Polly Barnfield shows how the Malthouse Collective uses Instagram hashtags to find the right customers. They pair industry and location tags with urgency copy like "limited stock" and a link in bio. An "Engage" group lets them automatically like and reshare supplier content, cutting the work of posting fresh material.
Chapters
Today we're looking at how hashtags can really drive reach and engagement from the right customers. The Malthouse Collective provides retail space for over 80 antiques dealers and craftspeople. Its Instagram page is an online treasure trove of furniture finds from years gone by. With each post loaded up with interior's relevant hashtags or the individual dealers mentioned and, or. And each post always creates some sense of urgency so that when they've physically driven people through the hashtags, they've then driven that sort of sense of urgency or fear of missing out due to the limited nature of stock. So they're driving people to actually purchase. So let's have a look. So what they're really good at doing is using relevant hashtags to drive more of the right people to their feet. So these people are going to be interested in decorative antiques. They're going to be in certain kinds of paint, shabby shape, so certain types of interior design. And then those people then come land on their feed by following, you know, they've followed any of these hashtags, they land on the feed and then it says, drop us a message for current stock, which makes it sound like there's not a huge amount of stock there and they're physically asking them to do something. So physically saying drop us a message. So you're much more likely to DM them. So I've arrived through a hashtag, never seen them before. Like what I see, think there might be not much stock of it and then I want to do something off the back of it. So anyone can do this. It's just about ensuring that you use industry place hashtag. So industry hashtags like the decorative accessories and decorative art use place hashtags. If you are in a specific place, whether it's Glasgow or whether it's Bristol, use whichever place hashtags you've got available, then also use other ones that you're your followers are likely to follow. So things like beauty is in the eye of the beholders. That might be something more about beauty, but equally it might be about interior design and. Or it might be about fashion. So you're more likely to attract people who are creative, at the very least to you. And then when they land on you, all you have to do is say, you know, limited stock available, or say, you know, last we left and that will create the urgency. And then make sure that you always say link in the bio or drop us a DM for to create that sort of action. Now, if I was the Malta House Collective, I would want to create a group of all of the brands that I stock so that I could engage with them and sort of, you know, support them. So what I would do is I would go to the maybe platform, I would go to Engagement Engage, and then I would look for groups. And then all I do is I add in all of my businesses, I would create my group, and then I just click on the individual group. And then what this does is all of their businesses that they support and all their brands all come up here. So this is all of their latest content on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. And so instead of me having to go and find new content to post about, I don't know, a new product that they've gotten or something that they're doing, all I have to do is like or comment. And I can take this and I can reshare it as well. There's so many different things you can do, but it means that you're supporting the brands that you've got in your store, and it means that you're not having to go and find content as well. Now, as always, please use the little blue button if you've got any questions. We love to help.
