Everything You Need To Know About Instagram Hashtags

 

Instagram hashtags could break or make your Instagram strategy. Utilize it and a profanity filter service in the proper form, and you can win it through viewing your posts by more audiences who like your brand or products.

But using the wrong hashtags to your content, Instagram’s algorithm would penalize you by stopping potential followers to your posts. For utilizing the Instagram hashtags properly, you want to know how they are working exactly and add some ideas into the hashtag strategy. You are in the exact place to bring that, and let’s jump in.

Instagram Hashtags

Hashtags are the combination of emoji, letters, or/and numbers preceded by the ‘#’ term. They’re used to make your post more discoverable and to categorize the content.

Also, they are clickable. If anyone does hashtag research or clicks on a hashtag, the platform would get a page showcasing every post tagged with the specific hashtag.

Hashtags are a powerful way to build the audience count on Instagram and acquire high reach. If you add a hashtag to your post, it appears on that specific hashtag’s page. If you add a hashtag to your Instagram story content, it’s added to the relevant story hashtag, which also showcases on the page of that specific hashtag.

Like following the people, users on the platform also follow the hashtags. It means they can get every post with that specific hashtag, even from non-followers. Instagram hashtags are the perfect path to build the community online, so audiences are encouraged to interact with your business. 

Top Used Instagram Hashtags

Here are a few top used Instagram hashtags: #love, #fashion, #instagood, #art, #beautiful, #happy, #cute, #food, #nature, #followme.

Don’t forget that the top used Instagram hashtags are not most effective in bringing more engagements for your brand posts. Because top used hashtags have vast posts from massive users, that your post may miss out in the vast crowd. A study declares that it’s more effective if you use a hashtag combined with your niche and viral hashtags to gain automatic likes for Instagram quickly and more potential audiences.

Instagram Hashtags types

The platform divides the hashtags into nine various types:

Service or product hashtags: It’s the primary and straightforward keywords to tell your service or product, like #teacup or #keychain.

Niche hashtags: These are the specific ones, showcases your brand context or personality, like #foodblogger or #travelblogger.

Community hashtags: There are various industries and communities on the platform, and these hashtags exactly help you join them, like #craftersofinstagram or #cookofinstagram.

Seasonal or special event hashtags refer to the actual seasons like #winterdays or holidays like #nationaltigerday or #nationalburgerday.

Location Hashtags: It’s a better move to add a hashtag to the posts with your location, like #londonswims or #goabeer.

Daily hashtags: There are various hashtags discovered every single day, from #mondaylife to #sundayfun. You can use it for your Instagram posts with the combination of your mood and day.

Relevant hashtags: It combines community hashtags, niche hashtags, and product hashtags. Generally, they are the phrases audience utilizes to join the existing community, like #shewhowanders.

Emoji hashtags: It contains the emojis in the hashtags, like #???, or phrases or words combined with emojis, like #coolers???.

Acronym hashtags: The perfect acronym hashtag is the throwback hashtag #TBT. A few acronym hashtags are flashback Friday #FBF, and you only live once #YOLO, and outfit of the day #OOTD.

Branded hashtags: It’s a good one for every business on the platform. Use your brand or business name directly after ‘#,’ and it’s known as branded hashtags.

Number Of Hashtags To Utilize On Instagram

You could add nearly 30 hashtags to your standard Instagram post and almost ten hashtags to your Instagram stories. If you add more hashtags, then your caption or comment won’t upload.

Though you could use many hashtags in your post, it’s not like you should add every 30 hashtags. And also, there is no right count of hashtags for any business. But starting with 12 hashtags is a good move for everyone. They should be relevant to your content, branded ones, and trending hashtags. 

Test posting with different hashtag counts to find out which one is working best.

Hide Instagram Hashtags

When you bring out a perfect caption, you do not need to hide them via providing hashtags. Generally, there are two types of simple ways to bring your hashtags low visibility. 

     Hide Hashtags In Comment Section

• Bring out your captions but don’t add any hashtags.
• Tap the speech bubble symbol below your post once you have uploaded it to comment.
• Paste or write the hashtags you need to add in the post’s comment and click ‘Post.’
• These hashtags won’t display unless any user clicks “view all comments” on mobile devices. But your comment displays as the top comment on desktop, so this technique is beneficial if you are looking for a mobile audience.

     Hide Hashtags In Caption Section

Also, you could add hashtags within your caption; follow the steps:

• Click Enter or Return at your caption’s bottom. Click on 123 to see if the Enter or Return option didn’t acquire.
• Put a punctuation symbol, then click Return again.
• Repeat the process at least four times.
• The network hides Instagram captions after the three lines. Thus your fans can’t get your hashtags unless they click More. 

      Hide Instagram Story Captions

You could hide every hashtag on Instagram stories also. One of the options is to make the hashtag sticker so small to a tiny sticker. Also, you can click on the hashtag to change its color options. If you don’t want the hashtag sticker on your story post screen, then you can hide them by pasting a sticker, GIF, or emoji over it. 

Get Trending Instagram Hashtags

Unlike Twitter, Instagram won’t show trending hashtag lists. And also, if you look for an Instagram hashtag, you would get the post counts that use specific hashtags. You can get other popular hashtags on the platform with similar words included with post counts.

To search a hashtag, type the hashtag preceding the ‘#’ symbol in the search section. Enter the keyword into the search bar and click Tags on mobile devices.

Search Instagram Hashtags

You can post your photo to the hashtag generator on the platform and acquire free hashtag suggestions. But these suggestions won’t be as practical as conducting the hashtag research yourself. 

Here are some effective Instagram hashtags tips that get engagement and reach.

     Analyze The Competition

Monitoring your competitor’s hashtag strategy helps you to get how it works for your industry. And you may include new unique hashtags in your content. Or you may think you don’t want the same eye-balls for your content so that you could search for various hashtags.

     Monitor Hashtags That Your Audience Are Using

If your target audience is using a specific hashtag, the most audience will use it too. Getting these existing communities on the platform is the perfect way to increase your audience and gain people who are interested in your brand or business.

Monitor your top fans and analyze the hashtags that they are using. The search tool on the platform could provide you with a lot of info on hashtags the audience you follow most care about. If you conduct hashtag research on the platform, the search tool showcases your fans following that specific hashtag. (Note: It works only on mobile devices, not on the desktop).

     Utilize Instagram’s Related hashtags

On every page of the hashtag, above the “Recent” and “Top” tabs, you would get a related hashtags list so that you could scroll by swiping left. It’s a better way to look for associated hashtags than prominent phrased hashtags you search for. These hashtags are picked mainly by many businesses on the platform to connect with the target audience.

     Bring Out A Branded Hashtag

The perfect hashtag for your business might be the one you make yourself. In simple words, a branded hashtag is the one that you craft to boost your own campaign or brand.

Bring out your branded hashtags in your bio section, stories section, and captions area on the platform. Also, you can run contests with your branded hashtags to popularize it. It brings up more UGC(User Generated Content), which makes your hashtag more popular.

Ensure your audience follows your branded hashtag both within the platform and also on other social media. Search for opportunities for resharing the content. Click on any hashtag, and then click on the “Follow” option to follow that specific hashtag on the platform.

Guest article written by: Mary Kyle is a content developer and marketing manager who works at Snaphappen. She has written more trending articles on social media and has a handful of experience in delivering engaging content.