Hashtags. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear that word? Frustration? Excitement? Indifference?

Love them or hate them, when used properly hashtags can be a great tool to help your content be discovered by more people on Instagram.

As a social media coach, I often spend part of a session going over a hashtag strategy so that they can start to work effectively for that small businesses. Here are some of the common misconceptions around hashtags explained.

Using larger hashtags is better.

Using hashtags that have over a million uses, means that there is little to no chance that your content will be discovered in that stream. You want to pick smaller, more niche hashtags that are directly related to your content and your business so that your photos and videos will show up in one of the top squares and be discovered by more people who are following that hashtag. It’s good to have a variety of sizes, but overall, keep the huge hashtags off the list.

You should use the same 30 hashtags on each post.

Having more variety in your hashtags means that you have more ways to reach people. While some of the core hashtags in your posts might overlap, it’s better to treat each post as a fresh opportunity to reach new people.

Not using relevant hashtags to your post.

Just because something is trending or cool in the moment, doesn’t mean you should include that hashtag on your post. If you’re unsure of whether to use it or not, take a look at the top 9 posts for that hashtag and see if yours would fit in there. If the answer is no, then it’s better to skip it.

With all of these misconceptions and more around hashtags, it can be hard to know where to begin. This is why I created the hashtag workbook and webinar that launched in early November.

The 30-minute webinar covers all of these misconceptions and more including:

• Where to find hashtags for your business
• What the 5 hashtag buckets are that you need to include on each post
• What size of hashtag to use for your brand

The included workbook is an easy-to-use Google Sheet that will give you a system to keep your hashtags organized both by bucket, and by size. This will help to save you time when planning out your hashtags for each post.

If you’re tired of thinking up hashtags on the fly, this quick webinar and workbook is for you. I’ve extended my launch price of $9 CAD to Women Enterprise members. Feel free to share with a small business owner who wants to reach more people on Instagram!