#5 Step Up Your Hashtag Game!
Sweatshirt mockup of a woman taking a selfie at a coffee shop
Your social media content may be amazing, but if you are not using the right hashtags, it will be left unseen, and we sure don’t want all of our efforts to go to waste for poor exposure. This is why you need to step up your hashtag game is #5 on our list of 100 tips to promote your t-shirt designs!
Unlike Twitter or Facebook, whose users have grown tired of adding and searching through hashtags, the Instagram community tends to respond better to them, so we will focus on that channel. Instagram lets you add up to 30 tags to each post. Use them wisely! Just because you are allowed up to 30 tags doesn’t mean you have to use them all. Adding tags that aren’t related to your post can make it appear as spam.
The easiest way to find relevant hashtags with volume is by manually searching straight from Instagram, like this:
- Open Instagram > Click the Search icon > Tags
- Type your keyword. You will be given tons of related suggestions including how many posts have that tag.
- Click on the tag to see what type of images these include, make sure the results match your post, or relate to it.
- Repeat. You will be given even more related tags above so you can discover more hashtag options.
Make a list of 10-15 baseline tags that are niche-specific, these are related to your t-shirt brand and product, then add between 5-10 tags about what’s on each post or item; so for example, an industry tag would be: #tshirtdesigns and if you are promoting a tee about cats then add: #cattshirts.
Another way to find relevant tags is by searching online, these tools can be of great help for finding your niche-specific hashtags:
- Hashtagify – free tool that lets you add a keyword and browse related tags, it even gives you recent media and all-time influencers for each tag. By signing up you get access to usage patterns and for $59/month you get access to Instagram Tracking, which lets you track likes and posts for 2 hashtags.
- Display Purposes – if you are looking for a tool that makes a selection of tags on its own? Display Purposes is it. Just type your keywords and you will be given lots of options (it is preset to give 30 tags due to Instagram’s requirement). A great thing about this free tool is that it shows each suggestion’s relevance towards the word you typed and it also shows popularity. Another great thing about this tool is that it strikes through spammy or overused tags.
- Hashtags.org – another great tool that offers lots of insight on its free option. You get to see estimated tweets per hour, recent tweets and media with the hashtag and top 5 related tags. For $49/month you unlock more related tags, get hashtag tracking and access reports.
Have you tried any of these tools? Do you already have a set of hashtags that works for your t-shirt brand? Let us know in the comments if this t-shirt promotion idea worked for you!