10/10/10 Hashtag Strategy

Credit: Josh Fechter, BAMF Bible

Josh Fechter, founder of the wildly popular growth hacking group Badass Marketers and Founders, says your goal with hashtags should be to reach the Explore page. That’s how you bring in hundreds, if not thousands, of new likes and followers from a single post.

Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, and Fechter recommends using all of them in order to maximize your chance of hitting the Explore Page.

Specifically, you should use them in the following way.

  • 10 Smaller Hashtags (10,000 to 50,000 total posts)
  • 10 Mid-size Hashtags (50,000 to 200,000 total posts)
  • 10 Large Hashtags (200,000 – 2,000,000 total posts)

He says, “If you use this method with the right content and get a little lucky, you can scale up. You’ll get a handful of likes from being on the top posts of the smaller hashtags and a few more from the mid-size ones until you have so much engagement that the algorithm decides to try you out on the Explore page.”

To find the best hashtags, use these methods:

  • Display Purposes – a site for mining hashtags
  • Find influencers in your niche that have hit the Explore page and note their hashtags
  • Find one hashtag you like, search for it on Instagram, and then check out the “related hashtags” underneath
  • Look up your competitors and see what they’re using

Finally, remember to always rotate hashtags. Save a few lists of 30 hashtags as notes on your phone so you can keep them fresh and avoid penalties IG may be dishing out.