The power of #hashtags

Dear Credit Unions,

How is it that I’ve been working in social media for eight years and (until six months ago) never knew about you? How is it that I’m just NOW drinking the Credit Union Kool-Aid? 

A financial institution that’s owned by it’s members and gives back to the very community it serves? A hyper local ‘bank’ that isn’t a giant corporation? And I can deposit checks electronically? Your Kool-Aid is delicious.

Because I’m a librarian’s daughter, the value of EMPOWERING PEOPLE WITH INFORMATION is built into my DNA (I grew up in the 70s, so Wonder Woman is also in there). While there are many social media platforms and each platform has it’s own best practices, I recommend Credit Unions choose two platforms and go deep. 

WHY INSTAGRAM?

Being on social media is not negotiable in terms of marketing. And because Credit Unions should be reaching folks 35-years and under–in particular–Instagram should be one of the two platforms you choose. Though Facebook has a higher total number of users, Instagram users skew younger than Facebook users.

WHY HASHTAGS?

There are many ways to align your organic Instagram content with the algorithm that ultimately decides how many followers to serve your content. You should, for example, always add a location to your posts. But in this column I’d like to share much of what I know about one best practice on Instagram: consistently using hashtags. 

HOW MANY HASHTAGS SHOULD I USE?

Instagram limits you to 30 hashtags. Based on engagement research, however, there is little to no indication that Instagram’s algorithm punishes posts with a lot of hashtags. So–especially if you have a newer account–more hashtags are particularly useful. I’ve used thirty hashtags and had not-so-great engagement and I’ve used ten and had amazing engagement. I recommend playing with different hashtags and watching your results from the ‘Insights’ page of your Instagram business account.

IS IT BETTER TO CREATE UNIQUE HASHTAGS OR USE EXISTING ONES?

Creating your own hashtag is just one marketing tool among many I recommend. Hashtags unique to your Credit Union can do the following:

• Serve as a way to cull/recall a group of posts. It’s a way to see a BUNCH of your calling cards over time on a particular subject. 
• Unique hashtags are also very useful for CONVEYING YOUR BRAND’S WHY to consumers. Think of a unique hashtag as a headline on your company’s website. Because that’s what it is the equivalent of on Instagram. It’s a way to EXPLAIN YOUR WHY.
• Unique hashtags can also be used to #connectwithyourcustomers. Let’s say you’re running a promotion and one of the contest requirements is to RE-POST A UNIQUE HASHTAG with a statement/thought about the hashtag. Now you are ENGAGING with your tribe, deepening their connection to your Credit Union.

OK. BUT WHICH HASHTAGS SHOULD I USE?

No matter the total number of hashtags or the uniqueness of the hashtags you use, I recommend the rule of thirds when choosing them: pick some VERY popular hashtags (ones with over 1 million posts) some MEDIUM popular hashtags (100-500k posts) and some very SPECIFIC hashtags related to your post and brand. I use www.metahashtags.com to determine and to get ideas for related hashtags.

For the specific hashtags I recommend picking ones that are true to your Credit Union’s brand or hashtags that might be followed by your customers. These will vary for every company but in Massachusetts, many Instagram users follow hyper local geographic hashtags, so I use those for my Credit Union clients. Again, you’ll need to experiment and monitoring results from the INSIGHTS page of your Instagram business account.

WHERE DO I PLACE HASHTAGS?

For Instagram Posts, put them in a post comment. For Instagram Stories, use one hashtag on each story.

I CAN USE THE SAME HASHTAGS ALL THE TIME, RIGHT?

You can, but I don’t recommend it. If you don’t have time to deep dive, posting the same hashtags is fine as long as your CONTENT IS FANTASTIC (having FANTASTIC CONTENT is way more important than which hashtags you choose). Imagine hashtags are seeds in Johnny Appleseed’s sack: the more you sprinkle them around, the more likely people are to find your content. 

GO FOR IT!

Okay, that’s it! That’s everything hashtag you need to know! I hope you feel totally empowered to start using Instagram Hashtags.