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Using hashtags to market your freelance writing business is a great way to expand your reach to new customers. In fact, choosing the right hashtags is one of the fastest ways to get your brand in front of a whole new pool of customers (not to mention the easiest).
But, use the wrong hashtags, and you could find that you're spending a lot of time posting and not really growing at all.
Unfortunately, trying to find the right hashtags to use can take a lot of research and time. And let's face it, if you're trying to run a freelance writing business, the last think you want to waste a lot of time on is finding hashtags.
You need to be able to find the right hashtags quickly so you can get on with your business.
Introducing Flick.
A few weeks ago, one of the founders of Flick emailed me and asked me if I would be interested in testing out this new tool and give them my thoughts.
And, of course, being the tool-hoarder that I am, I agreed right away.
Free access to try out a new tool before it hits the public market? Yes please!
And boy, let me tell you, I got more than I bargained for.
Flick is more than just a hashtag finder.
I logged in using the information they sent to me, and I expected to see something fairly basic: type in a potential hashtag and see it return several recommended hashtags.
But it does so much more.
The advanced search allows you to filter out the best hashtags to market your freelance writing business.
What kind of filters?
Just about any kind you can think of:
Use it to find hashtags that get used most often, or less often…find hashtags that get above a certain number of likes, and more.
Once you link your Instagram account, you will be able to get even more suggestions tailored to your business.
Flick Makes Finding Related Keywords Easy
Freelance writing, as a keyword, can be really vague, right?
Some people searching for the term “freelance writing” are looking for tips on how to get into freelance writing, how much money they can make, or even how to find new client or where to find freelance writing jobs.
Others are looking to hire freelance writers and are wondering how to find a good writer, what types of questions they should ask, and how much they should expect to pay.
Likewise, finding related hashtags can be just as frustrating. When I use one of the other hashtag finders, I often find myself sifting through irrelevant hashtags that have nothing to do with my message or my post.
For example, if I want to use the hashtag #freelancewriter, other hashtag finders almost always pull up the hashtag #writingprompts. But I rarely post about writing prompts.
Flick takes care of this by creating avenues you can follow.
But instead of trying to explain this, let me show you what I mean:
As you can see, I typed in the hashtag #freelancewriting and Flick quickly returned 10 related hashtags, each one following a different path:
- #tipsforwriting
- #newpoets
- #writersoftheworld
- #readerscommunity
- #getyourcopy
- #writerslove
- #authormom
- #tipsforwriters
- #tipsforauthors
- #fictionwriting
Additionally, you'll notice up in the top-right corner of the screen, Flick will show some basic analytics for each hashtag.
But that still isn't all.
Zoom in on one of the suggested hashtags by right-clicking on the balloon.
This is where Flick really stands out from the rest of the hashtag finders. By right-clicking on any of the related hashtags, you can pull up another menu for each one:
Each hashtag will have 4 options:
- Remove it from the display (useful for when it doesn't quite match your meaning or purpose),
- Lock/Unlock it onto the display (useful if you want to make sure it stays with your search so you can't accidentally remove it),
- Open it in Instagram (exactly what it says: view the hashtag's explore feed on Instagram. This is useful if you want to judge the overall quality of the posts using that hashtag against what you're using it for), and
- Expand it.
Guess what Expand it does?
Boom.
That's right: it created a secondary search, complete with analytics, related to that particular hashtag.
And, once again, you could use the advanced search to pull up only the best hashtags to market your freelance writing business.
Rinse, lather, and repeat the process until you're happy with the hashtags on your list.
Once you're happy with your list of hashtags, it's time to export them.
Use the button at the top of the screen to export your list:
You can click on the tiny “x” over on the right to delete a hashtag from your list (in case you forgot to unselect it from the graph before clicking on export). And when you're ready, go ahead and click on
Copy the hashtags to your clipboard using the blue button, and you can then use them anywhere:
- Save them to your notes or text editor app so you can copy and use them over and over again,
- Save them to a spreadsheet so you can track their performance on Instagram over time,
- Head right over to Instagram (or your favorite scheduling tool) and use them on your next post, or
- Save them to your phone as keyboard replacements so you can enter them more easily on the app.
And don't worry, Flick has plenty of help available to you, including case studies and tutorials to help make sure you are able to find the best hashtags.
In fact, you can use this link and go check them out for yourself (and you'll even get 10% knocked off the price for your first month just for trying them out).
Using Flick has cut my Instagram time in half.
I know there are some people who spend hours and hours on Instagram. And I know all about the coaches who will tell you to spend 45 minutes a day or 60 minutes a day working on your Instagram channel to grow it. But you know what?
That advice is for people who are trying to work Instagram as the main focus of their business.
Instagram is not my focus. My focus is on my clients and this blog. So, no… I don't want to spend an hour or two working on growing my Instagram every day.
I want to work on my business.
And Flick let's me do that. Instead of spending 20-30 minutes a day just looking at hashtags, I'm spending a few minutes at the beginning of the week putting together my hashtag lists and saving them for my posts.
And, I gotta tell you, since using Flick, not only have I been posting more consistently (because I'm not losing so much time just trying to research hashtags) but I've also been growing more consistently on Instagram. In fact, I've gained 299 new followers since I started using Flick a few weeks ago.
While 299 followers might not seem like a big deal, when you're small on Instagram and not really focused on it because you have other priorities — it's huge.
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