 So why is it that I don't use hashtags on Instagram? This is a common question from some of you who are taking this course. And I also don't use hashtags on Facebook either. Well, the answer for Facebook is easier. Facebook hashtags basically don't work. So like if you've ever tried it, people like use hashtags on Facebook mindlessly. They just put like 30 hashtags or even three, whatever. Facebook hashtags on LinkedIn works better because I've actually tested this and obviously on Twitter because that's where hashtags really came from originally. Facebook, it's useless. Come on, have you all actually tested this? Please, please comment below. If you've actually done tests, the same post, you know, posted, let's just say a one week apart, one has a hashtag, one doesn't. And tell me if you're actually reaching more of the right people, the right people. And number one, you're probably not barely even reaching more people. Is it really worth looking spammy? Your hashtags look spammy. Did you know that? I mean, to me it does. I know, not to everyone, some people don't think hashtags look spammy. It looks spammy to me and to others also, it's like, I don't know, especially if you put like more than one or two or maybe three. Anyway, so I think hashtags on Facebook are kind of a, it's a, yeah, anyway, I don't recommend it. I think it's useless. But on Instagram, hashtags do reach more people barely. In my testing, it reaches, I don't know, a few more to a few dozen more people. And to me, that's not worthwhile because why I know how to use Instagram ads. I spend $5, okay. You are working hard to put your 30 hashtags in to your first comment and you reach, whoa, you reach a hundred new people, all right? You think that's really great. You spend all that time putting those 30 hashtags in, okay, you copy and paste it, whatever. Guess what I do? I spend $5 to boost a post and I've reached 500 people. And it took me less time and I looked less spammy than you. Who won? That's not a competition, but yes it is. It's the competition of your time and of your reputation. Do you wanna use a bunch of hashtags? Most of the big influencers out there are the people who use Instagram really expertly. Most, I mean, according to studies, they use upwards of three hashtags, that's it. They don't use 30 hashtags like many of you do. Come on, what the heck are you doing? Okay, number one, it's a waste of your time compared to ads, $5, $1. If you spend $1 on Instagram posts, you reach a hundred targeted people. Instead of your 30 hashtags, and it looks spammy. Okay, all right, number one, ads are a much better use of your time. Number two, are you even reaching the right people with your hashtags? How do you know? That's the question. How do you know if you're reaching the right people? With ads testing, with when I, if those of you wanna take my Facebook ads class, I walk you through how to do ads testing, meaning testing the audience. With Instagram ads testing, it's very obvious because they give you a separate link. This is getting into a bit of an inside baseball here, but just let you know what's possible. When you run ads on Instagram, okay? They tell you specifically who liked your ad. It's very clearly, it's a very clearly separate. With Facebook ads testing, it's a little bit more tracking. I teach that as well, but you can still tell. With Instagram, it's very obvious to you who liked your post organically without ads and who liked your post with ads, they separate. They separate the two, okay? And so you can clearly see with your ads, are you reaching the right audience? Tell me, if you're using Instagram ads, how do you know which of the likers came from your hashtags? How do you know? You don't. Which of the likers came from your existing followers to where are you gonna check everyone? I mean, you could say, well, George, I know all of my followers. Well, then you still have enough, you still have a small enough audience. That might be true. But once you keep growing your audience, are you gonna check every, are you gonna memorize all your followers and go, well, I know Moitza and Samya, they liked it, they're my followers. I know them, but eventually you're gonna have, you're gonna have, you know, Lisa and Mona, like your posts, you're gonna, are they my existing followers or are they from the hashtags? How do you know? So if you're using hashtags and you don't know if you're reaching the right people, then again, what you're doing is you're growing a warm audience that may be questionable, which damages your algorithm, okay? You could, you could do hashtag happy all day long, hashtag love, hashtag girl boss, hashtag, you know, whatever popular hashtags, you can reach lots of people, the wrong people, people who are going to, you know, like your easy, easy to like posts that are not very, you know, filtered down to your offers. And then once you start posting your offers and things that are more specific to your ideal clients, your algorithm is messed up because your warm audience don't care about that stuff. Anyway, this is a whole education that you need to understand for how the Instagram algorithm works. If you're interested, you know, you can learn with me if you want to in my Instagram class, my Facebook ads class, or you can just go to YouTube and search how to learn Instagram algorithm, all that stuff. But that's my long answer to that short question. And thank you for asking about Instagram hashtags. I hope this is helpful. One more thing, in my Instagram class, I do talk about how every hashtag on Instagram is like a community of people. So in a sense, you can kind of tell who you're reaching by going to the hashtag itself, the hashtag community itself, the hashtag page and seeing who is, who else is posting on that hat using the hashtag. It gives you a sense of that because people using the hashtag might also be following it, but there are also people following the hashtag who don't post there. And again, I'm just always nervous. But main point is that it's just a waste of energy. Why don't you just use one dollar? Just use one dollar. For every post, just use one dollar to reach a hundred of the right people. Two or three dollars if you possibly can afford it. Five dollars if you can afford it to reach hundreds more people of the right people. So hope this helps.