The Right Way To Use Local Hashtags

FREE GUIDE: HOW TO GROW YOUR LOCAL INSTAGRAM FOLLOWING

In today's video you'll learn:

• The two things local hashtags can do for your business
• Why being generic is attracting the wrong people
• How to take massive action to gain free visibility

Using local hashtags on Instagram can do two things for you:

• Get your business discovered locally
• Help you find your local customers

DON'T BE TOO GENERIC

As local business owner hashtags are going to be one of the main ways for you to get discovered locally on Instagram, so we DO NOT want to be generic with our hashtags.

Here's why:

Let's say you're a hair stylist in my city Baton Rouge. If you're using #hairstylist on your posts - you're attracting people aaaaalll over the world. We don't want people all over the world. We want customers who live right down the road from us.

Instead of using broad industry-focused hashtags on your instagram posts, use local-focused hashtags.

For me here in Baton Rouge, that means hashtags like #batonrouge #225batonrouge #thatlacommunity #geauxbatonrouge - that way it's very likely it's LOCAL people using and browsing on those hashtags.

If you want to take it a step further, it's possible there are local industry-focused hashtags. For example, if you're a hairstylist, you could use #batonrougehairsalon or #batonrougehairstylist

TAKE MASSIVE ACTION WITH HASHTAGS

Use local hashtags not only as a way to get discovered, but as a way to go out and FIND and interact with potential local customers.

How do you do that?

This is ALL broken down in my free Instagram guide, but you'll basically engage with accounts that use local hashtags.

Let's use #batonrouge as our example.

You can browse recent photos with #batonrouge - and at that point you can start liking and commenting on people's photos.

The goal is they see you engaging with them, they click on your name and come back and view your instagram feed. At that point, they decide if you're a local business that's for them. 

I recommend spending about 10 minutes a day engaging on Instagram like this.

It's a free way to go out and literally get your name in front of people by liking or commenting on their posts.

It's free visibility.

A FEW WORDS OF CAUTION:

First, make sure the photos you're engaging with are actually potential customers. Meaning, the accounts you're engaging with fit the description of who your target customer is.

If you're a women's boutique owner, you probably don't need to spend your time engaging on men's accounts. They're not your target. So take some time to slow down and see if the person is who you're selling to.

Remember we are NEVER going for numbers on Instagram. We don't care about follower counts. We care about the numbers in our bank account. So having a bunch of random followers on Instagram is not going to get you more sales or clients. We want to be engaging with local people who would actually be interested in our business.

My second warning is don't be creepy. Your engagement should be real and authentic. Don't try to spam people with likes or comments. Don't try to sell in your comments or ask for a follow. And definitely don't pop into their DMs trying to sell them.

Be genuinely engaged with them, and they get to decide to make the next move to follow you.

KEEP WATCHING:

If you liked this video, you might like last week's video where I covered three ways to easily upgrade your Instagram live cover image. Watch it here!

FREE GUIDE:

Learn how to grow your local Instagram following with my free guide. Get all four strategies right to your inbox.