Social Media Marketing

  • Blogging, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing

    Create a winning content marketing plan with these three questions

    Creating content can be a total minefield if you don’t have a content marketing plan in place. You’ll likely create content on the fly — realising you haven’t shared anything in a few weeks and your blog, social media pages, and newsletter are all growing dusty. This rush to get something — anything — out there leads to you publishing content on a whim.

    We’ve all done it.

    Heck, even I still do it from time to time. But your entire content marketing plan shouldn’t be made up of winging-it content. Instead, it should have a clear focus.

    In this article, I’ll be sharing the three questions that hold the quickest and most simple way to create a winning content marketing plan without burning out your brain.

    By answering the three questions of why, who and how, you can easily create a winning content plan. 

    Fika Digital - Create a winning content marketing plan with these three questions - blog image

    How to easily create a winning content marketing plan

    Content marketing leaders have a clear content marketing strategy that is aligned with their business objectives, and has full leadership buy-in. So, before we even start covering the questions you need to answer as part of your content marketing plan, we first need to lay the foundations for your strategy.

    After all, there’s no point diving head first into content creation if you haven’t figured out what it is you should be talking about.

    To do this, you need to be able to identify your content themes and turn this into an unfiltered list of content ideas. Once you’ve done these first two steps of the process, you’re ready to ask yourself those all-important questions.

    Don’t worry, these steps don’t take long. Simply, set aside 90 minutes to 2-hours of your time, grab some paper and get ready to start scribbling down all of your content-related thoughts.

    Choose your content themes

    Before you create any content at all, you first need to have a broad understanding of your content themes. 

    The best place to start when choosing your content themes is to think about what it is that you do.

    Are you a clothing shop specialising in sustainable fashion? Or maybe you run a well-being consultancy aimed at improving workplace well-being? Perhaps you own a local gym…

    In each of these examples, what they do can inform their content themes.

    For the clothing store, their themes may include: sustainability, slow fashion and personal styling.

    The content themes for the well-being consultancy could be mental health, workplace well-being, and work-life balance. 

    Whereas the local gym might focus on gym updates, nutrition, and fitness.

    Think about what you do and then choose 2 – 4 broad content themes. You should be able to break these themes down into more granular subtopics. 

    You get the idea, now it’s your turn.

    Go ahead — write down the broad content themes for your business.

    Brainstorm content ideas

    Now you should have a strong sense of the content themes underlying your business.

    The next step is where the magic happens!

    Remember how I said you should be able to break your content themes into more granular subtopics?

    Well, that’s what we’ll be doing here.

    Take your content themes and write down all the potential content ideas relating to each of your themes.

    Seriously, write down EVERYTHING that comes to mind. There’s no silly ideas at this stage. We’ll refine the list in the next stage so go wild, write down every possible idea.

    Let’s use the gym as an example again and take their theme of “gym updates”.

    The “gym updates” theme could be broken down into:

    • Class timetables
    • Personal trainer spotlight
    • Client/Member highlight
    • New equipment announcements
    • Behind-the-scenes events/activity
    • Open day announcements
    • Available classes and services
    • Membership offers and benefits
    • Gym walkaround videos
    • Day in the life of a PT video
    • New services sneak peeks

    Write a list of ideas for each content theme, then move onto the next step.

    Ask yourself these three questions

    Now, look at your content ideas and ask yourself three questions: why, who, and how.

    These questions will make sure your content ideas are aligned with your goals, audience and brand. Any that don’t align can either be taken back to the drawing board or be scrapped.

    Why – your SMART goal

    Before you even put pen to paper, you need to understand why you are creating content.

    Creating content for the sake of just creating content isn’t going to further your progress in any way, shape or form. Sure, the occasional off-the-cuff, spur-of-the-moment blog article, email or social media post might work wonders but if that’s your only strategy, it’s not the most reliable road to success.

    Rather than crossing your fingers and hoping your content is a success, set some SMART goals.

    These SMART goals will form the “why” behind your content. Your goal here might be to:

    • Increase engagement
    • Establish yourself as a thought leader
    • Drive conversions
    • Get more newsletter subscribers
    • Educate readers
    • Increase organic visibility

    Or your goal might be something else.

    Whatever your goal is, make sure it’s SMART. That means, your goal has to be:

    • Specific
    • Measurable
    • Achievable
    • Realistic
    • Timely

    Once you’ve set your goal, hold this goal in mind when deciding on what content to create and how to formulate that content. 

    For example, if your goal is to increase organic visibility, spend time writing an SEO-led blog article that is relevant to your audience and any current needs, challenges, or interests they may be researching.

    Who – your audience

    The next question to ask yourself is “who am I creating content for?”

    I want you to think of one specific person. Hold that person in your mind. And write for them. Don’t write for an entire board of executive directors. Don’t write for the 38 people on your dream client-list. Write for just one person.

    So, how do you choose that one person?

    Create a user persona! Get clear on your ideal audience so you can create content that speaks directly to them. 

    When defining your audience, think about their challenges, needs, interests and barriers to conversions. 

    To figure out who your audience is and what makes them tick, look in the following key places:

    • Check demographics data in Google Analytics
    • Scroll through your social media followers
    • Nosy at your newsletter readers
    • Speak to actual customers and clients

    Once you’ve done your research, create user persona templates of each of your ideal audience members. Chances are your business and products/services will appeal to more than one person. So, create user personas to represent each of the different ideal audience types.

    Then, when you’re writing content, choose one of those personas and write specifically for them. What would they want to gain from this content? What are they most interested in? What makes them hang onto your every word?

    How – does it fit your content themes

    By now, you should have a good idea of the why behind your content and the person you’re creating content for. The final question you need to ask before diving into the content creation process is “how does this content fit my content themes”.

    Remember how I got you to plan out your content themes at the start of this post? Well, this is where those themes come into play! You now want to take your content ideas and double-check whether those ideas are a good fit for your brand.

    Essentially, any content you create should align with your brand, your audience, or your goals. 

    Establishing a Content Marketing Plan - Fika Digital

    Turn those ideas into content

    Now that you’ve asked your why, who, and how questions, you’re ready to turn your ideas into killer content.

    Take all those ideas you brainstormed earlier (remember them? I hope so!) and for each idea, ask yourself:

    • Why am I creating this content?
    • Who am I creating this content for?
    • How does this content fit my content themes?

    Based on the answers to these questions, you can start creating content that aligns perfectly with your goals, your audience, and your business priorities. If any ideas don’t fit, scrap them off the list or look at how you can realign them to better suit your biz.

    When creating content, think about which content messaging and format will best meet the intention behind the post. Think about what your audience will connect with most and which content style works best for your chosen goal.

    Repurpose content into other formats

    Remember, you don’t have to stick to one platform! You can take your idea and shout about it across multiple marketing platforms.

    Created an Instagram post that your followers loved? Then breathe life back into that content and repurpose it into other formats and across other platforms. You could repurpose organic social media posts as:

    • Social media ads
    • Blog articles
    • Podcasts
    • Guest posts
    • Email marketing
    • Webinar
    • Course

    Obviously, not every platform will suit every piece of content. Just because people loved your latest email talking about your new product launch, it doesn’t mean they want a course all about making their own products. Sure, some people might want that but are they the people you’re targeting? Use your common sense and repurpose content to the platforms that you know will drive results for your business.

    And hey, if you do want to pivot your business and create a course targeting an adjacent audience, go for it — you’re a badass business owner who contains multitudes! You can be multi-hyphenated, you can grow and expand, and you for sure can pivot your business.

    Anyway, I’m getting off track, but what I’m saying is this: repurpose your content. Don’t let great content get lost in the depth of the internet. Bring it back to life and reshare it with pride for even more people to see.

    That’s it — you’ve created your content marketing plan

    Voila – you’ve just overcome your writer’s block and written some powerful content for your audience. And it took, what, a few hours?

    Now imagine what you could create if you time blocked one full day per month to work on your content marketing plan?

    Remember, the three questions you need to ask yourself to create a killer content marketing plan are:

    • Why am I creating this content?
    • Who am I creating this content for?
    • How does this content fit my content themes?

    The whole process takes just 5-steps from start to end:

    1. Work out your content themes
    2. Brainstorm content ideas
    3. Ask those 3 valuable questions
    4. Turn your ideas into content
    5. Repurpose it to the high-heavens

    And if you ever fancy a helping hand with figuring out your content marketing plan, nailing your themes, or coming up with sharp content ideas that will wow your audience, drop us a line. We love all things content and we want to help your business shine online!

  • Social Media Marketing

    7 reasons why small businesses need social media marketing

    As the owner of a small business or a fresh new start-up, you likely know that it’s important for your business to be active on social media.

    But, do you know why your small business needs social media marketing?

    There are many benefits of using social media for small businesses. Yet many small business owners believe that they are too small for social media. They believe social media is best left for the ‘big players’ with even bigger budgets; the companies that can afford to have a marketing team, run large-scale social media campaigns, and rack up hundreds of thousands of followers.

    We’re here to bust those social media myths. Your business belongs on social media. And in this article, we’ll be sharing seven reasons why small businesses need social media marketing.

    7 reasons why small businesses need social media marketing

    Social media is about so much more than cute cat pics, posting a link to your online shop, using hashtags or showing up once every blue moon.

    The businesses that win at social media are the ones that show up consistently and have a dedicated social media strategy. The best part is, you don’t need to have a four-figure marketing budget to achieve these things. You, as a solo entrepreneur, can win on social media.

    You should have to show up consistently and keep doing the work. With the right social media training, you will soon have the confidence to manage social media for your business and turn your audience into customers.

    If you’ve been sleeping on social media, take this article as your alarm clock screaming at you to wake up.

    Some of the reasons why small businesses need social media marketing include:

    1. Build brand awareness and reputation
    2. Increase website traffic
    3. Act as a portfolio for your business
    4. Nurture your community
    5. Demonstrate social proofing for your brand
    6. Increase sales and conversions
    7. Deliver glowing customer service

    Let’s look at each of these social media marketing benefits in more detail below so you can see exactly what your business can gain from investing in social media.

    Build brand awareness and reputation

    If nobody knows about your brand, how can they buy from you? 

    There are over 4.48 billion social media users around the world. That’s almost 57 percent of the entire global population!

    Social media marketing is great for generating noise about your business. Social media is essentially digital word-of-mouth for your business. As a result, it is a powerful way to increase brand awareness and develop your reputation as a brand.

    Whether it’s someone else posting about your brand on their social media channel, resharing your posts, or you showcasing the powers of your products/services on your social media pages – Social media marketing can expand your reach and shine a light on your business.

    Increase website traffic

    Both organic and paid social media marketing campaigns are key for driving traffic to your website. As a business owner, you want people to be visiting your website from various sources.

    Relying on only one source can be detrimental to your business. So, it’s important to consider how you can use social media to increase website traffic.

    Some easy ways you can drive more traffic to your website is to reshare your blog content to your social media posts, include your website URL in your social media bio, or direct people to landing pages where they can learn more about your products/services.

    Sending social media traffic to your website also increases your chance of turning those visitors into customers. It’s a win-win situation.

    With that said, you don’t want to just coldly self-promote your website at any given opportunity. If anything, this will have the reverse effect and will turn people away from your brand. Instead, think about the ways that you can add value to your social media audience. Providing value to your audience will indirectly encourage them to visit your website for more information.

    Act as a portfolio for your business

    Ever wished you had a way to showcase your results as a business? Well, social media marketing lets you do just that!

    Whenever working with clients on social media marketing, we always encourage them to view their social media accounts as the portfolio for their business.

    Small businesses can use social media to show off everything they can do as a business. From local restaurants to eCommerce stores, SaaS tools, accountants and beyond, you can use social media to demonstrate the powers of your business.

    For example, a restaurant may share food photos of their current menu to visually show off their delicious menu. An accountant might share case studies that show how they’ve previously helped other businesses save money on their tax bill or they might want to share advice that demonstrates their expertise as an accountant. 

    Social media is your opportunity to be loud and proud about all that you have achieved, all that you know and all that you can offer for your customers. Share your awards, show off your recent work and shout about your expertise.

    If you aren’t showing off your results as a business owner, how will anyone else know what you are capable of?

    Nurture your community

    Small businesses can also use social media marketing to build, nurture, grow and sustain meaningful connections with their customers.

    Building a community takes both time and hard work. But it’s worth it to see your community flourish. 

    As a business owner, nurturing a community helps you to develop a loyal tribe of brand ambassadors who love and support your business — this tribe will be more likely to recommend your brand to friends and they’ll be more likely to be a life-long customer. 

    You can leverage social media to nurture your community by creating community-focused content. This could be engaging content that encourages your community to interact with your social media posts. It could be creating and maintaining an exclusive Facebook group for your community. 

    Community-focused social media content could also be resharing user-generated content, having a brand hashtag that you encourage the community to share or offering incentives for users that interact with your brand on social media.

    Nurturing a community can be beneficial for your business in numerous ways. Not only does it improve the number of life-long customers your brand has, it also gives you access to a group of customers that can be used for market research or gathering feedback on your current products/services. 

    One example of a company with a loyal community is the clothing brand, Black Milk. 

    Fika Digital - 7 reasons why small businesses need social media - loyal community - blackmilk sharkies

    Black Milk have amassed a loyal fan base named Sharkies – these fans are more likely to shop with Black Milk, share the brand on social media, and interact with one another through social media to further nurture the community. To Sharkies, Black Milk is more than a clothing brand. It’s a part of their identity and other Sharkies are considered their family.

    Demonstrate social proof for your brand

    Social proof is a type of social influence that suggests that people will conform in order to be liked or accepted by the influencer.

    Small businesses can leverage social media as social proof for their brand. This can be done through sharing testimonials, diving into a client case study, or showing other people using their products/services. 

    Influencer campaigns are a great way to generate social proof for your brand on social media. Seeing valued and trusted influencers use and recommend a brand can encourage other people to also try the brand. Social proof builds trust and evokes positive emotions in potential customers.

    Social proof should form a central part of any small business’s marketing strategy and social media is just one way that you can do that.

    Increase sales and conversions

    No matter what your goals are as a business owner, increasing revenue will always be a priority. Having a positive bottom line is crucial for the long-term success of your business.

    Social media marketing is just one of the activities you can invest in to increase your business sales and conversions. When done correctly, the ROI of social media can be lucrative.

    In order to increase sales and conversions through social media, it helps to have a detailed social media strategy. If you’re social media savvy, you can do this yourself. But, it always helps to have a social media professional help you create a strategic social media plan and implement it in the right way.

    At Fika Digital, we can help you create a purposeful social media strategy that is developed with both your audience and your goals in mind. This strategy will be tailored specifically to your business needs (and wants!) to make sure you are getting exactly what you want out of your social media marketing.

    Some ways that you can use social media to increase conversions include:

    • Adding a strong call to action to your social media posts, bio and/or header image
    • Running exclusive social media webinars (think Instagram Live) as a way to pre-sell a product/service and pitch your products/services
    • Make use of the Shop features on Facebook and Instagram if you have an eCommerce business
    • Use Paid social media to promote your products/services or for lead generation purposes

    These suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg. There are a myriad of subtle and not-so-subtle ways you can increase sales through your social media marketing.

    Deliver glowing customer service

    Last but not least, social media offers your business an opportunity to deliver glowing customer service.

    These days, customers have come to expect brands to answer their customer requests, complaints and queries through social media.

    Many companies have even created secondary customer service accounts on Twitter to help them support their customers with their queries.

    Take Gymshark for example. They have a Twitter account dedicated to all-things Gymshark. Then they have a secondary Twitter account named “Gymshark_Help” where they proactively help customers.

    Sometimes, they will respond to customer concerns that tag “@Gymshark_Help” or mention Gymshark. Other times, they’ll engage in conversation with customers on Twitter.

    Investing in customer service can help you build meaningful relationships between your company and your customers. Social media can be the perfect place to offer customer service support as it allows your company to offer instantaneous support and, in turn, receive instantaneous customer feedback and interaction.

    We recommend having separate teams for your social media marketing and customer service. There is a big difference between the two roles and they can both be really demanding. If you do have two separate teams, make sure they have a strong, open communication line so that they can work together to deliver a glowing customer experience for all of your customers and fans on social media.

    Benefits of social media for small businesses: Final thoughts

    It’s evident that there are a lot of benefits of using social media for small businesses.

    Above, we’ve shared just seven reasons why small businesses need social media marketing. Outside of these seven reasons, there’s also the benefit of social media being a cost-effective marketing channel, creating conversation around your brand, using social media insights to further improve your business, telling and strengthening your brand story… and so much more.

    If you are interested in honing your social media skills, we offer bespoke social media training and workshops to help you boost your social media knowledge so you can confidently manage your own channels.

    It’s time for you to embrace the powers of social media marketing!

  • Social Media Marketing

    Everything you need to know about creating Instagram videos

    Are you ready to embrace video for Instagram?

    Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram recently posted a video to Twitter revealing that Instagram will be focusing predominantly on video-based features going forward.

    What once started as a photo sharing app for us all to share photos of our breakfast with heavily edited retro filters (…just us?) will now transition to being a video sharing app.

    This move towards being a video-first app is partly to compete with the other social media video giants out there such as YouTube and TikTok.

    With this news comes more changes for Instagram – Mosseri has confirmed that Instagram will focus on full-screen, immersive mobile-first video content. They will also be developing a new feature called “Exclusive Stories” which is believed to be a way for Instagram users to access exclusive content from their favourite creators – likely under a paid subscription.

    So, what do these Instagram changes mean for you as a business? And how can you make sure your business continues to shine on social media?

    The power of video marketing

    Video marketing is a powerful tool to have in your marketing arsenal. 80% of businesses use video as a marketing tool – according to the Hubspot 2021 State of Video Marketing report. An increase of 41% since 2016.

    With Instagram’s latest announcement, we expect that figure to rise even more this year.

    Video marketing is an impressive way to connect with your target audience. From creating explainer videos to educate users and improve customer support to creating persuasive videos that generate leads and directly increase sales. 

    If you aren’t already investing in video marketing, you could be missing out on some valuable ROI for your business.

    One way you can incorporate more video content into your marketing strategy is through your social media strategy, such as Instagram videos.

    Why should you create Instagram Videos

    If Mosseri’s announcement that Instagram is going to start prioritising video content doesn’t sway you to create Instagram videos, maybe these next few sentences will…

    When asked what type of content people tend to skim and what they tend to consume thoroughly, 55% of people said they pay close attention to videos over any other type of content.

    People are twice as likely to share video content with their friends than any other type of content including social media posts, blog posts and product pages. 86% of people would also like to see more videos from brands.

    If you still don’t feel compelled to create videos, maybe knowing your competitors are compelled will change your opinion. Research by Wyzowl revealed that 69% of non-video marketers expect to start using video as a marketing tool in 2021.

    In short, incorporating video content into your social media strategy will help your business connect with your target audience and compete with other companies within your industry. It’s a sure-fire way to make sure your brand doesn’t get left behind in this new era of social media consumption and marketing.

    Types of video content you can share on Instagram

    Thankfully, videos for Instagram come in all shapes and sizes. This means that you’ve got plenty of opportunities to weave videos into your social media strategy and find a method that works for your business.

    The types of videos you can share on Instagram are:

    • Video posts for feed
    • Reels
    • Stories
    • IGTV
    • Live Videos

    This choice means you have freedom to produce high-quality and captivating videos for your social media followers. The best part? You don’t need a fancy DSLR or studio set-up to do so. 

    You can develop beautiful branded videos with your phone. Along with being able to upload pre-recorded videos, Instagram gives you the option to record videos directly in the app which suggests that they are team-phone when it comes to shooting Instagram videos.

    Creating videos for Instagram doesn’t have to be intimidating or expensive. As mentioned, you can shoot jaw-dropping videos from your phone.  

    By knowing what type of content to post and what tools to use to optimise your videos, you can easily level up your social media strategy with Instagram videos.

    Coming up with video ideas for Instagram

    When creating content for social media, you should always focus on creating content that resonates with your audience. This same rule applies to creating videos for Instagram.

    Knowing what your audience wants to see from your brand is the number one secret to succeeding with social media. 

    With this in mind, it is important that your video content strategy aligns with the content pillars of your business. You will also want to make sure that you choose the right video format for your video idea. 

    Instagram Stories are only 10 seconds long and, therefore, are best suited for short, snappy, instantaneous, and interactive videos. Meanwhile, IGTV videos can be a maximum of 60 minutes long and so would be best used for in-depth video content.

    From here, you will be able to develop a bank of content ideas for Instagram videos. 

    Here are some Instagram video ideas that you could adapt for your brand:

    • Teaser videos to promote your content, products and services
    • Explainer videos to provide followers with helpful and educational information
    • Behind-the-scenes videos to show your followers the less polished and more human side of your business
    • Q&A videos – either on Instagram Stories or Live
    • Account takeover videos to collaborate with other Instagram users, businesses or creators
    • Interview videos to share in-depth stories with your audience
    • User-generated videos to celebrate your community and build positive brand sentiment on social media
    • Talking head videos to show who you are and add a human-face and voice to your business

    This list doesn’t stop there. There are endless video ideas for Instagram so spend time to sit and curate a list of ideas that work for your business.

    Creating videos for Instagram

    You don’t need to rush out and spend thousands of pounds on fancy video production equipment. While working with a dedicated social media videographer will likely harness the best results for your business, it is also an incredibly niche and potentially expensive route to go down.

    If you are just getting started with creating videos for Instagram, you’ll be pleased to know that you can create amazing videos on the cheap.

    Video creation and editing doesn’t have to be complicated. Thanks to the rise of technology, there are many (free and paid) video editing tools on the market for you to choose from.

    At Fika Digital, we love the mobile video editing app InShot for creating Instagram videos that look incredible. This easy-to-use app is designed to be used to quickly edit videos on the go. This means you can easily choose your frame size and polish up your video content to make sure it’s optimised for Instagram before you hit post.

    If you want to create fun Boomerang videos for Instagram Stories then you can use the Boomerang from Instagram app. This app helps you to create captivating mini video gifs (boomerangs in Instagram-speak!) in just the tap of a button. You can then share your videos directly to Instagram, or you can save them for later.

    If you are an Apple-user then you are in luck. Apple users can use iMovie to seamlessly edit video content and produce high-quality videos. As it is a free video editing tool, iMovie is quite limited in it’s features. In which case, you may want to up the antics by opting for a paid video editing tool such as Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro.

    Adobe Premiere Pro is also available for Microsoft users, so the world of high quality video production isn’t limited to just Apple users. However, it can be expensive so you may first want to explore the free tools or make sure that it’s a cost that produces a positive ROI for your business.

    How to build an effective Instagram video marketing strategy

    Now that you know why you should create Instagram videos and how to do so effectively, it’s time to explore how to build an Instagram video marketing strategy.

    Although you can publish videos on a whim, you will be more likely to generate positive results from your Instagram videos if you plan them in advance. By analysing what performs well for your business and taking time to carefully curate your Instagram video marketing strategy, you will be able to create Instagram videos that attract, engage and convert your target audience.

    First, you need to determine what video content you want to create. Remember to refer to your content pillars when doing this. 

    You should also consider the following things when planning each individual video:

    • Who is this video intended for
    • What is the objective of the video
    • What action do you want people to take after they have watched the video
    • Can this video be repurposed for other marketing formats (e.g. blog article, email marketing, etc)
    • How does this video align with your wider marketing strategy

    Your answers to the above questions will help ensure that you are creating high-quality and purposeful content for your business. 

    Once you have planned, created, and posted your Instagram videos. You should also make sure that you are analysing the performance of your videos. This will help you determine what changes you need to make in the future to further improve your Instagram videos.

    Everything you need to know about creating videos for Instagram: In Summary

    As you can see, creating videos for Instagram doesn’t have to be scary, complex or costly. There are many ways that you cane easily and effectively work Instagram videos into your existing social media strategy.

    The changes coming into effect on Instagram also don’t mean that you have to wave goodbye to photo content forever. Many people have expressed their dismay at Instagram moving to a video-first model which means that even though Instagram may favour videos, its users will still want to see photo-based content. You just need to make sure that your Instagram content strategy includes a blend of both video and photo content.

    If you need help developing an Instagram-focused social media strategy for your business, get in touch to find out how our team can support you. We can help businesses create purposeful videos that align with their wider marketing strategies, resonate with their target audience, and deliver powerful results for their business.

  • Social Media Marketing

    How to develop a winning Instagram hashtag strategy

    Social media is powerful. It’s where we share photos of our favourite memories, connect with loved ones, and share memes with friends. It is also the place where you can grow your business, tell your story, and reach your ideal audience. With over 500 million daily active users, it can be hard to stand out on Instagram.

    But there are steps you can take to ensure your content shines on Instagram. By developing a winning Instagram hashtag strategy you can truly make sure that your business takes pride of place on the world-leading photo-based social media platform.

    While hashtags may no longer be the only thing Instagram uses to determine the relevancy of your content, they still hold a powerful place in your Instagram content strategy.

    Instagram hashtag strategy - photo of someone scrolling plant photos on Instagram

    So, let’s dive into the power of hashtags and how you can develop a winning Instagram hashtag strategy for your business…

    What are hashtags?

    A hashtag is a combination of letters, numbers, and/or emoji preceded by the # symbol. For example #marketing or #SmallBusinessOwner.

    On Instagram, hashtags are clickable.

    When you click on a hashtag (or when you use the Instagram search bar to search a hashtag) you will be taken to a page containing all the posts tagged with that hashtag.

    How to use hashtags on Instagram

    You can add up to 30 hashtags to an Instagram post. These can either be added to the end of your caption or in the comments of your post!

    Adding hashtags to your post will increase your reach by allowing your post to appear on the search page for each hashtag you have used.

    While it sounds simple, there is more to creating a winning hashtag strategy than just whacking a bunch of hashtags on the end of your caption.

    If you really want to make sure your Instagram posts are reaching your target audience then you need to develop a hashtag strategy.

    Here’s how you can do just that…

    How to create a hashtag strategy for Instagram

    Hashtags are a powerful way to expand your reach as a business. Through the use of hashtags, you can reach new people who could, in turn, become customers or clients.

    But how do you find the right hashtags to reach your ideal audience?

    At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I have nailed my hashtag strategy when it comes to helping my clients get in front of their ideal audience on Instagram.

    Here at Fika Digital, our process for creating a winning hashtag strategy for Instagram looks a something like this:

    1. Define your core content themes
    2. Gather a list of hashtags under each of those content themes
    3. Organise those hashtags by low, medium, high, very high, and viral search volumes
    4. Use and review performance
    5. Repeat this process every three – six months (you’ll be surprised how quickly hashtags change!)

    Define your core content themes

    The first thing I recommend you do is define your core content themes. There’s no point doing hashtag research if you don’t first know what it actually is you want to focus on.

    If you frequently post content to Instagram then you hopefully will already have your content themes mapped out. If not, don’t worry! That’s what we’re here for right now.

    Instagram hashtag strategy - table defining content themes and sub-topics

    To define your content themes, first consider what are the main topics that you discuss, or that both interest your audience and are relevant to your brand. These core content themes should be high-level topics that can be broken down into more specific topics.

    For example, the content themes for a company selling eco-friendly cleaning products may be cleaning, home, environment. These topics can then be further broken down into sub-topics or related keywords.

    Once you’ve got a keen understanding of your core content themes and sub-topics, you should then be able to begin your hashtag research.

    Gather a list of hashtags for your content themes

    Now that you’ve plotted out your content themes and related keywords, it is time to start developing hashtag banks for each of them. 

    When it comes to pulling together a list of hashtags, I find that manually doing the work is the best way forward. You could use a Hashtag app or website but by doing so, you run the risk of collecting irrelevant or outdated hashtags, as well as missing potential hidden gems.

    Instead, open up Instagram – you’ll want to choose to open Instagram on a desktop over your phone. Trust me, using the web app on desktop will be far easier… and your thumbs will appreciate the break from the constant tapping and scrolling!

    In the search bar at the top, begin typing your content themes and keywords with a hashtag (e.g. # + keyword). 

    For instance, if you identified one of your keywords to be Indoor Plants then you will want to enter #indoorplants. Before you press enter, a drop-down list of suggested hashtags will begin populating.

    Screenshot of how to search for hashtags using the Instagram search bar

    Click through this list of suggested hashtags to see what posts tend to perform best for each of the specified hashtags. If they look like they are relevant to you and your industry, make note of the hashtag and the number of posts (AKA the search volume). 

    Repeat this process for all of your identified keywords, remembering to also look at related hashtags in the drop-down list of suggested searches.

    Once you have done this, you can conduct further keyword research by looking at what hashtags other Instagram users in your industry use – you can do this by analysing the hashtags used by your competitors and by influencers in your niche, or by looking at posts for your chosen hashtags and seeing what other hashtags people are using. 

    Don’t forget to do your due-diligence everytime you find a hashtag by checking if it is relevant to your industry. 

    By the end of this task, you’ll want to have a long list of hashtags for each of your content themes. These hashtags should contain a mix of low volume hashtags that have only a small number of posts under them, and high volume hashtags featured by millions of posts.

    Organise your hashtags by search volume

    Wondering why I asked you to jot down the number of posts each hashtag has? Well, you’re in luck because this next step is all about those numbers!

    The number of posts each hashtag has is an indication of that hashtags popularity. The higher the number, the most often it is used. This suggests that these hashtags are also most likely to be searched, and seen, by other Instagram users interested in your chosen topics. 

    While going after the hashtag with the most posts next to it might seem desirable, this isn’t always the best course of action to take. Yes, it could get your post in front of 831,395,672 people. But it also reduces the longevity of when your post will be seen in the hashtag search results. 

    High volume hashtags have hundreds, if not thousands, of posts being published every single second. This reduces the chance of your post being seen, unless you’re lucky enough to land in the Top posts view.

    So, what should you do instead?

    If you’re someone like me, who finds joy in organising things, then you’ll enjoy this next step. 

    Before using your hashtags, you want to split them into five categories based on search volume: 

    • Low – less than 25K posts
    • Medium – 25K-150k posts
    • High – 151K-500K posts
    • Very high – 501K-999K posts
    • Viral- 1M+ posts

    This will help you easily see the popularity of each hashtag so that you know which hashtags to use for your next Instagram post.

    table of Instagram hashtag search volume split by popularity

    At Fika Digital, we have a shiny Hashtag Database that we use for our clients. This database is somewhat of a hashtag holy grail containing all possible keywords for all of our client industries, interests and topics. 

    To organise hashtags by search volume, I like to create a separate Google Sheets tab for each of my content themes. Then within each sheet, I have a table with columns split by search volume. Within each column, you’ll find the related hashtags, organised by search volume, for that content theme.

    Use your hashtags and review performance

    Now it’s time for the fun part! 

    You should now be ready to put all that research and hard work into action by using your hashtags on your next post.

    This is where organising your hashtags by content theme and popularity comes into the play. First, you want to navigate to the hashtag bank that best suits the post you are about to publish. For example, if you’re writing about your journey as a small business owner, you may want to choose hashtags under your “small business” content theme.

    You might find that more than one content theme, or category, relates to your planned post and that’s okay! You can choose a mix of hashtags from all of the content themes that relate to your post. But try not to dilute it too much or else your post may not be as effective. 

    As a general rule, try to stick to no more than two themes at any one time, and always keep in mind what you want the goal of your post to be. This will help you ensure relevancy and quality when publishing content to Instagram.

    When choosing which hashtags to use on your post, make sure you take a selection of hashtags from each volume bracket, ensuring you have a mix of different volume hashtags. When doing this, prioritise the low and medium volume hashtags and try to use more of these in your post. 

    Using a mix of different volume keywords will make sure your post appears on the really popular hashtags where lots of people may see your post but it’s more competitive, and less popular hashtags where fewer people will see your post but you have an increased chance of engagement.

    Instagram lets you use a maximum of 30 hashtags. Do not use more than 30 hashtags in any one post. To keep your posts looking neat and tidy, you can also add the hashtags as a comment on your post immediately after hitting publish, rather than including them in your caption.

    Once you’ve published a few posts using your new hashtag strategy, you will want to analyse your results! 

    If you have a Business or Creator account, you can take a look at your hashtag performance in the Post Insights on Instagram. Use this to determine which posts get the most impressions from hashtags.

    Spend time analysing these insights to find what works well for you, what needs improvement and then test/try again!

    Repeat this process every 3-6 months

    Social media is a fast-moving industry. As a result, new hashtags are constantly popping up and seemingly underground hashtags can rapidly grow in popularity. 

    This means that your hashtag bank could soon become outdated and you may find that hashtags that once worked for you are no longer harnessing the results you expect, or want to see. You will want to refresh your hashtag strategy every three – six months to make sure that you are using the best possible hashtags for your content. 

    When refreshing your hashtag strategy, you should also re-check the search volume for your existing hashtags so you can see whether any hashtags need to move to a different column based on their current popularity.

    Final thoughts on creating a winning Instagram hashtag strategy

    Hashtags aren’t the be all and end all of Instagram. With that said, there is a reason hashtags exist within Instagram’s interface… and it’s all to benefit you, the person posting!

    From extending your reach and helping your posts get in front of your ideal audience to helping Instagram’s algorithm to better categorise your account and improving your social SEO, the power of hashtags are not to be ignored. 

    You should now be ready to pull together a winning Instagram hashtag strategy for your business!

    Our team at Fika Digital are also here to help you further harness the powers of Instagram for your business. Whether you want help developing your hashtag strategy, or you’re looking for a specialist team to manage your social media strategy, we’ve got your back.

    Get in touch to book in a chat and learn about the various ways that we can support you and your business with social media.