5 Kinds of Hashtags for Woodshops, and How to Use Them

Using the right Instagram hashtags can help you extend your reach, engage your audience, boost your brand, and make the Instagram algorithm work for you. In order to get each of these benefits, however, you need to strategize. Only part of your audience is other woodworkers who you can trade ideas and advice with. The #woodworkingcommunity isn’t going to be buying your farmhouse table -- they can usually make their own! While woodworkers may find you when they search #woodworkersofinstagram, your customers looking to buy a decorative cutting board will not. This segment of your audience is your bread and butter -- or maybe sandpaper and woodglue? -- and they are the ones for whom you need to strategize to get them in front of your products. What circles do they run in? Where do they search for gifts? What hashtags do they follow? You probably won’t get a lot of web traffic from Johnny in Cincinnati from #woodworkersofinstagram, but you may have better luck with #customcuttingboards or #mothersdaygift! And it’s Johnny who is buying your cutting boards for his mom on Mother’s Day.

This is not just random chance, either! Posts with hashtags get more attention, at least 12% more engagement from users, than posts without hashtags. The hashtags help potential customers find you.

And so, you can see why you need a little strategy to get people’s eyes on your products and cash in your Paypal.

HOW HASHTAGS WORK ON INSTAGRAM

As you probably know, hashtags are a clickable phrase in an Instagram post. Hashtags are used to organize and sort posts to make searching for particular posts easier. Any word or phrase can be turned into a working hashtag, as long as it has the # placed in front of it. (Does anyone still call it the pound sign? It’s been rebranded -- it’s the hashtag now!) When users click on a hashtag, such as #woodworking, they’re taken to its discover feed, which shows all the public content attached to it. People will click on or search for hashtags that they’re interested in as a way of finding content on Instagram. Instagram Stories have a hashtag sticker, which lets you place working hashtags on your Stories. When users click, they’ll be taken to the hashtag’s feed, just like they would if they’d clicked on a hashtag on your post.

TYPES OF HASHTAGS ON INSTAGRAM

There are several types of hashtags, and so there’s a bit to consider when planning a hashtag strategy. Let’s start by sorting them into groups.

Location-based hashtags: This won’t apply to all woodworkers, but if you have products that would appeal to local audiences, use it to your advantage. Use #FloridaLife or even your city #ofallonmo. Do a bit of research into popular instagram accounts in your area and see what they use. For example, when Jeff at @upperleftworks posted his reclaimed wood wall art in the shape of Minneapolis, he used #minneapolis #minnesota and #minnesotalife hashtags. Don’t forget to consider regional terms, nicknames, or commonly used phrases specific to a location. The #newengland hashtag expands your audience to more than just Massachusetts or Maine. And #saltlife may not be a place name, but it evokes beaches, coasts, and the oceans or Gulf of Mexico, which may be useful if your product can withstand a deluge of sand! For your cutting board in the shape of Texas, you may include #lonestarstate in addition to #texas #texaslife and #dfw (Dallas-Fort Worth).

Try it out! Whether you live in a rural town an hour from the nearest city, you’re rocking that suburban life, or you are feeling the energy of downtown, the people near you want to know what is happening in their community. They want to show off their pride for their hometown or new home. This weekend, create a post with a few location-based hashtags that utilize your town/city name, state name, and maybe a nickname or phrase that the locals would instantly recognize. Reach out like you’re neighbors, because you are! Let them know that you have been here the whole time.

Below, Huy Huynh the @Alabamawoodworker and host of the Woodshop Life Podcast uses hashtags for his surrounding communities #huntsvillealabama and #madisonalabama.

Mass appeal hashtags: Mass appeal hashtags are general hashtags that can apply to almost any post. They’re frequently used, meaning they’re also frequently sought out. They can occasionally give your posts a significant bump in reach, putting them in front of established audiences. Examples of these include #instagood and #lovelife. Your list could include 2 or 3 of these if appropriate.

The current list of most popular Mass Appeal hashtags is below:

• #photooftheday
• #instagood
• #nofilter
• #tbt
• #igers
• #picoftheday
• #love
• #nature
• #swag
• #lifeisgood
• #caseofthemondays
• #instapic
• #instadaily
• #selfie
  

Try it out! Tomorrow, upload a pic of you enjoying or using something that you made in your shop, like the handmade bar you have on your patio. You're not just showing off your woodworking skills, you are sharing your #goodlife with thousands of other people, taking a #selfie to document your #love and #passion.

Niche hashtags: Here is where you might use a list of #woodworking #diy or #homedecor hashtags. I’ve attached a list at the end of the most popular in this group. These hashtags won’t get you the same reach as the mass appeal hashtags, but they’ll get you more relevant, specific, and targeted traffic. @puddlepiratesprojects will commonly add some combination of #veteran #uscg #veteranowned and #coastguard to reach his audience of fellow veterans who are looking to support one of their own. This is also where you would add brand hashtags of the tools or items you’ve used in your own products. @creevesmakes will add the #teamridgid, #mirka, #rocklerwoodworking hashtags depending who is featured in his posts.

Try it out! What makes your products stand out? Get specific about you, your shop, your brand, and your projects. Consider a few hashtags that may not get a wide audience, but would certainly reach a smaller and more dedicated audience. Next week, take some pictures of your projects and try to show them off to the people who would really appreciate them as an alum of #unc, as an avid lover of #skiing, as someone looking to use up their #maplewood scraps, or just someone looking for their next #diy project.

Below @thehouseoftimber not only uses appropriate #kansascity hashtags, but calls out her strength as a #scrollsawartist and #womeninbusiness, which may have led to this commission by another #womanownedbusiness @saltandpineco. 

Timely hashtags: Maybe you want to remind your followers that it’s OK to have a #caseofthemondays. Are you posting for #stateoftheshopsaturday, #followfriday or #memorialday? Timely hashtags can be related to a certain holiday, time of year, or even time of the day. Users love timely content and are likely to seek out holiday and seasonal content in particular. 

Try it out! Next Saturday, take a few snapshots of your woodshop before, during, and after a few projects, whether it’s for a client or just from your wife’s weekend warrior to-do list. Use the #stateoftheshopsaturday in your description, and maybe through in a #milwaukeetools or #dewalt or whatever tools you show off. Search through the hashtag and check out other people’s shops as well. Leave a comment on some that are looking worse for wear or not too shabby!

Below, Mike Coffey of @coffeycustombuilds and host of @anotherwoodshoppodcast, uses #stateoftheshopsaturday for a quick update on his current projects.

Trending hashtags: Hashtags go in and out of favor just like styles of clothing and slang (#yolo, am I right?). Sometimes trending hashtags are just really popular hashtags people are using at the time, which have surged in popularity for some reason. In many cases though, they’ll have more to do with current events. As we are all busy, this may be difficult to keep up with. And before you consider using a trending hashtag, make sure you know why it is trending, because it may not always be for good reasons. You don’t want to accidentally make a tone-deaf post because you misinterpreted the hashtag.

Entertaining hashtags: These won’t help you with reach, but they will serve to entertain your audience and help you to establish your brand. They’re meant purely to be funny or clever, and that’s it. Examples could include #somuchsanding and #sweepingsawdustfordays. Your customers want to know that you are a real person and not a corporate juggernaut that has to run every single post and hashtag by a team of lawyers. Have some fun!

Try it out! On your next post, include a funny or sarcastic hashtag that makes your posts feel more personable. Don’t think about it too much -- it’s easy to tell when something is forced. Be yourself and use your own brand of humor! If you use puns, that’s fine, but typically #wewontSANDforit! Okay, that was bad, but maybe using #badjokes or #sorry can be your form of an apology.

Below, @motleyandmyrtle use the #pirateslifeforme hashtag to accompany their pirate themed sign commission.  In previous posts, @motleyandmyrtle cleverly used the #plantsofinstagram hashtag to attract plant lovers to their handmade plant stands.

HASHTAG BEST PRACTICES

Overall, there are a few things to keep in mind when considering using hashtags in your posts. And you thought they were an afterthought, huh? These are those strategies that get Johnny from Cincinnati from looking at beautiful #nature posts to admiring the #naturalfinish on your project.

• List your branded hashtag on your profile.
• Feature any entertaining hashtags at the very beginning of your hashtag list, where they’re most likely to be read.
• Use a large number of hashtags. The limit is 30 hashtags per post. However, numerous case studies have found that somewhere between 8 to 11 hashtags for each post will be the sweet spot, especially if you diversify the types of hashtags.
• Switch up your hashtags. Don’t use the same hashtags on every post. Create groups of hashtags that you can cycle through for different posts. Save them in the note app on your phone. Then copy and paste when you make a post. Not only will this increase your visibility to different audiences, it can also keep your account from being flagged as spammy by Instagram.

WRAP UP

Hashtags aren’t a silver bullet that will add hundreds of followers right away. But over time, a solid hashtag strategy will allow your account to be discovered by locals, by future customers, by other woodworkers. If you’re going to go to all the work of creating a post and composing a catchy caption, why not take the extra 20 seconds to copy and paste your hashtags?

WOODWORKING NICHE HASHTAGS

After analyzing 66 million posts using Hashtags Manager for Instagram, we’ve developed the following list of woodworking niche hashtags. The list includes both the hashtag, and the number of posts found using that hashtag. Copy and paste the most appropriate ones to your hashtag lists

George Supply Company offers custom apparel and merchandise services, as well as business printing, signs and banners for the woodshop and woodworking industry.   See the full suite of options at GeorgeSupplyCo.com