How to organize hashtags with a bullet journal

A bujo spread to organize hashtags

Not too long ago, I went to a blogger and media event on the rooftop bar of Portland’s Altabira. Every single person I met—every. dang. one!—asked me what my Instagram handle was. And every time I had to reply I *cough, cough* didn’t use Instagram. (GASP!) Later that night, I signed up, which is to say I’m an Instagram noob. (Say hi over here on Instagram!) I knew I had to up my hashtag game—so I had to figure out a way to organize those #s. My first system sucked (as you can see below). Then I worked out a way to organize hashtags with a bullet journal.

Boom.

Why organize Instagram hashtags?

Remember that crummy “system” I used to organize hashtags? Well, turns out that making a list in a bullet journal doesn’t count as a system after all.

When I went to post on Instagram and Twitter, I found myself using the same few hashtags that came to mind. And—no surprise—I was getting very little notice on social media outside the folks who already knew me.

I was having a hard time finding a variety of hashtags to use in my social media posts—largely because I hadn’t organized them.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had to reorganize a beast of a list for my blog. A while back I used my bullet journal to organize blog posts, and it has made such a difference in how productive I am. So I’m not sure why I didn’t just start with a snappy bujo spread! Oh well, better late than never.

How to organize hashtags with a bullet journal

So one day recently I decided to revamp my system to organize hashtags for my blog.

First, I figured out a small handful of categories of hashtags—things I often post about. For my blog and social media accounts, I picked these four categories:

• Littles + Family
• Outdoors
• Lifestyle
• Ambitchious (which is really my new favorite non-word to describe a go-get-’em attitude in blogging, entrepreneurship, and being a boss overall)

Second, I set up a bullet journal spread to organize the hashtags. I knew I had four categories so I separated the page into four columns.

Next, took a photo of my old, sad list of hashtags. Then I flipped forward to my brand-new bujo spread and copied them into the appropriate columns.

Finally, I did a bit of research. I scrolled through Instagram and looked closely at social media posts relevant to my blog from people I respect and admire. The exercise gave me new ideas of hashtags to use in my own social media posts, which I of course tallied into my Instagram hashtag organization bullet journal spread.

That’s it!

A bujo work in progress

As I continue to use Instagram, I’ll not only post on pictures that inspire me and keep up with blogging friends; I’ll also read all those hashtags. Carefully.

There’s a lot I can learn from others on social media, including how to use hashtags. But I could soak up all the hashtags in the Insta-verse and still draw a blank when it came time to post my own pictures—unless I am organized.

That’s why as I hang out on Instagram, I’ll continue to record hashtags into my bullet journal spread. It’s a practical organization system, and it doesn’t hurt that the bujo spread is pretty to boot. I’m excited to learn more about Instagram—I’d love for you to follow along, too!

Do you have a way to organize hashtags? Please share below—I’d love to hear from you!

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PS – If you want more on bullet journaling for bloggers, check out my post on using a bujo spread to plan out future blog posts!