A Simple System to Find the 30 Most Effective Hashtags for Your Instagram.

If you’re using Instagram as a platform to grow your business, you should be using 30 hashtags in every single one of your posts, always.

Why? When you spend valuable time and energy creating content for your Instagram, you want to make sure that it’s discoverable to as many of the right people as possible. Hashtags are the only way to make your content discoverable! Done right, hashtagging is one of the most easily-executable strategies you can implement to 10x your Instagram growth (and don’t worry, it won’t look spammy if you add the hashtags in your first comment).

To get the highest return from your hashtag strategy, your goal should be to find the 30 tags with the largest Reach and the highest Relevance within your target audience.

In this case, Reach means the number of posts that are tagged with a particular hashtag.

The larger the Reach, the larger the number of people that are looking at that tag and can potentially discover your content through it.

Relevance refers to how relevant your content is to the people who are searching a particular hashtag. The higher the Relevance, the higher percentage of people that will “Like” and/or “Follow” you when they discover your post through a hashtag.

For example, if I have an Instagram account centered around the art of Macrame, using the hashtag #handmade (with over 5 million posts) will give me a big Reach, but a much lower Relevance compared to the hashtag #macrameartist (with around 10 thousand posts). This one will likely have a much higher density of people looking specifically for macrame artists.

The better you get at finding the 30 most Relevant hashtags with the largest Reach for your audience, the more people will engage with your posts and the faster you’ll grow.

The problem is…identifying which hashtags are the most effective for your particular audience isn’t always easy.

If you’ve had issues with this in the past (don’t worry, a lot of us have), there’s a fast and simple way to discover the 30 best hashtags for your audience…

Use the hashtags influential accounts within your community are already using.

It’s the best way to quickly identify the most popular for your particular audience.

How to do it: I’ll continue with the Macrame example for this…let’s say I’m starting the Instagram from scratch and I have no clue which hashtags to use. Here’s how I’d find them:

Search for the most obvious hashtag within your topic: In this case, I’ll start with the word “macrame”.

Identify the hashtags that the accounts in the TOP POSTS are using: I’ll look through the top posts and select the one with a grouping of hashtags that appears to have the highest density of relevant tags for my topic.

Keep the hashtags that are most relevant to you and discard the rest: Out of the 30 hashtags that this posts used, I’ll discard the following:

#createaholic #cottonrope #fiberart #diy #pyssel #pyssla#makersgonnamake #makersmovement #wearethemakers #crafting#handmade #fiberlove #wallar t #wallhanging #decor #boho#weaverfever #dreamersanddoers

And I’ll keep:

#macrame #macramemovement #macramemaker #macrameartist#macramerope #macramesupplies #macramesupply #bohemiandecor#macrameworkshop #makrame

(11 total)

Within the grouping that you kept, tap through the hashtags that seem the most relevant to your topic: In my case, I’ll look through #macrameartist next.

Again, identify the hashtags that the accounts in the TOP POSTS are using: Out of all of the TOP POSTS here, the one from @macramemovement would likely be relevant.

Keep the hashtags that are most relevant to you, add them to your original grouping and discard the rest.

Out of the hashtags they used, I’ll keep:

#macramelove #macramewallhanging #macramewedding#macramebackdrop #modernmacrame #macrameart #fiberart #fibreart#makrame #macramé #makersgonnamake #makersmovement #fiberartist#fibreartist

Now my main grouping of hashtags looks like this:

#macrame #macramemovement #macramemaker #macrameartist#macramerope #macramesupplies #macramesupply #bohemiandecor#macrameworkshop #macramelove #macramewallhanging#macramewedding #macramebackdrop #modernmacrame #macrameart#fiberart #fibreart #makrame #macramé #makersgonnamake#makersmovement #fiberartist #fibreartist #makrame

(24 total)

Repeat the process: You’ll continue this process until you find the 30 most relevant hashtags with the biggest reach for your audience. Once you identify them, you’re ready to start posting!

Keep in mind that hashtag relevancy will change over time, so a sustainable way to continually test the effectiveness of your tags is by testing a different grouping of 30 hashtags once a month for a week and measuring the average engagement on your posts. If your new grouping is getting a higher engagement, keep it and repeat the testing every month.

That’s it! Simple and effective…

Btw, I DID start a Macrame Instagram (@macramemakers) and used this method to identify my top 30 hashtags (see below). Check out the results. They are working out great!

#macrameworkshop#makersmovement #macramè#macramesupply#macramemakers#homedecor #bohochic #shopsmall#macramejewelry#macramedecor#jungalowstyle #apartmenttherapy#houseplantclub#macramemaker#macramelove #wearethemakers#macrame#modernmacrame #craftposure#makergonnamake#macrameartist#macrameplanthanger #weaving#macrameart #walldecor#bohodecor#macramemoment #wallhanging #etsy

If you end up trying out this method on your Instagram, please let me know how it works for you in the comments. If you have a more effective method, please share in the comments as well. Let’s share strategies!

Extra tip: Instead of typing out your 30 hashtags every single time, try usingtext replacement. Your thumbs will thank you :)

Thanks so much for reading :) If you like this article, please "like" it so more people can read it and use it to grow their business. I’d really appreciate it!