How to run a high-quality Instagram profile will remain a relevant question for a long time: there is no single answer, but optimisation can bring us closer to better results. Here, optimisation means the technical side of managing a profile. This article examines how to choose effective hashtags and locations for Instagram profiles.
Many of you are probably sure you are doing everything right… We will not argue, but consider this example. You know promotion, post new photographs regularly, remember video and publish interesting Stories. Your business, let us say, sells handmade bath whisks. You decide to publish a post, select the best whisk, photograph it and work on the shot in LightRoom until it feels like a masterpiece… You can already imagine every follower being captivated by this creation, BUT…
You have done all that necessary preparation, but when it is time to post, you suddenly have nothing to say to your target audience about this bath whisk… Sound familiar? Each time, you tell yourself: “Oh, that will do. Just add a few obvious hashtags like #bath_whisk #banya #some_other_nonsense”… You might even write something like: “Dear followers, do you love the banya? We certainly do! Buy our bath whisks, we have discounts today… blah blah blah #best_sales_copy_in_the_world #bath_whisk_banya_tra_la_la”.
Then comes the interesting part: the post is already on Instagram and has been shared across every social network, even Odnoklassniki (R.I.P.)… Now comes the anxious wait. To your surprise, nobody wants the bath whisks — “a total fiasco, mate”. You start cursing Instagram, its creators, your followers and the developers of ARC Following, which was supposed to bring a sudden influx of the target audience to your profile. We are joking, of course, but we have probably guessed some of what you were thinking.
Five principles of tagging
Here is how to avoid these failures. We will set out the main points and examine each in detail.
1. Do not fixate on topic hashtags such as #bath_whisk and #banya in our example. Consider who follows them. Supposedly targeted tags often bring competitors or people from an unrelated business niche. Before choosing a hashtag, analyse the audience hidden beneath it. If almost all its posts belong to people irrelevant to you, remove it from your list.
2. Analyse posts by leading competitors; remember that a little business espionage can sometimes be useful… Find out which hashtags are used by accounts in a similar line of work. Some may suit you too.
3. Specify unique geolocations for each publication, within the radius of which your target audience most often “hangs out”, especially if ARC Following is used!
4. Do not overuse foreign-language hashtags unless your business targets an international audience. The people under those hashtags are often not the audience you need.
5. Put no more than 2-3 high-frequency hashtags under new publications. It is much better to use low-frequency and medium-frequency hashtags that coincide with the interests of the target audience. On low-frequency tags it is easier to compete and stay in the TOP for a long period.
We sincerely hope that we could help you in promoting your profile. Don’t forget that SMM is an art, and every little thing is important, so every hashtag is important!
We recommend learning more about social media promotion methods at the SMM school run by BoS Technologies. Link: Information about the SMM school.
