hashtag strategy they see strong results:
They have doubled their account in as little as 2 weeks, sold out their products and booked out their calendars.
Hashtags have given them every opportunity to get their content seen by an audience of their choosing so they have the freedom to cherry-pick their clients, and see their business finally get profitable.
For a limited time, I am offering my hashtag strategy for 50% off because I know how badly small businesses are suffering in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic and I want to give you an easy win for your business.
I want you to be able to take a little pressure off where your next customer is coming from and focus on continuing to provide great service & products.
This strategy will give you a 35 minute how-to video that will walk you through the process of finding hashtags, grouping them, posting them and how to know if they are working. It also includes a digital workbook to help you keep your hashtags organized & provide a reference for your custom strategy.
But this course is so valuable so I can only offer it at this price for a limited time (my STS students couldn’t believe I was doing this) so get it while you can.
If your hashtags are not working for you, they might be working against you so make sure you follow my tips to ensure that you are strategizing your hashtags to attract the right audience.
And if you want more join my email list for my free ebook, Captions That Convert, and follow me on Instagram.
