I cringe when I see people 1) ask for more followers and 2) say use 30 hashtags. You want Quality followers not just followers. You want people who are going to become clients or give your business as a referral.

This whole concept of using 30 hashtags has been overdone!  The reasons you shouldn’t be using too many hashtags is quite simple:  1) They can make it difficult to follow the conversation it is supposed to influence and can disrupt the engagement you are trying to facilitate with your fans. 2) Too many hashtags will make your business look annoying and/or spammy.

It is important to give your hashtags some thought. The hashtag is supposed to be a tool to enhance your social strategy and give your fans a way to talk to you and other fans about interesting topics you are providing.  Here’s the myth going around: We’ve all been told that the more hashtags we use, the more likes and comments we’ll get.

But guess what? That’s not true. The use of hashtags is key, but using relevant hashtags is far more important. The goal is to get your content discovered by the RIGHT audience on each platform you are using and not simply to get a like. We obsess over the number of likes a post gets but trust me, there are more important things you can do if you’re trying to grow a profitable business.  I also like to point out that Instagram is getting rid of the “like” very soon. You will not be able to know just how many “likes” you are getting so you can focus on your actual content you are posting instead.

Also, you can no longer just copy and paste the exact same list of Instagram hashtags into every single post and call it a day. In fact, doing so might be seen as spam by the Instagram algorithm and could affect your post’s visibility. This is called shadow banning. Which is why the new rules for Instagram hashtags include switching up your hashtags for each post. If you keep using the same ones over as over, you will start to see how much less engagement your posts will be receiving.  The same could probably be said for Twitter and Facebook. Although I am still testing that out as I type this.

In short, no matter the platform you are using, take to heart that the amount of hashtags have NOTHING to do with your numbers and have everything to do with authentic engagement.  It does not matter if you use 5 or 30, what matters is what hashtags you are using.   The rules are changing and it’s time we all change with it too.