[GUIDE & CASE STUDY] Increase your REACH with the right HASHTAGS

cacats

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1. Who I am?

Good afternoon everyone!! Many of you do not know me, so let me introduce myself:

My name is Cacats, a law student who started in the Instagram world 4 years ago.

It all started with a failed Commercial Law exam, which made me see that I was not the best student. I could never stand out for my grades, and if we add to that the difficult Spanish job scene in the world of lawyers, finding a job was going to be complicated ... I did not want to live under a bridge!

Any "normal" person would have tried to spend more time studying, but not me. I have never been a "normal" person. It was time to look for something that would make me stand out from the crowd, something that would allow me to pay for my university tuition.

This is how I gave my first step in the world of social networks. At the beginning, I made a motivational account on twitter and started to follow many people and manually unfollow them (I did not know that we could automate accounts haha). As I felt a human scum for spamming, I set up an automatic welcome message that said something like "thanks for following me, if you have love problems or need advice on anything, you can talk to me". You know, to relieve my morale.

In the end, the account became famous, and each day received dozens of messages asking for advice: infidelities, love problems, what to do after a divorce, family problems, etc. Can you imagine? An 18-year-old boy with no idea of life advicing divorced women?

I admit it, despite having been a hilarious stage, in which I helped many people (and they helped me too, to be honest), my advices
caused the divorce of a couple that were in love. It was there when I realized that I was not a psychologist, it was better that a true professional take care of that (in my defense I will say that the man was very possessive and jealous, it was the best thing for the woman...).

I decided to start with Instagram and came to this forum looking for how to automate my travel account. During this time, I learned the basis of what I know today and had the opportunity to meet great people.

I took things more seriously and put into practice the typical method of Ogads + IG. With the money earned, I opened my own "social media agency". However, I realized that using automation programs to grow customer accounts, despite appearing to be a good idea, has its days counted. Any day, Instagram can get an update that makes all the bots obsoletes, or put more obstacles.
Therefore, I decided to move to a more "legal" phase.



2. Let's start with the important things

All gurus always talk about quality content, which is the key to gain more followers and blablabla.

Yes, it is true, the content is key: if your post is very simple or does not contribute anything, you will NEVER grow big, you will NEVER go viral.

However, we all know friends with incredible publications, worthy of appearing in the National Geographic magazine, but with fewer followers than the neighbor of the fifth floor who lives with 5 cats.

Yes, the content is key, but there is something that they do not tell us: the "luck" factor is even more important. A picture that goes viral and gives you 400 new followers, a video in which people start mentioning their friends because they find it very funny, a publication of yours that is so good that a celebrity decides to share it on their social networks, etc. .

I repeat: my objective is to find legal methods that do not put the main account at risk, forger about the F / U strategy, the "child accounts" method, etc.

Why am I telling you this? Because even though the "luck" factor can not be replicated, there is something that can help us grow our account or our client's one. Something people do not care about too much: The hashtags.


3. Hashtags? What do you mean?

3.1. Introduction

If you have just entered the world of social networks and this sounds like Chinese, you have to know that when people talk about hashtags, it refers to the famous pad that phones have ("#"), accompanied by a word key or an emoticon. For example, #travel.

If you enter the Instagram search tab and click on the "#" option, you will be able to find the content that interests you published under a certain hashtag. In the same way, what you publish under "#travel", for example, will appear among the results returned in the search for it:

Post a photo> use a hashtag> your photo appears in the "feed" of the hashtag you used

Thus, in addition to allowing us to categorize our content, they will provide us with a mechanism to navigate among the topics that most appeal to us, facilitating interaction with users who share our same interests.

When you search for a specific hashtag, you will be able to perform a series of actions: follow the hashtag, see the highlighted posts and the most recent ones.


3.2. Follow the hashtag

You will be able to follow the hashtags in the same way you would send a request to some other user. Therefore, the consequences are going to be the same: when you enter your feed, you will be able to see SOME photos published under such a hashtag (later we will enter in more detail at this point).

This new possibility offers us a great opportunity to increase our engagement, because if the user specifically follows the hashtag you are using in your post, he will be more likely to visualize our content.

That said, I strongly advise you to create your own hashtag: after having made my own, not only have I achieved an increase in my engagement rate, but also, users have been encouraged to use it too, giving me free publicity every time they use it.

Also, if you make your hashtag go viral and become a "trending topic" (that is, use it by a large number of users), you will exponentially increase your visibility.


3.3. Recent posts


Each time you make a publication, it will appear in this tab, regardless of the number of likes or comments you have received.

As you can imagine, this implies that the posts shown will follow a chronological order, with the latest publications appearing first. The bad thing is that if many images are published with that hashtag, your publication will disappear in order to show the most recent publications.


3.4. Top posts

As the name indicates, in this tab you can see the 9 most outstanding posts.

So, while on the other tab your posts would disappear quickly, here they can stay for hours. The longer they are in this tab, the more impressions they will have.

Therefore, your main objective will be for your publication to be maintained in the featured posts for as long as possible.




4. Get more impressions in your publication thanks to the proper use of hashtags

Well, after this lengthy introduction and guide, there comes the moment that everyone was waiting for. How will I apply this to my account? How will I make my images go viral? What is the best hotel comparator? 3 words: Tri-va-go.

No, now seriously. Each week I will publish a case study applying a new strategy of different hashtags and showing the statistics of each publication, so you can see with me which is the most effective. So... Stay tunned!!!

In addition, I will be publishing new tricks and small discoveries that I made during the course of this case study.

Do not miss the next publication:

- Results of the first case study: 02/10/2019
- Strategy used: Using hashtags based on the number of publications or competition.
 
Good to see people trying to contribute. It would be helpful if you didn't just explain what each thing is, but go more in depth to what you are actually doing with those hashtags to get more exposure, and how you're testing between different methods.

P.S. It's probably best to use the default font color :)
 
Good to see people trying to contribute. It would be helpful if you didn't just explain what each thing is, but go more in depth to what you are actually doing with those hashtags to get more exposure, and how you're testing between different methods.

P.S. It's probably best to use the default font color :)

Sure!! That's exactly the idea! Every week I will explain the exact strategy and the results.

But maybe you're right, it's better to explain the strategy beforehand and show the results obtained later.
Thus, we can all apply the strategies at the same time to see which ones work best.

You've convinced me! Tomorrow I will explain the first strategy and on Sunday I will publish the results. I encourage all who can to use the strategies that I will explain each week and publish the results every Sunday.

PS: Yep, you are right about the font color. I have to change it.
 
Awesome writeup! It's funny how a lot of people on this forum believe hashtags don't work to grow.. like you stated you can now follow hashtags...instagram now pushes "you just liked three photos with this hashtag.." open your eyes people
 
Hashtag threads becoming popular lately. Looking forward to read your 1st update.
 
That said, I strongly advise you to create your own hashtag: after having made my own, not only have I achieved an increase in my engagement rate, but also, users have been encouraged to use it too, giving me free publicity every time they use it.

Also, if you make your hashtag go viral and become a "trending topic" (that is, use it by a large number of users), you will exponentially increase your visibility.

Interesting. Never thought of that. Great tip!
 
Ctrl + F publish: 8
Ctrl + F publication: 11

KW density: over optimized
 
Really looking forward to the update. What are your methods of finding the right hashtags?
 
Awesome writeup! It's funny how a lot of people on this forum believe hashtags don't work to grow.. like you stated you can now follow hashtags...instagram now pushes "you just liked three photos with this hashtag.." open your eyes people

YES!!!!! People underestimate the power of hashtags!

Hashtag threads becoming popular lately. Looking forward to read your 1st update.

looking forward... following

Interesting. Never thought of that. Great tip!

Going to suggest this to our community

Following.. great guide cant wait for the updates

Thank you guys! I hope that this first update doesn't disappoint you!

Ctrl + F publish: 8
Ctrl + F publication: 11

KW density: over optimized

Ups, my fault!! I'm not a native english speaker, so I didin't know how to say "post" or "publication" with other words haha. Sorry if it was hard to read, it was not my intention!

Why is Trivago mentioned in your post?

I was trying to be funny, but now that I had to explain it, it's not funny anymore :D:D:D

Really looking forward to the update. What are your methods of finding the right hashtags?

You are about to discover it ;)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST STRATEGY: Taking into account the number of posts


As the title says, we are going to select the hashtags that we will use based on the number of publications. Generally, we can divide the hashtags into:
  1. HIGH competition: >5,000,000 posts
  2. MEDIUM competition: 1,000,000 - 5,000,000 posts
  3. LOW competition: <1,000,000 posts
For this experiment, we will choose the hashtags following the following percentages:
  • HIGH competition: 20%
  • MEDIUM competition: 30%
  • LOW competition: 50%
Why these percentages?

According to this strategy, there is a greater chance that you will rank in a low competition hashtag (therefore, we will use more hashtags of this type). However, we will also use larger hashtags in case our publication goes viral.

PROS:
  • It does not slow down the growth of your account. If your image goes viral, it is possible that you rank in the high competition hashtags, which will increase your reach. So, if you do not use high-competition hashtags, you would be wasting the opportunity (do not forget that the chances of your image becoming viral are low, buuuut it may happen).
CONS:
  • Using low competition hashtags does not mean that we will automatically rank in those hashtags. This strategy doesn't take into account other factors of greater importance: number of likes, comments, etc.
  • Ranking in low competition hashtags does not mean that we are going to increase our reach. There is an important factor: the FREQUENCY of publications. That is, we won't increase our reach if our post rank in the hashtag "bestcamerasintheworldforyouforyourfamilyandfortrivago" if only 10 photos have been published and all of them were published 10 months ago. Our goal if we want this strategy to be effective, would be to look for hashtags where content is published every minute or hour.

I will use this strategy this week and I will post the results on 02/10/2018. STAY TUNNED!!!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ONE TRICK

I almost forgot it!!!

Some of you PMed for more info about using your own hashtag. Here are some advices:
  1. Your hashtag MUST be your account handle (if your username is "letstravel", your hashtag should be "letstravel" too).
  2. To make it more effective, create your own hashtag. If your name already exists as a hashtag, create a new hashtag using your username and a small modification ("letstravelyeah", for example).
  3. In order to motivate people to use your hashtag, give away free shoutouts every week. For example: every Friday, say that you will select the best image that your followers have published under your hashtag and post it in your account, giving the credits, logically.It's a win-win situation:
They get a shoutout and you get good quality content for your account. If someday you do not want to look for photos or make new ones, simply select one published under your hashtag and you're done!
Your followers will never report you, because when they user your hashtag, they are giving you their consent (unless your followers hate you).
 
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I was trying to be funny, but now that I had to explain it, it's not funny anymore :D:D:D

Oh! The reason I asked because I thought you were marketing the site. I actually hate that site. The reason is their advertisement. I just want to punch the guy who appears in those annoying ads. Seriously. Watch that shitty ad.
 
YES!!!!! People underestimate the power of hashtags!











Thank you guys! I hope that this first update doesn't disappoint you!



Ups, my fault!! I'm not a native english speaker, so I didin't know how to say "post" or "publication" with other words haha. Sorry if it was hard to read, it was not my intention!



I was trying to be funny, but now that I had to explain it, it's not funny anymore :D:D:D



You are about to discover it ;)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST STRATEGY: Taking into account the number of posts


As the title says, we are going to select the hashtags that we will use based on the number of publications. Generally, we can divide the hashtags into:
  1. HIGH competition: >5,000,000 posts
  2. MEDIUM competition: 1,000,000 - 5,000,000 posts
  3. LOW competition: <1,000,000 posts
For this experiment, we will choose the hashtags following the following percentages:
  • HIGH competition: 20%
  • MEDIUM competition: 30%
  • LOW competition: 50%
Why these percentages?

According to this strategy, there is a greater chance that you will rank in a low competition hashtag (therefore, we will use more hashtags of this type). However, we will also use larger hashtags in case our publication goes viral.

PROS:
  • It does not slow down the growth of your account. If your image goes viral, it is possible that you rank in the high competition hashtags, which will increase your reach. So, if you do not use high-competition hashtags, you would be wasting the opportunity (do not forget that the chances of your image becoming viral are low, buuuut it may happen).
CONS:
  • Using low competition hashtags does not mean that we will automatically rank in those hashtags. This strategy doesn't take into account other factors of greater importance: number of likes, comments, etc.
  • Ranking in low competition hashtags does not mean that we are going to increase our reach. There is an important factor: the FREQUENCY of publications. That is, we won't increase our reach if our post rank in the hashtag "bestcamerasintheworldforyouforyourfamilyandfortrivago" if only 10 photos have been published and all of them were published 10 months ago. Our goal if we want this strategy to be effective, would be to look for hashtags where content is published every minute or hour.

I will use this strategy this week and I will post the results on 02/10/2018. STAY TUNNED!!!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ONE TRICK

I almost forgot it!!!

Some of you PMed for more info about using your own hashtag. Here are some advices:
  1. Your hashtag MUST be your account handle (if your username is "letstravel", your hashtag should be "letstravel" too).
  2. To make it more effective, create your own hashtag. If your name already exists as a hashtag, create a new hashtag using your username and a small modification ("letstravelyeah", for example).
  3. In order to motivate people to use your hashtag, give away free shoutouts every week. For example: every Friday, say that you will select the best image that your followers have published under your hashtag and post it in your account, giving the credits, logically.It's a win-win situation:
They get a shoutout and you get good quality content for your account. If someday you do not want to look for photos or make new ones, simply select one published under your hashtag and you're done!
Your followers will never report you, because when they user your hashtag, they are giving you their consent (unless your followers hate you).


I can't specify how this method always works for my posts.. I have 4000 followers and with this method almost 70% of my content is viral and reacts 900-3000 likes and 600-4000 views on videos
 
Oh! The reason I asked because I thought you were marketing the site. I actually hate that site. The reason is their advertisement. I just want to punch the guy who appears in those annoying ads. Seriously. Watch that shitty ad.

hahahaha yes, you are right!!! I hate that ad too. But you have to recognize that they are good marketers. Look, two guys blaming them... They got what they wanted: people talking about them...

But if you really want a shitty add, look at this one:
(it's in spanish, but it's the worst one I have ever seen... The only thing they say is "we buy your car.es").

The worst actors ever... Imagine all of those who didn't pass the casting hahahaha


I can't specify how this method always works for my posts.. I have 4000 followers and with this method almost 70% of my content is viral and reacts 900-3000 likes and 600-4000 views on videos
Well, that's a nice case!!

If you want, put a screenshot of your results with this strategy (only the impressions, nothing else, neither the images, nor the name of your account).

The idea is to encourage everyone to share their success stories, what strategy is doing better and so together we can learn from each other!!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SECOND TRICK!

How to use hashtags without looking SPAMMY?


Good evening to everybody!!

Today I will tell you two strategies that you can use with the goal that, after writing the hashtags, your caption seems less spammy.


Strategy 1: Using dots in the caption

Gmb0ggM


As you can see in image 1, those hashtags do not look good, they take away the attention of the content of our caption (remember that Instagram only shows you the first 2 lines of your caption).

To solve it, follow the following steps:
  1. Write your caption.
  2. Put 5 dots (or whatever you see necessary). Do not forget to make a line break after each point! (image 2)
  3. Enjoy your non-spammy publication (image 3)
However, if people decide to click on "see more", they will see those dots. Although a few do not care, it does not look good (maybe it's because I'm too much a retailer).



Strategy 2: Using spaces in the caption

kP98Lki


This strategy is much more complicated, but the results are much better. The key here is to do line breaks and put spaces. However, I do not know about you, but every time I try to make a line break, when I publish the image, they disappear.

After many attempts, I discovered that there is an easy solution to this problem:
  1. After writing your caption, write a space. This is paramount !!!
  2. Once the above is done, copy and paste this in the following line (image 1): (⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀)
  3. Remove the parentheses (image 2)
  4. Enjoy your non-spammy publication (image 3)
As you can see, whenever a user decides to click on "see more", he will no longer see any dot, only spaces. In this way, your caption will be visually more attractive.


What do you think about theses strategies? Did you know them?
 
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I've been using this trick as well, but I see that most people put their hashtags in the first comment. Which method is better?
 
I've been using this trick as well, but I see that most people put their hashtags in the first comment. Which method is better?

Puting your hashtags in comments is better as it looks less spammy and allows you to exceed the limit of 30 hashtags per posts. But I would not exploit this too much.
 
I've been using this trick as well, but I see that most people put their hashtags in the first comment. Which method is better?
There are people claiming that posting hashtags in your comments can make your post shadowbanned. I am not too sure about this, as it has never happened to me.

Anyway, to be honest, I prefer to be cautious. I usually put the hashtags always in the caption. As they say: the cemetery is full of brave people


Puting your hashtags in comments is better as it looks less spammy and allows you to exceed the limit of 30 hashtags per posts. But I would not exploit this too much.

Well, your account can look now less spammy using the tricks I shared in my previous post ;)
 
Following, so far I'm familiar with the strategies, looking forward to more complex ones. Keep it up OP!
 
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