★ 2022 UPDATE ★

HASHTAGS DON’T F*CKING MATTER, Y’ALL 🙌

THE ALGORITHM SAYS PFSHH ON YOUR VIEWS!

#ope #thisdidntagewell

What’s the deal with the hashtags?!? How do they help???

There’s been a long debate over where #hashtags should be placed in Instagram posts for business + professional accounts. Just imagine the confusion trying to answer the question: Should hashtags go in the post caption or in the comments?

Due to the mysterious + ever-changing algorithm, it’s been pretty hard to figure out which hashtag method creates the most engagement, reach, and new followers. Kindaaaa important stuff for businesses to know… Right?!?

Trying different tactics are always recommended because what works for one business / industry may not work the same way for others. Plus… IG likes to keep us on our toes – ha!

The trend of putting the hashtags in the comments came about as a way to keep IG captions looking clean, but then people realized that hashtags in the comments were also discoverable by IG’s algorithm.

From there, opportunistic “growth hackers” decided the hottest tactic to “trick the system” was to swap out and edit hashtags to surface your content for more terms.

So, who do you believe with one side believing in putting hashtags in the captions, and the other convinced that hashtags in the comments is the way to go? As with all things in digital marketing, it’s best to not make assumptions…

According to thatagency.com, in a partnered study with Socialinsider and Quuu, almost 650.000 IG posts from 6,700+ business accounts of different sizes were analyzed. Here’s what the results tell us about the #GreatHashtagDebate

When you’re trying to decide where to stick your hashtags on Insta, it all comes down to numbers: i.e. FOLLOWER COUNT.

Hashtags in the CAPTIONS:

Profiles with fewer than 100,000 followers have better Reach rates.

Hashtags in the COMMENTS:

Profiles with greater than 100,000 followers have better Reach rates.

The study also showed that 87% of brands prefer using hashtags in the captions.

source: thatagency.com

When it comes to deciding how many hashtags to use in a post, there is no magical number. Most professional accounts use anywhere from 7 to the full 30 hashtag limit.

While the data in this study does give some guidance, at the end of the business-day, follow your entrepreneurial heart / gut / instincts on which approach works best for your brand on IG. Just do what feels good + don’t stress!

Regardless of placement, what’s most important is to vary the use of the hashtags that have the most saturated search results, and ones that are most relevant to your brand or business.

The only constant is that IG is constantly changing its algorithm. READ THAT AGAIN!!! Stay attuned to what is working for your business and change it up with different hashtags to see which are producing results.

If you’re still on the struggle bus with social media marketing and want to look into social media management, just holla at’cha girl for some awesome referrals! I know some pretty amazing social media specialists!!

But…. if you’re ready for updated and fresh visual content to post on social and to use in your blog + email campaigns, let’s get the ball rolling! Click below to set up a Connection Call so we can get to know each other + to see how I can help you!