Popular Hashtags Don't Work?

[BlueWorldComics]

Before we begin, on Instagram, is there a way to see which hashtags bring in the most traffic for you? Anyway...

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I think the title is straightforward enough... For more information, keep reading. My goal is to eventually make money from my work (I hope that doesn't make me sound greedy). I normally just post on Tapas and Webtoon, but people have talked me into making an Instagram and possibly even posting pages on Twitter. I see bigger creators like Shen and Sarah Anderson follow the "post your comic everywhere" model, and I heard in a podcast a couple years ago that everything is about leading peopl…

I post my comic directly on my Instagram account. Is using popular hashtags worth it? I noticed my stuff gets buried pretty quickly, so outside of a very brief window, I can't imagine them bringing in many views. Where as my work can stay at or near the top of less popular hashtags.

Stuff like webcomic, comic, and comicstrip (both singular and plural variations) are popular, but mandatory. But certain tags, like art, illustration, and drawing, not only bury my work, but also aren't necessarily accurate descriptions... Like, technically it's art, and they are drawings, but if you search through those hashtags you see very few comics, especially comics that look like mine... So on the off chance someone does have the desire to scroll all the way down to where my comic would be, chances are comics aren't what they are looking for.

In essence, the dilemma is - should I keep using those hashtags because the more the merrier, or can I forget about them and stick with hashtags that more accurately describe my comic?

[JRHoch]

Same here on the tags!

[VibrantFox]

the thing about instagram is there's a lot of tags and the best you can do is try to use as many as you feel are relevant.

in terms of insights you'll have to make your account a creator or business page (creator being the simpler one but still providing insights about posts)

hashtags are very much trial and error and a lot are very saturated, like comics and webcomics. The best bet is to continue using those tags but also finding other smaller tags (usually you can see the number of posts associated with a certain tag as you enter them) and see which ones do well.

Chances of showing up on an explore page or in some list under those hashtags can vary drastically so using a bunch is kind of the way to go

[GabiWolf]

I would suggest looking up YouTube videos about how to best utilize Instagram, their algorithm changes constantly.

Do not rely solely on popular tags. Use three to four “popular “ tags and then mix it up with less used tags, so you don’t get buried so fast. Also the Instagram algorithm doesn’t like it when you repeatedly use the same hashtag, it will think you are a spammer and push down your post faster. So if you use #webcomic on every daily post Insta will think you are a bot. People say use a mix list and alternate between tags. Also make sure your Instagram is a business account. Once you hit 100 followers your business account will break down things like audience demographics, location and even the time most of your followers are on Instagram.

Good luck, I have been trying to build a following too!

[nostalgicroxas]

the thing about instagram is there's a lot of tags and the best you can do is try to use as many as you feel are relevant.

in terms of insights you'll have to make your account a creator or business page (creator being the simpler one but still providing insights about posts)

How do you set up your insta to be a Creator?

[VibrantFox]

in the profile settings if i'm not mistaken. i mainly use on mobile but if you open up settings or edit profile it should have the "switch to creator/business profile" option; then you can go through the steps of entering the info they ask for like what your content focus/business type is, contact info and so on. Afterwards it's just toggling what you do or don't want shown on your page

[nostalgicroxas]

They must've moved it cause I can't find it. I tried googling it and the guide that popped up seems outdated too. There's no "account" option or a switch to creator/business profile. I checked on PC and mobile

[VibrantFox]

just checked it for mobile and you should be able to do it by going to your profile page, open the side menu and hit settings, go to account and then tap switch to business.

the switch to creator option had shown up under edit profile on mobile too i though but maybe i'm remembering wrong

but for desktop it doesn't look like it's there so i think you gotta do it over the app

[BlueWorldComics]

Also the Instagram algorithm doesn’t like it when you repeatedly use the same hashtag, it will think you are a spammer and push down your post faster.

That is horrible news. I've been using the same hashtags since I started posting.

I guess I'll watch those youtube videos. Good luck to you, too.