Hashtags organically expose your content to a massive audience interested in the same areas of fitness that you are! But where do you begin?!
The go-to strategy for most Instagrammers is to instantly target the enormous & highly competitive hashtags. These hashtags have an excess of of 300 million posts! Some of these highly competitive hashtags include #Fitness (325+ million posts), #Fit (135+ million posts), #Gym (160+ million posts) & #Workout (135+ million posts). While these hashtags are great for a very short-term boost, they’re not a key component for your long-term Instagram growth. Instead of fully relying on them to tag your content, they should be used as supplements to more targeted & niche hashtags.
Content Overload
The number 1 goal for hashtags is to properly categorize your content. This allows your content to reach new a new audience of instagrammers that were not yet following you. But in order for your content to be found, it needs to stick around in the Hashtag Results Pages (HRPs). The frequency of content that is posted on enormous Instagram hashtags (such as #Fit & #Gym) come in upwards of 100 posts per second. You’re riding a very short wave by relying on these hashtags to promote your content in the HRPs.
Let’s take #Fitness for example. With over 325 million posts, the average photo or video will only last for several seconds in the HRPs recent posts tab. By making your hashtags more niche & specific, you’re going to attract a much more targeted audience for a longer period of time! We like to call that a win-win!
Niche hashtags are key
It’s time to get specific! Let’s take the root hashtag #Fitness and break it down into more efficient & less competitive hashtags. This can be done by appending relevant words & short phrases to the root hashtag.
- #FitnessBuddy (30k posts) – Working out with a friend? Try this low competition hashtag!
- #FitnessIsLife (270k posts) – Reach an audience that’s serious about her/his fitness journey.
- #FitnessTime (450k posts) – A great hashtag to use for your pre-workout photos.
- #FitnessTransformation (770k posts) – There’s nothing more motivating than before-and-after photos!
- #FitnessLove (980k posts) – Expose your content to an audience that loves Fitness, just like you!
Now let’s use #Gym as the root to get some Instagram-friendly gym hashtags.
- #GymPic (93k posts) – You just crushed your workout. Tag the post-gym mirror photo with this medium competition hashtag.
- #GymVideos (305k posts) – Share your videos with fitness enthusiasts who are looking to consume something more than just photos.
- #GymGrind (360k posts) – A great hashtag for your mid-workout gym photo.
- #GymDay (570k posts) – It’s that day of the week we all know and love!
- #GymHumor (625k posts) – Because who doesn’t appreciate a good gym meme? Find an audience looking for a post-workout laugh!
As seen from the above lists, breaking down two behemoth hashtags like #Fitness and #Gym into less competitive niche hashtags can attract a much more targeted audience to your fitness content. Targeted audiences are more likely to engage with your content by liking & commenting. On top of the audience & engagement benefit from using targeted fitness hashtags, your content will live longer in the HRPs than from using the enormous ones like #Fitness and #Gym!
One more huge benefit for using niche fitness hashtags in 2020!
In 2018, Instagram publicly rolled out a feature to allow users to follow a hashtag. This behaves similar to following an account. If a user follows the hashtag #BodybuildingInspiration, their feed page will display posts that are receiving good engagement under that hashtag. Users are more likely to follow niche hashtags to keep their post feed clean & relevant to their specific interests. This gives content creators a new opportunity for their fitness photos & videos to be seen in 2020!
A few tips to keep in mind
- When creating your bank of targeted niche fitness hashtags, make sure you avoid typos! A typo’d hashtag is a waste of valuable reach.
- Search the hashtag before using it in your content. Confirm that relevant & appropriate content is being posted under that hashtag.
- It’s okay to mix in the big hashtags! Enormous hashtags like #Fitness, #Yoga and #Gym are great supplements for the more niche & lesser competition hashtags.
Creating your bank of targeted & niche fitness hashtags does take time; but as important as hashtags are to your organic Instagram growth, it’s time well spent. If you’re in a bit of a time crunch, check out Fitness Hashtags App on the App Store. It allows you to effortlessly create a bank of hand-picked & highly targeted hashtags from 18 fitness-related categories. Just tap the hashtags you want to use, press the copy button, and paste right into Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or Pinterest! Now go out there and start tagging! 🙂
