Proper hashtag research gets you the customers you’ve been looking for. All hashtags aren’t good hashtags and finding the right mix of hashtags is essential to learning to to perform hashtag research for instagram.

Instagram lets you find new accounts as a consultant, realtor, marketing coordinator or small business owner because of the hashtags you use. If your social media marketing strategy on Instagram is failing it’s because you aren’t doing hashtag research correctly.

Now you’re sitting here probably thinking “do I really have to research hashtags?”

Yes! You absolutely do. If you want to market your business and makes sales that is.

From the location you’re in, the people you want to serve to the time of year it is — hashtag research matters.

As a realtor or consultant you know local hashtags work best. If you want that home to sell or want new clients to find you commenting, liking and tagging your location is important for Instagram success.

Where are you at?

One easy way to find relevant hashtags for Instagram is to think about where you’re at when you post. I live in Columbus, Ohio so tagging my area code #614, and using local hashtags gets my content viewed by locals who could use my services.

Now for you, as a realtor you’ll want to connect with people in your area who need to buy or sell their home. Try searching for area code related hashtags and even popular restaurants in your area.

Yes, I’m talking about that mom and pop shop that all the locals go to. If they have a branded hashtags go ahead and use it while you’re eating there one day.

Where is your customer?

What city and state? What country are they in if you’re an international business owner?

If you go on Instagram and search for area code hashtags for their area your content will pop up on their feed.

If someone is getting ready to sell their home or looking for a new one you might find them shopping around at Lowe’s, department stores and other home friendly businesses.

Now don’t just tag your local Lowe’s out of no where. But, if you happen to be in the area use that hashtag to find your customers.

Even if you’re not a realtor you can use this tip. Think about where your target audience hangs out and find a unique hashtag for that spot.

Perform hashtag research while on IG

I know you’ve seen this feature but you probably didn’t realize it could be used to expand your marketing efforts.

When you search a hashtag you’ll see the above screen. All those hashtags that come up after are related hashtags. Screen shot those, write them down and take a peek at which hashtags your competition is using.

Remember those local hashtags we were just talking about? You can find more of those using this feature too.

Instagram hashtag research for competitors

If you’re not following your competition on Instagram you’re missing out. Avoid copying them but you can gain insight into what they’re doing wrong or what type of hashtags they use.

Realtors can use hashtags like #realtorlife #realtorsofIG and other similar ones to find industry competitors.

Competitor hashtags let you network with others in your industry. You never know when a collaboration may come in handy so using this tip in your hashtag strategy is helpful.

What kind of services do you provide?

Sometimes business owners over look this part. Keep your services in mind when using hashtags to grow your business account on Instagram. Let’s use the example of realtors again.

Some realtors sell houses and others buy them to flip back on the market. Your target audience and target will be different. Hashtags like #houseflipping #realestatecommunity and #sellyourhouse will give different results and accounts.

The people using these hashtags are most likely other real estate agents and industry leaders.

Hashtags do more than discover new accounts

We’ve established a basic introduction to hashtag research but now we need to think about the other ways to use hashtags on Instagram. Business owners and marketing coordinators should interact (comment, like) and engage with the content in the hashtags they use.

To set up a content creation and engagement strategy click here.

Leave meaningful comments and build relationships with the people who use these hashtags. Tools like Tag O Matic let you find hashtags that you wouldn’t otherwise know about.

Take time out of your day, 30 mins-1 hour to build relationships with people in different industry related hashtags. This may be your target audience or your industry peers who are looking to network.

How do I know which hashtags will work best?

As a general rule of thumb only use hashtags will less than a million hits. Once you get into the millions your content is bound to be drowned out because people tag these posts almost every minute.

Shoot for hashtags with anywhere from 2,000 to 500,000 hits. You can throw in one with 700,000 or one with only 1,000 but don’t make it a habit.

I always go for the sweet spot inbetween and that’s when my content gets seen big time and new followers follow my accounts and my clients accounts.

Go ahead and create your own branded hashtag too. Do a quick search to make sure your hashtag isn’t already being used by others. This is called hashtag branding.

Do your research, hashtag engagement and repeat

In depth hashtag research is the best way to build your business account as a realtor, consultant and service based business owner.

You clients are out there and they need your services, all you have to do it take the time to find and interact with them.

Using geo location tagging and local hashtags will connect you with others in your community. If you’re a online business owner and work with companies worldwide using hashtags like #smallbusinessowner and #savvyceo should work just fine.

Remember to build relationships first and make the sell after learning about your target client. For your instagram business account to be the go-to for your services and products you’ll have to build trust.

This is just on piece of the social media marketing puzzle. Take these tips and use them daily to grow your brand. If you’re tired of searching for hashtags, coming up with a marketing strategy and trying to make interesting posts you can hire me to take the busy work off your hands.