Do you feel like Instagram hashtags are not working? Your insights show that you’re barely reaching anyone with your hashtags, or maybe you’ve noticed that your reach is just gradually dropping down? 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, it means that it’s time to look into your hashtag strategy, and make sure you’re not making any of these 8 hashtag mistakes limiting your profile’s reach. Ready to fix your hashtags?

Alright then. Let’s dive in!

Why Do We Need Working Hashtags?

Hashtags categorize our posts and help us get discovered on Instagram. They are still the best organic way to get more eyes on your content, and if you’re worried that they are a lost cause, you really shouldn’t. They do work exceptionally well, especially if you’re at the beginning of building your Instagram profile, and want your content to be delivered to people interested in your niche. 

We all know that Instagram has gone through a lot of changes over the past year, and it doesn’t matter if we like it or not, it should be the same for your hashtag strategy. So let’s take a look at the most common hashtag mistakes you should be avoiding in 2022 in order to fix your profile reach.

First Mistake – Using Irrelevant Hashtags 

The one thing that will never change about hashtags is that in this game relevance is key. Hashtags label your content so Instagram can distribute it to the right people. If you’re guilty of using irrelevant hashtags, it means that you add to spam on the platform, and ruin user experience for many people on the app. Instagram will definitely not reward you for it, and you’ll probably see barely any reach in the posts with these hashtags. 

A relevant hashtag is closely tied to your niche! It can’t be too generic, like #pretty or #love – these hashtags could describe almost anything, and I’m sure that your profile isn’t just about anything. 

For example, let’s say that my Instagram profile is all about hiking. I’ve posted a photo from the trail with a wonderful mountain view, and shared a couple of tips for mountain hiking. Instead of using a hashtag #love which describes how I feel about the view but means nothing in reference to my content I’ll go for hashtags like #mountainhiking or #hikingtips or #womenwhohike. They may not be the greatest examples but you get the point.

How do you find relevant hashtags?

Through research. Check what hashtags other profiles in your niche use. Use the search bar on Instagram explore page and search for the term that fits your content. For the sake of this example I’ve looked up the word „hiking”, and got all of these results where you can also see the volume of each hashtag which is helpful to find something suitable for your profile size. The one thing to keep in mind is that Instagram will only show hashtags that include your search term so you need to dig into a couple of different posts from other creators in your niche to find other related hashtags, or use IQ Hashtags Hashtag research tool, which I’ll talk about in one of the last points on our list, so stick around till the end of this article!

Using Overly Popular or Too Small Hashtags

Another mistake you may be guilty of making is using overly popular hashtags. With popular hashtags it’s a given that there is a huge number of other content creators competing for ranking high in top 9 posts for those hashtags. For example a hashtag #fashion. It has been used in over 1 billion posts which already tells us that it is a hugely competitive hashtag. 

To see how bad it is let’s have a look at the Recent tab where Instagram shows every new post with a given hashtag in chronological order. Let’s refresh it a couple of times and see how many posts appear under this hashtag every second. 

As you can see… A LOT, which means that an average post using this hashtag will disappear from the Recent tab in a blink of an eye, and have almost no chance of bringing any additional traffic, because no one will see it. 

Same goes to way too specific and very small hashtags. If they’re used only in a few hundred posts, chances are there are only a few people interested in what they have to offer. You can verify if a small hashtag isn’t worth your time by running the same experiment in the Recent tab, and see how often people post using this hashtag. If the hashtag hasn’t been used since 2020 it is very unlikely that it will drive any traffic to your content.

Make sure to stick to hashtags suitable for your profile size. If your account has less than 1000 followers, mix up a few small hashtags up to 5k posts. A bunch of hashtags up to 50 k, and top it off with a couple of bigger ones under 200k. We’re not going to give you the exact hashtag recipe because every Instagram account is different, and you need to test things out to see what approach works for you best. Mix your hashtags up, analyse insights for your posts to see if your hashtags bring any reach and most of all start small and build your way up to bigger hashtags.

Hashtags In the Comments Section

Now let’s keep this one short. If you’re putting your hashtags in the comment section – it’s time to stop. The endless argument on „Where the hashtags should go” has been finally stopped by the Head of Instagram himself who said that – For a post to be found in Search, your keywords and hashtags should be in the caption, NOT the comments. 

Hashtags and keywords in the caption affect how your content is ranked in the Search results, so in order to optimize your content and make it more discoverable on the platform this is the new way to go.

You’re Using the “Magic Number” of Hashtags

If you’re obsessing over the magic number for hashtags, you may be jeopardising their growth potential big time. 

By a magic number I mean following someone’s advice that 5 or 10 or lest than 20 hashtags is the perfect recipe to see incredible growth results. Well, not really. Even if the magic formula is served byt Instagram itself -and I’ve said more about it in this article – you should be careful when following such advice.

First and foremost – there’s no magic number for hashtags. Just because using 5 or 10 of them worked for one account, it doesn’t mean that the same approach will work for you. Your account may be a different size, you’re reaching a different audience, you may be in a different niche. All of these factors determine how many hashtags you’ll be able to use for your content.

And here’s another thing. Instagram still allows you to use up to 30 hashtags in your posts and each of them is an opportunity to get your content seen by new people. 

We’re not saying you should always use all 30 of them but we definitely recommend using as many hashtags as you can that describe your content and your audience very specifically.

Copying Whole Sets of Hashtags From Your Competitors’ Posts

Finding other brands or creators within your niche is a fantastic way to get inspired. See what works for them. How are they communicating with their audience? What kind of content they post but also… What kind of hashtags they use. At the end of the day, you probably want to reach a similar audience they do, so that’s completely normal.

It’s great to test a couple of  hashtags from your competitor’s profile but definitely not to copy and paste all of them. If you copy the entire set of your competitor’s hashtags that have been curated to a specific topic, specific audience and their profile size there’s almost no chance that they will all perfectly fit into your post even if you’re in a similar niche, so make sure to select only the ones that will.

Re-using the Same Set of  Hashtags

So you’ve finally decided to not rely on your competitors’ hashtags, and after adding some of your own creativity to it you start seeing some results, so… You decide to re-use the same set of hashtags all over again. We get it, they worked for you once and it feels like you broke the algorithm but unfortunately,  re-using the same set of hashtags isn’t the best tactic in the long run and here’s why: 

Number 1: You are reaching the same group of people, over and over again! Every new hashtag gives you a unique chance to attract new audience  so why wouldn’t you take advantage of it

2: it’s really unlikely that the same set of hashtags will work for every single piece of your content, which means that you may be generating spam by using irrelevant hashtags and that can be annoying and frustrating for many Instagram users – something we already talked about earlier on in this article.

3: Repeating the same collection of hashtags in every single one of your posts can also lead to your account getting banned. Instagram doesn’t appreciate any signs of generating spam so make sure to mix up your best performing hashtags with a couple of new ones every now and then to avoid getting in trouble.

Using Banned Hashtags

Another hashtag mistake you may be guilty of making is using banned hashtags. There’s a large number of hashtags that have been flagged by Instagram or reported by the Instagram community. They are blocked on the platform for either promoting inappropriate content with violence, abuse or nudity or simply for generating excessive amounts of spam on the platform. If any of your posts contains a banned hashtag it will only be shown to a fraction of your audience and never reach the explore page even if the rest of your hashtags is fine. 

Repeated use of banned hashtags in your account can lead to your account getting banned. The list of banned hashtags changes daily and contains completely innocent words like #streetphoto or #valentinesday so it is important to check your hashtags before your post.

You can do it manually by going to your Instagram profile, and searching for your hashtag in the explore page search bar. If you see a pop up message like this one that says that the recent posts for this hashtag are hidden due to some of them breaking Instagram’s Community Guidelines, then you know that this hashtag is banned.

And if you like to work smarter not harder, you can use  IQ Hashtags Banned Hashtags tool and check the entire set of hashtags in a couple of clicks. You can start using this feature completely for free on IQ Hashtags.

You’re Not Using Advanced Hashtag Research & Analytics Tools

If you’re serious about your Instagram growth it’s about time you start using professional tools that will help you achieve your goals more effectively. Hashtag research can be a tiresome task. It needs to be intentional so you don’t just put random tags in your posts hoping for some people to see your content. IQ Hashtags can help you improve this process on so many levels.

The tool helps you find relevant and targeted hashtags based on their engagement. You’ll easily filter your results by  the hashtag size,  average comments and likes count per post. You’ll be able to track your hashtag performance for your past publications and see which hashtags landed you a spot in the top 9 posts, but also create hashtag collections to make sure that all the best performing ones are ready for your next post. 

These features will make your hashtag research so much easier, and finally help you find the ones that work.

Are you guilty of making any of these hashtags mistakes? Make sure to let me know in the comments below! Thank you so much for reading, good luck at fixing your hashtag strategy and I’ll see you in the next one!

The post Instagram Hashtags Now Showing Up? Here Are 8 Hashtag Mistakes You Need to Avoid appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Hey pals! Christmas and New Year’s Eve are coming. Or should we write #newyearseve? 

It’s time to start prepping our Instagram content for this holiday season and all those white days filled with winter wonderland landscapes (if you’re lucky, of course – if not, don’t worry, half of our team probably won’t see snow either). But before we do, and before you start the traditional seasonal hashtags hunt, we have one critical tip. Be careful with #gloves, #ice, and #skateboarding – these hashtags are banned! Using them in one of your posts can result in your account getting the infamous “shadowban” symptoms. So all kidding aside, because we don’t want that, right?! 

Every year around the second half of December, Instagram feeds start filling up with #winterwonderland and #christmasiscoming posts and videos. You’re probably witnessing that right now! Do you want to join with your festive reels and creative winter holidays posts? That’s a perfect idea. Let’s go!

Decide how you want to address this winter season in your Instagram strategy and pick the best festive and winter-related hashtags to boost the reach of your content. Not sure where to start? Good. We mean… We’ve prepared EVERYTHING you should know! Better yet! We have created a free Instagram handbook with a HUGE bundle of festive and Christmas season-related hashtags to help all of you: influencers, creators, business owners, and solopreneurs get the most out of your upcoming posts by using the most effective hashtags there are for this time of the year. Our Instagram hashtags directory features over 400 of the best festive and winter-related Instagram hashtags for you to use for maximum reach and highest exposure.

We’ve done in-depth hashtag research, so you don’t have to! Come and get it (as Selena Gomez sings in one of her old songs *don’t judge us, it’s our guilty pleasure SOMETIMES*)

If you’re an Instagram enthusiast, aspiring influencer, or ambitious business owner looking to up your hashtag game, click here to skip straight to our list of over 400 festive and winter-related hashtags for your posts. Simply download it, keep it on your phone for reference, and paste your desired hashtags whenever you need them!

Curious about what’s included in our festive hashtags handbook? Let’s take a look!

CATEGORIES INCLUDED IN OUR FESTIVE AND WINTER-RELATED HASHTAGS INSTAGRAM HANDBOOK:

• Winter holiday season
• Christmas
• New Years

Safe Christmas season, New Year’s Eve, and winter time-related hashtags – yass, most effective hashtags for #christmasperiod and #newyearseve to grow YOUR Instagram

At the time our wintertime hashtags handbook was created, every hashtag we have included was 101% SAFE. Meaning, none of the hashtags we picked are currently banned on Instagram. And if you’re extra careful, you can always double-check, just to verify if nothing has changed (sometimes banned hashtags change in a blink of an eye) and head over to IQ Hashtags Banned Hashtags checker (that’s always a good idea). 

To wrap-up!

There you have it – the most effective hashtags you can use to amp up your festive and wintertime Instagram posts. Track your stats to make sure you reach the target audience you’re going after, and – that’s for extra points – don’t forget to measure your hashtag performance (you can use IQ Hashtags to do it). Good luck!

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The post The most effective festive hashtags – our FREE festive hashtags handbook appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

We know, we know – it may sound like a massive clickbait, but believe us, that wasn’t on purpose! Lately, we’ve been talking with you a lot – and those conversations turned out to be the best inspiration for our next Instagram lessons. Creators’ and brand owners’ lives are the best inspiration because there are problems to solve, and we’re challenge-addicted people (espresso-powered, yup).

The problem we’re going to discuss today sounds severe, and indeed it is: why can’t you just slap a few hashtags (compiled from your friend’s profile and the profile of someone from a totally different niche) to your content as a random afterthought? Do you really need to research new hashtags, compile the most strategic ones, and then test them?

The first answer will be a bit mysterious, but at the same time, it can hit hard: if you’re not noticing a whole lotta difference in your posts with 30 hashtags and your posts without any hashtag at all, then something is off, and your hashtag strategy is flawed. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today: 

Hashtag strategy is essential. Period. There’s definitely no argument there! But what else do you need to know about it to make your profile grow? What may you not be aware of? What myths are stopping your stellar growth?

Hashtags, hashtags, hashtags… Why do marketing gurus go nuts for them? 

As you probably already know, hashtags are meant to attract an audience who’s looking for content specific to what you’re posting. But let’s play truth or dare for a sec. Or maybe it’s going to be more like “truth or absolute truth,” to be honest. 

Are you spending too much time on Instagram, and you’re not seeing any return of energy and time investment, you aren’t growing, and you feel like constantly beating the mean algorithm? Let’s be honest—there are certain struggles that come with becoming a content creator (even if you’re doing it for your business!), especially Instagram content creator, that we wish all of you could officially avoid. Creating purposeful content, creative concept brainstorms, and of course, posting what you’ve prepared can be one of the giant steps you take on your journey of online growth. But it’s not the only step. You REALLY need hashtags to get discovered and attract the right people.

Without a community, any Instagram profile, even the most polished one, looks like a ghost-town: it can be visually pleasing, but there’s no sign of a joyful life there.

That’s right, you may think, but the main trouble is, there are SO many tips & tricks and different approaches out there, and it can be overwhelming sometimes to figure out which ones you REALLY need and which ones are especially effective, right? Which ones are up-to-date, and you can trust them?

No stress, and no worries.

Only black coffee, and this article, for now.

Today we’re breaking down all the things you should know, listing out all the insights you might not be aware of, and which ones we think are best for different stages of your profile’s growth! Take the crucial step toward a more effective, efficient, and finally – profitable! – profile by focusing on one element of Instagram strategy. HASHTAGS.

Let’s take a look…In today’s article, we’ll discuss in detail:

• Do hashtags still work the way they used to?
• Are they necessary?
• What is the primary purpose of hashtag strategy, and do you really need one?
• What hashtag myths are hindering your growth?
• What hashtag rumors are actually true?

Today, we’re getting hyper tactical. Read on and find out – let’s go! Our point is, if you’re an Instagram creator out there trying to make your content seen, understanding hashtags may just be the ticket to make it big. How big, we can’t prefigure now because it depends on a bunch of practical factors. And today, we’ll talk about some of those factors! Critical ones. 

1. Hashtags are still working. Period. 

There are SO MANY conflicting insights out there.

So let’s make it clear! We’ve been working in this marketing field for ages, so we’re keeping up with all the trends, information, and disinformation: hashtags are not dead. If you feel like they aren’t working in your favor, there’s a risk you simply aren’t using them correctly.

They’re still a BIG DEAL. You just need to make sure that you’re using them consciously and strategically. Why? People might be looking for you for content like yours, but you won’t be discovered unless you show up to the hashtag party!

They really should carry a significant weight of your Instagram strategy! Especially when it comes to making sure people from your target audience can easily discover all the posts you work so hard to prepare.

We don’t know about you, but we’re genuinely passionate about the content we share, and we have people in mind as we’re preparing it! Just kidding – we know for 101% it’s the same story with you. This means our mission is to make sure those people, those people who need our content, who need those insights have a REAL chance to see it! That’s why we know it, for sure, hashtags should be a part of everyone’s strategy if they’re preparing valuable content that needs to be seen.

Numbers speak for themselves as well:

(yes, results like this are still possible, so there’s a huge motivation!)

2. A strategy is a must – more than ever

Yes, double yes, this is closely related to what we’ve discussed in the previous section.

When you think of hashtags, you think of keywords that are making your content discoverable. And the first thing we want to say right to ya is this: hashtag strategy doesn’t have to suck and take you LONG HOURS. It doesn’t, it really doesn’t, 

And establishing and implementing it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun choosing new sets of hashtags, or you can’t use your competitors’ ones to test them out. Testing is essential, by the way.

You need a hashtag strategy to understand what you’re trying to achieve. To use hashtags more consciously and plan what exactly you’re trying to do. Who’s your target audience?

What’s your niche?

Those questions are the key – using a lot of generic, extremely random hashtags won’t be of any help to your profile. That’s why you absolutely need… 

3. Hashtag research. It can be your secret weapon.

Pro tip #1: Research hashtags that are specific to your niche. 

Pro tip #2: Look at what hashtags successful creators in your niche are choosing, and then – smart idea alert – compile a list of hashtags that you can use as well.

But hey, don’t copy exactly the same hashtags for every single publication: rotate them, and mix them with hashtags from your organic research. 

We know you don’t want to spend 45 minutes on hashtag research every time you want to post something. You want to be ready for that post that lies ahead without thinking about the ‘I need to analyze hashtags for half a day’ part too much. So hashtag research tools are basically a godsend. You can save up to a few hours every time you use them (does IQ Hashtags Tool ring a bell? that’s our fav one so far).

Takeaway: Use hashtag research tool, and observe, observe, observe what others are doing. Life will get easier. 

4 . You need to make sure your content is engaging. Stop sleeping on your graphic design skills. And the storytelling is crucial too! 

We’re not going to start with recommending using Canva. BUT actually, maybe we are. 

That’s the most intuitive tool out there, and easy peasy, you’ll find out that you can do more than you think. Set yourself an evening aside and create some awesome posts. Your audience will appreciate it!

Takeaway: Work smarter, not harder, and focus on preparing aesthetically pleasing, engaging posts – many times, it’s better to prepare 3 good ones, than 20 completely boring ones, just for the sake of saying, “I’ve prepared 20 posts”!

5. 30 is still your luckiest of numbers 

When we talk about hashtags, what we’re really talking about is getting discovered by people who’re searching for content similar to what you’re creating. Hashtags are your best chance of getting found!

Anyway, there’s a lot of discourse going on now about whether it’s worth using 30 hashtags anymore. Maybe it’s better to choose only 5? Or 3? It’s actually a topic that comes up so often, that’s the most cyclical Instagram discussion out there. 

You need to remember one thing: each hashtag gives you a new opportunity to reach a totally different group of people. Why would you give up on it?! Maximize your potential reach.

Let this be your sign. We use 30 hashtags every time we post.

Now, it’s your turn!

6. Where you put your hashtags MATTERS

“It doesn’t really matter if you’re posting your hashtags in the caption or in the comments section – as long as you’re using targeted ones, you’re good”.

That’s what you could hear some time ago, but the wind of changes came here. Adam Mosseri has officially claimed that we should avoid putting hashtags in the first comment, as when they’re placed in the caption, they’re doing much better. It’s a matter of algorithm optimization – so let’s remember about that from now on!

That’s all for today! We truly hope this is a time-saver for you. Or maybe you’ve got to know something you didn’t think you were looking for?! 

PS: Isn’t everything better with friends? Forward this article to your Instagram bestie that could also benefit from our insights!

The post The #1 element you need to win on Instagram – 6 facts about hashtags you may not be aware of yet appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

You see the danger with sudden reach drops is, you don’t always see it coming. It can creep up on you like an unexpected zombie in one of those haunted house experiences, and before you know it, you’re terrified of checking your stats, analyzing all the last month’s insights, or even creating new content. To be honest, we don’t think enough people talk about this, and fair enough, no one wants to admit they’re having a hard time with Instagram, and they’re truly worried about the numbers behind their profile. The reality is that it happens to the best creators as well – sometimes your hashtag strategy fails or simply needs some updates, and well-thought improvements. 

In many of our sincere conversations with you, we hear that you often get a creative Instagram rut, and you have no clue how to get out of it because you keep on trying, you spend long hours polishing your content, and no matter what, your reach remains low – absolutely no matter how inspirational and educational your posts are. 

We know it: it’s a wild journey of self-doubting, constant fear of not being good or inspiring enough for a content creator. That’s where the imposter syndrome craps in. 

The good news is that most probably, it’s not you!

It’s your hashtag strategy that needs some extra work, and you need to stop it from standing in your way. What you focus on indeed expands – so we need to focus on making sure that your hashtag strategy is working FOR YOU, not against you, okay?

But how? Because when you’re there, and your reach is constantly dropping down, it feels impossible, right? Yup, we know those feelings, and you’re not alone. But what’s cliche, but accurate as well: nothing changes if nothing changes.

Some hashtag strategy changes may be highly needed. Let’s check it! 

Today we’ll discuss in detail:

• Why your hashtag strategy doesn’t work, and how to fix it?
• Why do you feel like the hashtags you’re using are dead?
• Why don’t your hashtags bring any new engagement?
• Are you following the most crucial hashtags do’s and don’ts?
• How to effectively attract new followers?
• Is it still possible to grow a big tribe with relevant hashtags?
• Are relevant hashtags as important as social media gurus are telling you?
• What hashtag strategy mistakes may be ruining your growth?
• How to avoid reach drops?
• What are the critical hashtag strategy rules you should never forget about?
• Where should you place your hashtags? In the caption or in the comments area?
• Can you repeat the same set of hashtags and still see good results?

Are you ready to dive in deeper? Let’s go! If you’d like to tap into the consciously developed hashtag strategy’s potential to reach a bigger audience, you’re on the right track. Upping your hashtag game is the ultimate way to go. It’s essential to be more strategic, creative, and intentional about your hashtag research and strategy implementation.

How? Let’s begin with discussing the most common hashtag strategy that may seriously damage your efforts and hinder your growth. Learning from the mistakes of other content creators is a path with so many advantages. So, what are the most frequently repeated mistakes that you need to avoid?

1. You don’t care about hashtags relevancy

That’s actually a really common mistake!

Your hashtags should primarily be the phrases that describe the content you post or the audiences you want to reach. A relevant hashtag is closely tied to your niche! It can’t be too generic, like #pretty, #today – these hashtags won’t attract the people you care about, the ones with high potential to become engaged members of your community.

Relevant hashtags are so beneficial because they make your posts discoverable – and people can easily find content related to a particular topic they’re interested in, and you can quickly gain new followers from your target audience. It’s like a win-win: they find what they’re looking for, and you’re attracting potential high-quality followers.

How to identify the most relevant hashtags? You can do it manually by researching your competitors’ picks and observing tendencies, or you can use both free and paid tools to find relevant hashtags and explore the best fits. The latter is a huge timesaver and can save you from many troubles as well – so we wouldn’t hesitate and trust one of the most extended hashtag research tools. Can we recommend anything trustworthy? We use IQ Hashtags – in our opinion, it’s the most intuitive and comprehensive one out there. Its Hashtag Search feature gives you the best options, driving actual results, as it provides an extensive list of hashtags that relate to a primary keyword (it can be your niche or one of the key areas of your profile). 

2. You overuse popular or… too specific hashtags

Hashtags with low search volume are often too specific and won’t bring you any satisfying results, as almost no one is looking for these hashtags. The ugly truth: content associated with these types of hashtags are unlikely to be seen simply because there are too few people interested in it!

At the other end of the spectrum, we have many overly popular hashtags. Will they become a better choice? Not at all! They have nothing to do with boosting your reach and attracting new followers from your target audience as well.

Another word of caution: high competition hashtags mean there are too many other content creators competing for ranking high for those hashtags. They’re just too competitive, and your posts will disappear in a blink of an eye at the speed of light, as plenty of new posts described with those hashtags are being uploaded every second of the day.

There’s also a high risk that they won’t attract anyone from your target audience, as they’re just too generic and overloaded with spammy content.

Stick to medium-size, niched, and targeted hashtags – they’re the most strategic choices!

3. You don’t have time for in-depth research

We’ve already talked about hashtags relevancy and how to find the best fits, but hashtag research is so crucial, it deserves another point! Far too many content creators shoot themselves in the foot by neglecting to choose and use hashtags strategically.

Hashtag research is worth EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Don’t be in such a hurry, you don’t have time for researching the most beneficial choices and analyzing the performance of your current hashtags.

Analyze, analyze, analyze and draw conclusions—test different hashtag sets. Save many collections of the most relevant hashtags. Observe your competitors. Good research can tell you vital information. Actually, research should be one of the very first steps in the hashtag strategy developing process, so getting it wrong or neglecting it and not doing it at all sets you up for a massive disappointment, and we don’t want it, right?

4. You repeat the same set of hashtags all over again

While you may think repeating the same hashtags all over again will drive more targeted followers to your profile, it could actually do the opposite.

Why? You’re reaching the same group of people, over and over again! Every new hashtag gives you a unique chance to attract a totally new audience – so don’t you waste it! While it might be tempting to repeat this one golden set, avoid using it too often. Instead, mix old hashtags with some new ones, research trending ones, and save at least 4-10 different sets of hashtags for different types of posts.

5. You put your hashtags in the comments

In the past months, Instagram has become much better at letting people in on how the algorithms and Instagram search engine work, and Adam Mosseri promises he won’t slow down. Most recently, he has ended the as old as the hills debate about “where should the hashtags go?” – announcing that putting hashtags in the caption gives you extra opportunities for ranking in Instagram search engine results and is much better for the platform’s content optimization.

“For a post to be found in Search, your keywords and hashtags should be in the caption, NOT the comments” – that’s what he said.

We know what you may want to say: ugh, Instagram and this whole hashtag strategy thing is giving me a headache! We know, we know, analyzing your hashtag strategy and sticking to the updates rules can be overwhelming at first. But if you’ve identified your main mistakes, have a polished strategy in place, and take courageous action, you’ll be rewarded with an engagement boost and new targeted followers!

Nothing magical comes easy. It’s hard work polishing your Instagram strategy and keeping up with the news – but you’re capable of staying on track regardless! 

The post Why aren’t you getting likes and views through hashtags on Instagram anymore? 5 mistakes you may be guilty of making without even knowing appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

How long does it take…?

“How long does it take to reach 10K (or any multiple of 10K) followers” – is a pretty common question. “Pretty common” = we hear it over twenty times a week, to be honest. Many creators (and business owners as well!) fear that they’ll have to struggle with profile growth for the rest of their lives, and others expect 2-3 months of intense effort put in the content creation and following growth strategy to be enough. So what’s the truth?

Just like with most things in life… There is no one absolute universal truth. Each profile has its own growth pace – it all depends on over twenty different factors (we know you want to ask – yup, we’ll discuss them all in an upcoming post). We also need to remember that different things work for different people. That’s why there’s no one all-purpose blueprint. It may sound a little bit bothersome, but literally, it’s good news: there are plenty of them. We need to personalize them and analyze the details to comprehend the entire situation entirely – so we won’t lie like many marketing gurus do: there is more than one effective strategy.

But back to the core: today’s article actually won’t be about that! There is one tool that is beneficial for every niche, every business type. You’re right: HASHTAGS!

Hashtags may look like one more tool in our “Instagram growth toolbox,” – but they’re totally irreplaceable if you take your profile’s growth seriously.

Hashtags are here to guide you.

Okay, we know, it sounds a bit mysterious and cliche at the same time, but actually, that’s not a catchy slogan, but the genuine truth. Let us explain. The primary role of hashtags is to make your content discoverable – meaning, people who are looking for inspiration or insights from your niche, can find you and come across your profile without HUGE effort.

Hashtags organize the content you post into a pool of other posts: photos, graphics, carousels, and videos described with the same keyword. For example, #instagramtipsandtricks categorizes your content and allows content marketing lovers searching that hashtag to see what you’re posting, even if they’re not your followers. That’s why hashtags are so powerful: they boost your reach, improve your engagement, and help you increase your follower base. Sounds beneficial, huh?

So how to use these pound signs to make the most of them? We promise that if you apply our techniques, you’ll be able to create a profile that stands out, grow organically, and gather an engaged audience – are you ready to dive deeper? Everyone is dying to know: how does the effective hashtag strategy actually work? Here’s everything we know (and a few theories as well!):

How to find winning hashtags that are going to turn your hobby into a thriving business?

We are all on a bit of a different path; we all have a different mission and goals, we all have a different target market. With these things in mind, we have to say: everyone needs to develop their own strategy. But what we can do is teach you how to do it + how to use our proven to work and most effective methods to find the hashtags that are going to boost engagement, specifically for you.

First things first: what are you creating?

Who is your target audience?

To make the first shift: from a hobby to business-oriented online activities, you need to analyze:

• WHOM your business will serve and what you’re offering them?
• Who will mostly benefit from the content you post?
• Who are you thinking about when you’re preparing new content?

When you have clear answers, we need to find out how to reach THESE PEOPLE. They’re your number one – you need to attract them, you need them to come across your profile, so you can serve them (and they can become your loyal followers, win-win).

How to do it? You’ll never have to waste time scratching your head saying, “how the hell can I do it”, because we’re here. We want to take you by the hand and walk you through our proven list “HASHTAG STRATEGY building” step-by-step!

When you use our methods and avoid the mistakes we’re writing about, you’ll quickly find out that this whole ‘grow your Instagram’ thing is FAR simpler than you’ve been making it out to be. Keep our word, and let’s begin.

Rule number one: don’t use random hashtags!!! (honestly, we’re fighting the urge to add even more exclamation marks)

Whenever you fight the urge to add #love, #happy, #smile hashtags, ask yourself two questions:

• Are the people from your target audience, the most valuable followers you’re looking for, browsing these hashtags’ explore pages?
• don’t you mind looking a bit spammy? These hashtags are actually overly popular, and your post is going to be buried with THOUSAND of posts published at precisely the same time. So let us be brutally honest: they won’t work, and they’re most probably the waste of space in your caption.

Why is it so important? Potential followers from your target audience are the people you think would be interested in what you have to say/show. To build an engaged tribe on Instagram, you need to always keep those people in mind and to be preparing new content specifically for them. Yup. Everything you do – you should do mostly for them. 

These targeted users are the ones who are most likely to TRULY enjoy your post (not just one single post, but many of them!), and the chances of them following your profile are very high then. This strategy is over 1000 times more beneficial than attracting random people because people from your target audience will stay with you, because you’re creating what they NEED.

Don’t skip the hashtag research – in-depth research is your good friend. It can be your BEST friend if you want.

You already know it: you need engaged followers from your target audience.

What do you need as well?

Quality hashtags that precisely align with this target audience.

We love sharing tips and tricks that help you save your precious time, so we have to say: hashtag research can be time-consuming, won’t ever deny it. That’s why it’s totally okay to outsource it, and help yourself by using tools that are designed to make this process much easier and quicker. There are many ones out there – but the one we always recommend is IQ Hashtags, because it has much wider functionality than any other. It’s one web app, with so many different features: actually all you need to develop a working hashtag strategy. We love the fact that it lets you look for hashtags relevant to the size and theme of your account + you can also overview which hashtags are currently trending on the Gram.

Let us know if you’d like us to prepare the extended tool guide – with some life hacks to make the most of this tool!

Don’t fall into the trap of overusing the overly popular hashtags

The volume or popularity of the hashtags you choose is what’s really crucial.

You may already know it from our previous articles (because we always emphasize the importance of it!) – when you use a hiper-popular hashtag, your freshly published content gets lost in the sea of competition within SECONDS, at the speed of light.

#Instagramers has 90.6m posts attached to it. It means that while SO MANY people choose and look for that hashtag, your post will be added to a HUGE collection of content, full of spammy competition. Let’s pick another hashtag, more niched down. #Instagramforbusiness has 175k posts. Considerably better! This hashtag gives you much higher chances of standing out. The aim is to reach specialized, engaged people, not the random ones, remember?

Keep up with new trends

This is an excellent way to gain engaged followers, too.

What does it mean for an Instagram hashtag to become “trending”?

Trending hashtag is the one that isn’t already overly popular (it would be a red flag!), but it’s gaining popularity and more and more people are starting to use it.

But how to find out which ones are trending and which aren’t?

You can check which hashtags are trending in your niche right now with the analytics & monitoring tool – for example with our fav IQ Hashtags tool. It’s one of the REALLY reliable sources, as they use AI to keep up with all the trends.

Additional benefits? Using trending hashtags can get your message across to a much wider audience (highly relevant audience, that is interested in what you have to say!)

Give it a shot and see how it goes! With a bit of practice, hashtags can help you expand your reach, boost all your stats, and gain much more traction. We hope our insights help you with your hashtag strategy moving forward!

Are you happy with your current stats? What are you struggling with the most? We’re always here to listen: let’s chat in the comments!

The post QUICK and EFFECTIVE: your best hashtag strategy in 2023 appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Maybe you want to develop a better hashtag strategy, but you keep putting it off. Perhaps you’re wondering if hashtags are still working in 2021, if they can make an actual difference, and if you’re able to find the well-tailored ones which are the right choices to quicken your profile’s growth? Maybe you’ve seen hashtags’ power and possibilities before and feel like you want to boost your posts’ visibility that way again?

IS THIS YOU?

Listen: this is the sign you’ve been waiting for, and we’re here to discuss it! Let’s dive deeper into the hashtags’ magic: the way they’re still game-changing in 2021, how to make them work in your favor, and the entire hashtags’ “savoir vivre” you need to know to avoid Instagram faux-pas and activities that are simply wasting your time.

We’re big advocates for hashtags (no surprise there!) – but we won’t deny: it’s also important to acknowledge that choosing the most tailored ones is not black and white. They’re an INCREDIBLY helpful, indispensable tool to make your content searchable and discoverable, but only when you know how to use them right. Good news: it’s never too late, or too early to learn that, so the best idea is to do it… Today, right? Yup. Even if your second name is procrastination (no offense, of course – it’s human nature, we all know that)!

“I USE HASHTAGS, BUT I GOT DISCOURAGED BECAUSE THEY DON’T WORK”

How many times have we heard similar confessions and complaints? Can’t count them all, but we’re absolutely sure that if we had a dollar for every single one of them, we’d be richer than Kim Kardashian (or maybe Khloé? We’re not quite sure which one makes the better comparison).

But let us tell you: if they don’t work, something is off. 

Luckily, we’ll arm you with clear hints about what it can be so that you can fix it immediately. Let’s begin, shall we?!

DO’s and DON’Ts – what is boosting and what is hindering your profile’s growth?

Here we go. Let’s analyze what can be stunting your efforts. We also need to bust some hashtags myths – there are more than 200 million business accounts on Instagram, so you need to learn how to stand out and become more discoverable and not to fall into some popular Instagram traps. Following our dos and don’ts will help you improve your stats quicker than you can imagine – and, what is even more crucial: attract your target audience followers. That’s what it is all about.

1 // Are the hashtags you choose matching your content? 

Don’t you get a bit frustrated when you’re looking for foodie inspiration, let’s say you’re going to spend your summer holidays in Santorini, you type in the hashtag #santorinifood to do research, and then, out of nowhere, you see plenty of photos which have been taken in… Mexico? Don’t you have these “hey, that’s not my dream greek food!” thoughts running through your head? Aren’t you a bit mad that you’re finding things you don’t want to see under the #santorinifood hashtag?

That’s it. What goes around comes around, so don’t make the same mistake when you’re posting your photos!

DON’T: don’t use random hashtags, hoping they will bring you higher reach. Only those matching your content will do that – you don’t want to make anyone mad or frustrated, right? What’s even worse, people can see your behavior as spammy and notify Instagram that they don’t want to see your posts under given hashtags. 

DO: choose hashtags that really accurately describe what you’re posting. We absolutely recommend picking the ones that describe your niche, your caption, your photo, your graphics, your business, and your target market.

If you have no idea how to find 30 good ones, we know an extremely helpful tool that can find plenty of right hashtags that are a good fit for your profile. Chances are you’ve already heard about it: IQ Hashtags rings a bell, huh?

It’s a web app with everything you need to find thousands of highly-targeted hashtags that will bring in new target audience followers, boost your engagement, and ultimately lead to satisfying stats. Take it as a pro tip from us because it literally saves SO MUCH time.

2 //Hashtags’ search volume – should you really go for the most popular hashtags?

Some creators still believe that using the most popular hashtags will make their posts go viral. That’s not how it works. Using ultra-popular hashtags isn’t a beneficial strategy for getting more views and higher engagement: simply because people are posting new content with these hashtags all day long, all around the world, so their search volume is growing at a speed of light! Your post is going to disappear there quicker than you can even imagine.

Don’t: don’t use any hashtag with over 1 million posts associated with it. When you add a hashtag like this to your post, your content may appear on the Hashtag Page for a split second but is almost instantly buried by plenty of accidental posts published in the exact second.

Do: pick niche, medium-sized hashtags, try them out, experiment, and observe the results!

3 // Are banned hashtags real? Should you care about them?

Double yes.

Using banned hashtags will make your content become ‘undiscoverable’. Some hashtags only have a temporary ban, while many are permanently banned. And, what happens if you use some of them? You risk seeing a dramatic decrease in organic reach. 

DO: to avoid these harmful hashtags, you have to know which ones are banned, right? The blocklist is changing all the time, so to keep up with it – trust a tool that guarantees the most updated base of banned hashtags. IQ Hashtags is the one to recommend here as well – as in our opinion, it’s the most practical banned hashtags checker out there. You could be choosing banned and limited hashtags without realizing it – so it’s better to have your finger on the pulse.

4 // Less is more? Not this time. What about using 30 hashtags every time you post?

Instagram officially lets you use up to 30 hashtags on your EVERY post. And why do we think that using all of them is a good idea? Let us explain. Every single hashtag exposes your content to a different group of potential followers. The more exposure you get, the higher chances for valuable followers who will be genuinely interested in what you have to say, right? So don’t limit your reach and your engagement by using too few hashtags. 

DON’T: don’t listen to marketing gurus who claim that using more than five hashtags makes you look desperate. That’s completely ridiculous! When you focus on growth, and you want to take the next step towards building a thriving, authentic Instagram tribe that builds your Instagram imperium and ultimately leads to more collaborations or/and sales, you can’t ignore the opportunities that using 30 hashtags gives you. Hashtags make your content possible to find – without them, it would be extremely difficult for new potential followers to come across your posts and find your profile.

DO: Use 30 hashtags whenever you can. If you need help with the research process – use IQ Hashtags to save time and find the most effective ones for your niche. Hashtags can bring you the most loyal followers – and they have the power to turn your hobby into a business. And the best thing: they have nothing to do with money, they give you ENTIRELY ORGANIC REACH. 

5 // Where to post hashtags? Caption vs. comments? Does it make a difference?

Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has confirmed: “for a post to be found in search, put your hashtags in the CAPTIONS, not in the comment section.” Caption wins and guarantees better optimization – Adam said so!

When you place hashtags in the caption area, you’re doubling their power. That’s extremely exciting – when somebody is looking for your specific hashtags, your posts can be found via the keyword search page. Hashtags put in the comment section will still work – but why would you give up on some extra exposure? 

DO: Stick to posting hashtags in the caption area, not in the first comment. This is a new principle that should be followed! 

That’s it for today. We just wanted to clear the most crucial things up! If you keep these insights in mind, we’re confident you will see a boost not only in the number of likes and comments but in long-term engagement factors as well. 

+ We’d love to hear your thoughts on this – what other things would you add to the list? What helps you maintain and improve your Instagram growth? Let’s chat in the comments!

The post Secret strategies from Instagram marketing specialists. How to use hashtags: all the do’s and don’ts appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Picture it. You’ve spent long hours polishing new content, and now you’ve got something extremely exciting to share with your tribe. A seamless carousel, eye-catching graphics with secret sauce tricks from your niche, a shiny new tutorial, immensely creative Reels. You can’t wait to SHARE IT. No wonder you want to get as many eyes on it as possible to obtain satisfying post engagement and gratifying post reach. We all know it from experience: coming up with new content isn’t a piece of cake, ever. And it’s much, MUCH worse when you spend ages doing it, and then all you hear is radio silence once you post.

But let’s go back to our scenario for a sec.

You put all your heart into it: you type out an engaging caption, even longer than ever before, add your well-thought-out photos or videos, and here you go: it’s time to post. Enter and voila. 

While you wait for the likes, shares, and comments to cascade in, you head over to the kitchen to make yourself a well-deserved chai latte (well, if you’re like Kate from our team, and you can’t live without these delicious spices), and as you’re taking the first sip, you smile to yourself as you imagine 50, no 100… Maybe even 1000 new followers appreciating your effort and rewarding it with authentic admiration. Plenty of hearts. True rapture.

So you skip back to your desk, sit down comfortably, wiggle your smartphone, and click on the ‘Gram icon.

And here comes the WTF thought.

What. What’s happening here? ZERO likes. ZERO comments. Zero, zero, zero. Not to mention (heavy-breathing): only 2 users have even SEEN your content. Two people out of 1000.

You start to lose your enthusiasm (let’s be honest: you lost it exactly ten seconds ago), sweat a little, and raise your brows. Why, WHY doesn’t anyone see your new content?!

Keep calm. We can fix it. Breathe in, and breathe out. Let the dark thoughts and heavy complaints wash over you and be with those feelings.

Then, it’s time to face the truth: most probably, Instagram’s algorithm isn’t hurting you. You’ve done it to yourself. Why did your strategy lead to this? Great question. What SHOULD you do? Come on in!

How can you get people to see and ENGAGE with your posts?

Let’s discuss it – when it comes to good tactics, you need to think about at least a couple of things. First of all, the initial issue may be the fact that you’re waiting for new people to come to your profile. It can be the biggest reason for you not having ANY traffic: you’re not promoting your content. You would prepare your perfect post, publish it and expect it to get a lot of views and engagement without doing anything more. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. At least when you’re not from the Kardashians family.

There are so many outstanding accounts out there that getting views by chance/ or by being found randomly (without hashtags and without any kind of self-promotion) simply doesn’t happen anymore. You need to MAKE IT happen. And the best news? You can! And we’re here today to show you how.

First of all, we need to analyze your profile’s situation.

Let’s do it now: Check your recent posts and see which posts got the higher engagement and most likes. What for? This will help you understand your audience a bit. If all your friends are fit-food lovers and you’ve been sharing donuts recipes, this can be a SERIOUS reason for the lack of comments or any engagement on your posts. That’s just an easy example, but yup: that’s how it works. 

Let’s dive deeper. So what’s the MAIN problem? 

We often see people blaming the Instagram algorithm for a drop in reach and engagement, and it’s well… Partly true. But only PARTLY.

The algorithm actually is trying to work in your favor – of course, if you know how to master the tricks to collaborate with it and discover how to tickle its fancy. There can be over a million reasons under the sun as to why people aren’t seeing your content. Nevertheless, the main reason is that you haven’t quite worked out how to become genuinely DISCOVERABLE.

Let’s dig deeper to really hit this home for your problem, find out where you’re leaving engagement and views on the table and discuss quick fixes you can IMPLEMENT right now to destroy the worries. So, if you’ve seen a decent drop in your engagement, likes, comments, and pairs of eyeballs, it’s probably one of the following:

1 // Your content isn’t encouraging engagement – and the algorithm notices that! 

Want to discover where you’re dropping the engagement ball? 

The truth is, Instagram profoundly cares about their users enjoying the time spent on the platform, so they will stay there the longest they can. Instagram wants users to log in, pull up a chair, and scroll, scroll, scroll. How can they make it happen? By displaying content that they actually LOVE to see. But hey, hey, wait…how does Instagram know if people want to see something?

They analyze what people engage with. Yup. The algorithm analyses what people like, comment, and share. It takes notice and serves up MORE of similar content to keep users fascinated and addicted. That way, users see content that they surely enjoy all the time and keep coming back for more ALL THE TIME.

Now back to YOUR PROBLEM. 

It will hit hard. On the contrary: if your followers never interact with your posts, they’ll rarely see updates from you. That doesn’t mean they’ll never see posts from you. If you post something that’s earning a lot of engagement – REALLY A LOT – that post will likely appear in their newsfeed.

Essentially, that’s what Instagram algorithms (because actually, there are many of them) do. They take all the data they have about your community and wheel and deal to come up with the best possible newsfeed experience for every user. 

Vital tip: It’s a bit similar to karma circle: you get out of Instagram what you put into it. Instagram engagement isn’t only about how people engage with your content, but it’s also about how YOU engage with other creators.

If you like and comment on other creator’s posts, you show your appreciation for them, engagement on your own posts will also increase. To increase engagement, you can also prepare captions that encourage others to like, comment or share your post. 

Welcome EVERYBODY in, reply to every comment, engage with your followers, and pretty please: make sure they feel welcome. Instagram makes your content much more visible if it believes it’s what people enjoy seeing. 

Top tip #2: What’s also crucial: ensure what your audience wants and needs. When you’re posting stuff your tribe doesn’t truly like, Instagram can see that your engagement is down, so it significantly reduces your content reach. And then you get down on your photos or videos when you see the stats in the insights section.

Always keep in mind that Instagram prioritizes showing content that gets a lot of engagement. Posts that get a lot of QUICK engagement (right after being published) will be shown to a broader audience. The more engagement you get from your current followers, the more new eyeballs will discover your content. 

2 // You neglect hashtag research and use banned hashtags

This is huge, HUGE!

You’ve started using risky hashtags – Instagram hates hashtags that have been used too often for spammish photos and graphics and for content violating Instagram’s policy. Nothing slaughters reach like using the banned ones – Instagram’s team is trying to make the Instagram community an extremely safe place where people can feel comfortable expressing themselves. They impose a set of rules in order to make the platform enjoyable for everyone. Breaking these rules can result in a lower reach of your posts, a warning, a temporary ban, or – in the most extreme cases – even permanent removal from Instagram. Some hashtags are blocked because Instagram doesn’t want you to search for illegal, pirated, and inappropriate content – so they put those hashtags out of action!

Using them will cause your reach to plummet. They ruin your reach. 

Top tip: How do you know if a hashtag is banned?

The list of banned hashtags is long, and the problem with it is that it’s ever-evolving, and it changes daily. So how to avoid the risk and be 101% sure that your posts are banned-hashtags free?

There are online tools that can do the check for you: what is more, they have constant access to official Instagram’s list of banned hashtags updates, so you don’t have to worry whether your source of banned hashtags lists is valid.

Moreover, you can scan all your existing posts and detect all banned hashtags used in the past: so your posts will be entirely free of those forbidden ones. From our own experience and our clients’ ones, the tool most worth recommending is the one we’re using as well – IQ Hashtags. It’s the most innovative and intuitive tool out there – it’s definitely worth a try, as it will do all the hashtag scanning for you. More good news? IQ Hashtags gives you more helpful features to help you skyrocket your profile: you can find new hashtags trending in your niche, analyze your account’s data and see how your posts are performing in time. Give it a try. 

3 // Your posts have become predictable, generic, and… A bit boring 

As Jenna Kutcher has said once: your posts need to educate, entertain or empower your followers. So yeah. It’s all about E’ing it right. How to achieve it? Ask intriguing questions. Not just questions that are a clear cry for comments. Ask REALLY interesting questions relating to topics from your niche – because your audience can get easily bored too. 

Diversify your publications, so that it isn’t just “look at my products”, “buy now”, “visit my website” CTAs, and short posts that are almost THE SAME every week. Do you need some inspiration? Here we go:

• Share behind the scenes posts and backstage of your daily work
• use storytelling; it has the power! 
• hop on lives or IGTV
• create funny memes
• and focus on your followers as HUMANS

In a nutshell – you need to post content that encourages your followers to engage. Believe us when we say that.

To wrap-up!

We wanted to help you remove frustration by exposing the possible reasons your reach and engagement are dropping down. We hope we’ve also provided some quick fixes, and we believe these strategies will help you bring your good stats back to life and create stronger relationships with your followers. Play around with these strategies. Experiment. We’re SURE you’ll be pleased with how quickly you can increase the engagement of your posts. Because your goal is to have a highly engaged community and a profile with content so engaging that it knocks your followers’ socks off and makes them never want to leave, right? 

The post The real reasons why no one sees your posts (and what to do if your engagement rate is DEAD) appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

What a relief. We will finally debunk them!

Attention spans are the unofficial currency of Instagram, and we all struggle to reach our target audiences. Hashtags give us so many opportunities to do it – but only when used correctly. Do you want more Instagram followers and higher reach, but you’re not sure how to make the ‘magic’ happen?

The first step is right here: you need to forget about some detrimental hearsay. No matter how long you’ve been an avid Instagram user, sometimes you believe in something that isn’t true. Here are three too common misconceptions – the ones that need our correction.

Myth 1: Hashtags aren’t a thing anymore

As long as Instagram exists and social media continues to hold influence and significance globally, hashtags will be a crucial marketing tool as well. So it’s only a rumor and an excuse to neglect a good hashtag strategy! They’re still a thing, so it’s essential to know how to use them to reach more people from your niches effectively.

Sure thing, celebrities can give up using hashtags. They have colossal exposure and impressive reach no matter what – other media promote them: tv, magazines, radio. As long as we’re not one of them, we need to attract the target audience organically by using proven marketing tactics.

So yes – unless you’re a celebrity, you really should learn the hashtag game and refine the hashtag research process.

Most Instagram users go through a similar cycle: from viewing hashtags as not-so-necessary to starting to get them, to the “lightbulb moment” when they discover how powerful they are. One of our team’s marketing specialists – Kate – also had the crucial moment of awakening. Look at her results: she posted a photo from her photoshoot (after hours, she’s keen on fashion and commercial photography), and thanks to well-tailored hashtags, she got over 50 000 views. That was the day when she said: wow, so it’s actually POSSIBLE.

Myth 2: Hashtags will do everything for you

Hashtags are extremely powerful, but first, you have to create something that a larger audience can appreciate. Too often, people expect hashtags to be a remedium for everything – they can do magic, but hey, they need little help from you! Creating valuable content and using consciously picked hashtags are complementary tactics, not oppositional ones, so you don’t have to choose one. Combined together, they are such a strong duo.

No matter what, if you want to gain recognition and stand out, the content you share should offer value to your followers. It sounds cliche, but it’s a must. Share unique tips, eye-catching inspiration, news, and updates that are relevant to your followers’ pursuits. 

At the same time, you need feedback from your audience to learn what’s REALLY most interesting for them. What’s working and what’s not.

Hashtags are a way for you to get your posts seen by as many people as possible, but they have to be good. As one wise man has said once: people who talk about themselves all the time are boring, and that’s equally true on Instagram as in real life.

To grow your account, feel appreciated and maintain a worthwhile Instagram following, you – AND YOUR CONTENT – need to be genuinely exciting and – that’s even more important – engaging.

Myth 3: You shouldn’t use 30 hashtags, Instagram will detect this behavior as spammy!

Ugh. There’s a lot to unpack here.

Why would the Instagram team and even Instagram creator @mosseri himself encourage you to use all the 30 hashtags if it was harmful? It makes no sense, right?

Each hashtag displays your content to various potential followers (maybe even clients in the future?). Don’t limit yourself by using fewer hashtags – and don’t listen to the amateur marketing gurus who say using 30 tags looks spammy. Hashtags make your content more visible to the right people – it’s pretty clear that using 30 hashtags will give you a higher reach. Do you want to miss it?

If you can find 30 relevant hashtags to add to your post, then you should unquestionably go for it.

You have 30 hashtags to put your point across. Thirty hashtags actually aren’t that many. From our studies, putting 30 hashtags is unmistakably the way to go.

Do you think that 30 hashtags at the end of your caption will look spammy? 

Hashtags, when used as a marketing tool to gain exposure, don’t really need to be visible. That’s why you can also put them in the comment section. Yes, you really can post them in a comment – they will work properly as well.

You can also separate them from the rest of the caption by stashing them neatly at the end – after ten dots, for example.

There you have it! If you want to keep reading up on practical Instagram marketing tips, stay with us: new posts with proven solutions and industry secret sauce are coming each week. If you’re taking your social media growth seriously, you don’t want to miss them! 

The post 3 big hashtags myths you may still believe in appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Your hashtags may not work for several reasons, but that doesn’t mean that hashtags don’t work at all.

The most common reason for this is our own mistakes.

But don’t worry.

They can be fixed very quickly.

In this article we will explain why your hashtags are not working and how to fix it.

Let’s start!

#1 Instagram hashtags not working because… you use banned hashtags

Banned hashtags violate the rules of the Instagram platform, which is why Instagram blocked them.

That’s the fact.

If at least one of your 30 hashtags is banned, all others are restricted.

Some hashtags (for example related to pornography, terrorism, hate speech, verbal and physical violence) are permanently blocked.

Hashtags reported by other users or generating a lot of spam are blocked temporarily, so their status may change from day to day.

Therefore, it is important to check the hashtags before each publication.

You can check them here.

Be sure to check them in “real time”, because some of them can be banned temporarily, and then unbanned and blocked again.

In addition, use the same hashtags tool to check if you have banned hashtags throughout your profile, because it can affect visibility of your account.

If you publish a lot of such content, Instagram may think that your account is focused on publishing content that does not comply with the regulations and may begin to treat all your content as suspicious and limit your reach – and we do not want that!

Go to the IG profile analysis tab, open the list of banned hashtags and be sure to edit the content and remove the banned hashtags from the posts or archive posts with these hashtags.

#2 Instagram hashtags not working because…. you use too large or too small hashtags

Did you know that hitting the TOP9 of the hashtag is responsible for the highest reach of your photo?

TOP 9 is the most popular photos that were published under a given hashtag.

Whether a photo is popular is primarily influenced by the interest it creates: likes, comments, shares, time spent on the photo and reading its description, etc.

Under a large hashtag, the competition is very large and maybe that’s why you don’t get to the TOP9 and have the impression that your hashtags are not working and you do not receive enough views from hashtags.

It is possible that you are also using too small, niche hashtags, under which no one is looking for content, so you have low hashtag reach.

What can you do to get to the TOP9 to increase your hashtag reach?

Correctly specify the hashtag size.

You can use the Hashtags Performance tool by IQhashtags.com to check exactly which hashtag you get to TOP9.

Experiment and then analyze and on this basis determine the range of hashtags.

How do you specify a good hashtag range for your account?

It’s simple!

• Add photos to Instagram and check Hashtags Performance tool, check which hashtags hit your photo to the TOP9,
• Analyze and save hashtags’ ranges,
• Choose hashtags from given range for next photos on Instagram!

#3 Instagram hashtags not working because…. hashtags do not match the subject of the photo

Users searching for content under a given hashtag.

The first thing they see is visual content, so if what they see does not match what they were looking fo, they can report to Instagram that this content is inappropriate.

They can hide your photo using the “Don’t show for this hashtag” from the hashtag view or while they are watching the selected hashtag, and the wrongly described photo will be displayed in their feed.

That is why it is important to add hashtags that are related to the subject of your visual content.

Resume

Don’t worry if one in several photos doesn’t get a high reach.

It happens!

Analyze, experiment and be consistent!

After a few publications, you’ll begin to understand better how hashtags work and see the first results.

The post Instagram hashtags not working? Here are the 3 most common reasons! appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

If you have read the previous article, you already know what they are and why you must avoid them:

However, how do you recognize and check banned hashtags on Instagram?

In this text you will learn:

• The methods for checking banned hashtags on Instagram,
• The tools you can use to automatically check for hashtags,
• The pros and cons of these methods and tools,
• Why checking banned hashtags from the past is important.

Methods for checking hashtags on Instagram

Among the available methods we can currently mention manual analysis and automatic analysis.

It is worth adding that both options have their pros and cons, so read carefully the study for each method to finally choose the best.

Manual analysis is, simply, manual checking of hashtags on Instagram.

Automatic analysis is the use of tools that will check hashtags for you.

Manual analysis

• Method:

Enter the hashtag that you want to use under your new photo or video in the Instagram search engine.

Search for it and then go to its website.

For hashtags permanently banned that also grossly violate the Community Rules, you will not be able to search for them on the site.

Hashtags banned permanently or periodically due to reports or spam, you can easily search.

You will recognize their status by the fact that the tag page (at the very top) will display a short annotation about their “blocking” (hiding recent content due to community reports).

• Pros:

This method is very effective because the analysis is carried out in real time directly on the platform.

Another advantage is that it is completely free.

So much for pros, time for cons.

• Cons:

Inability to bulk check the entire set of tags.

This means that you must manually enter each hashtag and see if the content is blocked.

If you add 30 hashtags under a photo, you must repeat this action 30 times before each new Instagram publication.

Another downside is that checking old photos with this method is very tedious, although of course possible.

Assuming, however, that during the life of your profile you have used several hundred or even several thousand unique tags, you would have to manually check all of them in the Instagram search engine.

And then get rid of them, for example by archiving the photo (if you used it in the description) or by deleting the comment (if you entered the hashtag in the comment).

I will write why you should do this in the last paragraph

Automatic analysis

Otherwise, hashtag analysis using dedicated tools is also an effective method if you use solutions that allow you to check hashtags in real time.

This is done automatically after entering the hashtag or the whole set in a special field of the tool.

Then the platform is polled for each of the selected tags.

• Method:

You enter a hashtag or a set of hashtags in the search field and wait for the tool to check your queries and provide their results.

iqhashtags/bannedhashtags

You copy the hashtags that have been confirmed as valid by the tool (they are not blocked).

• Pros:

The biggest plus is the time saving, which you can use for other activities, such as preparing an engaging description under the photo.

Unlike Instagram, the tools allow you to check even whole sets of hashtags in one search (IQhashtags , BannedHashtags).

However, this is not all of the advantages over Instagram analysis.

Some hashtag analysis tools allow you to check published photos from the past, whose descriptions or comments contain banned hashtags (IQhashtags).

Information that the tools are in a free version (BannedHashtags, IQhashtags) is definitely a plus, although they have their limitations.

In case of paid versions of tools (IQhashtags), hashtags are checked in real-time, which is why the results are 100% up-to-date and compatible with the platform, and the analysis itself takes place instantly.

Time for cons!

• Minuses:

Free solutions also have some disadvantages.

In some tools hashtag database in the free plan is updated every few days (BannedHashtags & free version of IQhashtags), so some tags may be “not caught” by the tool.

However, this problem does not occur in the paid plan (IQhashtags), where the “Real Time Check” option is available.

Why do you need to constantly check which hashtags are banned?

Hashtags can be blocked overnight.

Therefore, checking them “here and now” is the only option that will protect you from using banned tags and further consequences.

What consequences do I mean?

First of all, limiting the visibility of your photos, and thus a smaller reach (reaching new recipients), which can be translated into a number of new observations and likes.

In addition, frequent use of banned hashtags can lead to flagging the profile as publishing content that violates the regulations.

Consequently, this will shadowban or hide any new publications, even if you stop using banned hashtags under them.

I usually receive information about two weeks, but there is no official Instagram position on the length of such a blockade and the consequences for repeat offenders, so … it can last much longer.

Hashtags that are banned and have been used on your profile in the past

This action is from the “being on the safe side” category.

If a frequent use of banned hashtags results in blocking the visibility of new publications, having them in your profile also does not improve the perception of your intentions in the eyes of the platform.

They signal to the platform that the profile has in the past violated community rules and published content that does not comply with the regulations.

That is why it is worth cleaning your profile from the sins of the past.

For photos for which the banned hashtag appears in the description, it is best to edit the photo and delete the banned hashtag used in the description.

Deleting photos is not recommended.

Instagram uses machine learning system and by changing data on your profile in such a drastic way, you introduce chaos through which it must “learn you” again.

However, hashtag comments are divided.

I recommend you simply delete them and not fiddle at the main post, but if you prefer to archive the post this time, nothing stands in the way.

Let me know if you have experienced firsthand the hiding of Instagram posts, reduced hashtag reach or limited account visibility for the frequent use of banned hashtags and how long your blockade lasted

Meanwhile, I encourage you to read this article, which explains how to choose hashtags to the content of your profile: Instagram Hashtag Guide 2020 – How to find the relevant hashtags? [TOOLS, METHODS]

The post Banned Hashtags on Instagram: How to recognize and check which hashtags are banned? appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.