One of the most effective and easiest ways to increase your engagement is to use hashtags within your Instagram posts! But there are still so many unanswered questions Instagram users have about the hashtags they are using. What are the best hashtags, and where can you find them? And, how do you find the trending hashtags?
Within this blog, we will answer these questions and give you a deeper understanding of what hashtags are and why we use them.
How do Instagram hashtags work?
Let's get straight into it, Instagram hashtags are basically used to label and categorise content on the platform. The hashtags then aid the Instagram server in pushing your posts to the relevant users, i.e. the people that have been recently looking at similar content and posts.
Similarly, the hashtags will support and create Instagram algorithms, again categorising your content and suggesting it to users that potentially have an interest in the topic.
Do hashtags still work on Instagram in 2023?
From what has previously been mentioned, with them supporting Instagram algorithms and servers, hashtags do work on Instagram. Instagram has recently recommended to only use 3-5 hashtags when posting.
A recent new way of Instagram searching for content is the semantic keyword search, which has been shown to open new ways in content discoverability. This suggests that the wording or topics of your videos are becoming searchable too.
This all illustrates the positive workability of hashtags and helps to improve the content in your feed, as well as your content reaching the relevant audience.
Types of Hashtags
Did you know there are multiple types of hashtags to use on Instagram?
Hashtags have been put into 5 types of hashtags:
Location - Those used for places, neighbourhoods, cities and countries - For example, #London #Waterloo
Branded for campaigns/events or a brand - For example, #Gathersocial #GatherSocialEvents #ThisGirlCan
Industry - Those related to your business niche - For example, #SocialMediaManagers #SocialMediaContentExec
Community-focused - Those Hashtags aimed at a specific group of people - For example, #VanLifeLiving #IAmASweatyBetty
Description - Those hashtags that describe the content of your actual post - For example, #behindthescenes #GatherSocialProductShoot or of products like #SheaButterProducts
What are the benefits of using hashtags on Instagram?
As previously mentioned above, using hashtags can help your content get to the right audience, and help the content you want to see come your way. However, it is important to use the right hashtags, for it to work. This can even connect you with users that haven’t seen your page before, leading to more engagement, followers, and potential customers, if you have a business account.
Highlighting the importance of using hashtags can really benefit your business and Instagram account!
How to find the right, trending hashtags to match your content?
As suggested, using hashtags can support your content and push it to the right audience. But the relevant hashtags are changing every week, here are a few tactics to help you along the way:
- Use a Hashtag Suggestion Tool
There are plenty of free hashtag suggestion generators out there. Here are some of our favourites:
2. Explore and Research
It is important to get out there and see what your competitors or similar accounts are using. You can do this in a simple way...
Search keywords on Instagram, and click top results.
The posts that come up have a high performance, so look at the hashtags used for those posts.
How to be effective when using a hashtag strategy with analytics?
The last point that is important to touch on is building an effective hashtag strategy.
Once you have found several hashtags that you want to use, you can start to test which hashtags are interacted with and track the overall performance through your analytics.
Conducting this analysis would be beneficial for you as you can find which hashtags work well, and you would be able to monitor your success, leading you to be able to adjust your strategy over time.
If you want to learn more about how you can up your social media game, read one of our recent blogs. Or visit our blog page for the most recent news on social media.
