Hashtags and Instagram are like Gin and Tonic. One is better when the other is added, but only if used in moderation 😉
Adding hashtags to your Instagram post can significantly increase your exposure, and it is a great way to gain new followers. But how do you decide which hashtags to use? And how do you find them?
I’m an “influencer” (ugh, that word) with over 200,000 followers, and even though nobody really exactly knows how using hashtags on Instagram works, I do believe I’ve got a fairly good idea. And I’d love to share it with you 🙂
Numbers speak louder than words
My last two posts performed particularly well when it comes to using hashtags. See for yourself:
Now what did I do to get all these hashtag impressions? Which hashtags did I use? How did I find them? And how did I decide these would be the right hashtags for my post? Here we go…
1. Be relevant! Define the subject of your picture/post
If there’s one thing Instagram really loves its relevancy: they show you what (they think) you want to see. For example, if you recently liked a lot of cute cat photos, you might see funny cats popping up everywhere on your explore page. Or if you recently liked three pictures from your favorite influencer, you’ll most likely see their new pictures show up first on your feed. Instagram likes hashtags to be used for posts relevant to that hashtag as well:
If you post a photo with puppies and then add hashtags like #travel #beautyblogger #outfitoftheday chances are you’re not going to get any impressions on these hashtags, because they simply are not relevant to your photo. But if you add hashtags like #dogofinstagram #puppylove #puppyfun #adorabledogs you’ll be more relevant and there’s a chance your picture might show up as one of the top photos for this hashtag.
2. Different size Instagram hashtags
Once you determined the subject of the hashtags that are relevant to your post, it’s time to start searching for the right hashtags. But before you do, let’s divide hashtags into five categories by size first:
1. Huge hashtags – used more than 1M times
2. Big hashtags – used more than 500,000 times
3. Large hashtags – used more than 100,000 times
4. Medium hashtags – used less than 50,000 times
5. Small hashtags – used less than 10,000 times
If you use huge hashtags and manage to show up as one of the top hashtags for that particular hashtag, it goes without saying that you’ll get lots and lots impressions and likes through that hashtag. But with huge hashtags it’s much harder to show up as one of the top hashtags as well, because you’re competing with so many others.
If you use small hashtags, or medium hashtags, it’s more likely you’ll show up as one of the top photos for those hashtags but less people will see your post because it’s a less popular hashtag.
I therefore always use a combination of the five hashtag categories above.
3. How many hashtags should you use?
There’s a lot of controversy on how many hashtags you should use nowadays. Instagram allows you to use a maximum of 30 hashtags. There are tricks to use more than 30 hashtags (30 in your caption and 30 in a comment) but I would strongly recommend against this as it is very spammy. And if you raise red flags with Instagram you might even get shadow banned.
But should you actually use 30 hashtags? Or is less more in this case? Well, everyone I speak to has a different opinion. Some people swear by 8 hashtags, other people say 15 is their magic number and others always use all 30. So what to do?
I always use around 25 hashtags, more or less, per post. I avoid using all 30 because I don’t want Instagram to see me as spammy, but I also want to use enough hashtags to be able to show up on the top results for some of these. For both posts I showed you above I used 26 hashtags.
4. How to find hashtags?
I always use three huge or big hashtags first. For example, if I want to post a photo taken at the Opera House in Sydney I would use hashtags #sydney #australia #sydneyoperahouse. I then go on to search for more relevant hashtags by doing the following:
I type in one of my regular hashtags and see which other results come up. I can see other popular hashtags are #sydneyaustralia #sydney_insta and #sydney🇦🇺. The other two, #sydneymodel and #sydneycakes are not relevant to my post, so I leave those out.
Another way to find similar relevant hashtags is by clicking on the hashtag. Instagram then shows you related hashtags as well:
As you can see I clicked on the hashtag #sydneyaustralia, resulting in other useful hashtags showing up. I won’t use #melbourne_insta of course, but I’ll definitely add #sydneylife and #exploresydney to my list. Please note that Instagram doesn’t just give three suggestions; you can view more by scrolling left.
I continue this process by clicking on other hashtags and researching more relevant big or huge hashtags, for example #australia. I continue this process until I have a list of around 25 hashtags.
As you can see Instagram shows you how many times a particular hashtag has been used. Make sure you don’t just use very big or very small hashtags, but mix them up, like I described in point 2.
5. Add hashtags in the caption or in a comment?
A lot is being said about this as well. For a long time people believed that adding hashtags in the comment would result in getting shadow banned. Well my dear friends, I’ve been adding my hashtags in a comment for a long while now and I’m completely fine. I only add hashtags in my caption if it’s a sponsored post.
You’ll also see influencers putting their hashtags in multiple comments to increase their comment count. Please don’t do this, as it’s simply faking your numbers. If a brand wants to work with you and sees you’re manipulating your numbers this way they might call the whole thing off.
I hope this quick tutorial on how to pick the right hashtags for your Instagram post helped! If you’re interested in more Instagram related articles you might want to check out these:
– Instagram Picture Ideas: 6 fun perspective shots
– 5 reasons why you should edit your photos with presets
❤ Eef
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