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How to follow hashtags instagram


Ultimate Guide [+101 hashtags for 2023]

What are Instagram hashtags?

Top Instagram hashtags

Types of popular Instagram hashtags

Instagram Hashtag FAQs

7 tips for how to use hashtags on Instagram

Instagram hashtags can make or break your Instagram marketing strategy. Use them correctly and you’ll get your posts seen by more people likely to be interested in your products or brand.

But use the wrong and you can actually do damage, from annoying potential followers to getting penalized by Instagram’s algorithm.

To use hashtags for Instagram effectively, you need to understand exactly how they work, and put some thought into a strategy.

You’re in the right place to do just that. Watch our video below, or read on!

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

What are Instagram hashtags?

A hashtag is a combination of letters, numbers, and/or emoji preceded by the # symbol (e.g. #NoFilter). They are used to categorize content and make it more discoverable.

Hashtags are clickable. Anyone who clicks on an Instagram hashtag or conducts an Instagram hashtag search will see a page showing all the posts tagged with that hashtag.

Why use Instagram hashtags?

Hashtags are an important way to expand your Instagram audience and get more reach. When you use a hashtag, your post will appear on the page for that hashtag. If you use a hashtag on your Story, it could be included in the relevant hashtag Story, which also appears on the hashtag page.

People can also choose to follow hashtags, which means they could see your hashtagged post in their feed even if they don’t follow you (yet).

Instagram hashtags can be a great way of building community online so people are motivated to engage with your brand. For example, as the way people work out suddenly changed in 2020, Nike Los Angeles used the #playinside hashtag to feature local people getting active in their homes.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nike LA (@nikela)

All that being said, times they are a changin’. We recently ran an experiment looking specifically at the effectiveness of Instagram SEO vs Hashtags in 2022. And the results, well let’s just say they were eye-opening.

Check out the article or watch the video below to see what we found:

Top Instagram hashtags

These are the top 50 hashtags on Instagram:

  1. #love (1.835B)
  2. #instagood (1.150B)
  3. #fashion (812.7M)
  4. #photooftheday (797.3M)
  5. #beautiful (661.0M)
  6. #art (649.9M)
  7. #photography (583.1M)
  8. #happy (578.8M)
  9. #picoftheday (570.8M)
  10. #cute (569.1M)
  11. #follow (560.9M)
  12. #tbt (536.4M)
  13. #followme (528.5M)
  14. #nature (525.7M)
  15. #like4like (515.6M)
  16. #travel (497.3M)
  17. #instagram (482.6M)
  18. #style (472.3M)
  19. #repost (471.4M)
  20. #summer454.2M
  21. #instadaily (444.0M)
  22. #selfie (422.6M)
  23. #me (420.3M)
  24. #friends (396.7M)
  25. #fitness (395.8M)
  26. #girl (393. 8M)
  27. #food (391.9M)
  28. #fun (385.6M)
  29. #beauty (382.8M)
  30. #instalike (374.6M)
  31. #smile (364.5M)
  32. #family (357.7M)
  33. #photo (334.6M)
  34. #life (334.5M)
  35. #likeforlike (328.2M)
  36. #music (316.1M)
  37. #ootd (308.2M)
  38. #follow4follow (290.6M)
  39. #makeup (285.3M)
  40. #amazing (277.5M)
  41. #igers (276.5M)
  42. #nofilter (268.9M)
  43. #dog (264.0M)
  44. #model (254.7M)
  45. #sunset (249.8M)
  46. #beach (246.8M)
  47. #instamood (238.1M)
  48. #foodporn (229.4M)
  49. #motivation (229.1M)
  50. #followforfollow (227.9M)

Popular B2B Hashtags

  1. #business (101M)
  2. #entrepreneur (93M)
  3. #success (82M)
  4. #onlineshop (70M)
  5. #smallbusiness (104M)
  6. #marketing (69M)
  7. #branding (38M)
  8. #marketingdigital (39M)
  9. #innovation (14M)
  10. #ecommerce (12M)
  11. #retail (8. 2M)
  12. #onlinemarketing (8M)
  13. #contentmarketing (6.5M)
  14. #marketingtips (6.2M)
  15. #marketingstrategy (6M)
  16. #marketingstrategy (6M)
  17. #startups (5.3M) 
  18. #management (5.1M)
  19. #businesstips (5.1M)
  20. #software (5M)
  21. #B2B (2.6M)
  22. #instagramforbusiness (1.4M)
  23. #b2bmarketing (528k)
  24. #eventmarketing (408k)
  25. #b2bsales (125k)

Popular B2C Hashtags

  1. #training (133M)
  2. #smallbusiness (104M)
  3. #business (101M)
  4. #sale (95M)
  5. #onlineshopping (85M)
  6. #marketing (69M) 
  7. #marketingdigital (39M)
  8. #promo (35M) 
  9. #socialmedia (32M) 
  10. #digitalmarketing  (25M)
  11. #startup (24M)
  12. #socialmediamarketing (19. 7M) 
  13. #sales (19M) 
  14. #advertising (15M) 
  15. #ecommerce (12.3M) 
  16. #networking (12.1M)
  17. #onlinebusiness (11.4M) 
  18. #onlinemarketing (8M) 
  19. #smallbiz (7M) 
  20. #company (7.9M) 
  21. #startuplife (5.6M) 
  22. #contentmarketing (6.5M) 
  23. #socialmediatips (3.2M)
  24. #marketplace (2.5M)
  25. #b2c (350k)
  26. #b2cmarketing (185k)

Keep in mind that the most popular Instagram hashtags are not necessarily the most effective.

A large number of posts may mean lots of people follow that hashtag, but it also means there’s a ton of content on it and your posts might get lost. Instagram suggests using a combination of popular and niche hashtags to reach different audiences, from broad to specific.

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Types of popular Instagram hashtags

Instagram breaks hashtags down into nine distinct types:

Product or service hashtags

These are basic keywords to describe your product or service, like #handbag or #divebar

Niche hashtags

These get a little more specific, showing where you fit in the context of your industry, like #travelblogger or #foodblogger

Industry Instagram community hashtags

Communities exist on Instagram, and these hashtags help you find and join them. Think #gardenersofinstagram or #craftersofinstgram

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Special event or seasonal hashtags

These can refer to real holidays or seasons, like #summerdays, or they can be used for all those National [Thing] Day holidays, like #nationalicecreamday or #nationalnailpolishday

Location hashtags

Even if you geo-tag your Instagram post, it can still be a good idea to include a hashtag that refers to your location, like #vancouvercraftbeer or #londoneats

Daily hashtags

Every day has plenty of its own hashtags, from #MondayBlues right through to #SundayFunday. We created a whole list of daily hashtags for you to choose from if you’re looking for an easy source of hashtags to add to your posts.

Relevant phrase hashtags

These hashtags combine elements of product hashtags, niche hashtags, and community hashtags. Basically, they’re phrases people use on Instagram to connect to existing communities in a slightly insider way, like #amwriting or #shewhowanders

Acronym hashtags

Perhaps the best-known acronym hashtag is #TBT for Throwback Thursday. Other popular acronym hashtags include #OOTD for outfit of the day, #FBF for flashback Friday, and #YOLO for you only live once.

Emoji hashtags

These hashtags can include emojis on their own, like #????, or words or phrases with emojis attached, like #sunglasses????.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cartems Donuts (@cartemsdonuts)

Branded hashtags are another great option for businesses on Instagram. We’ll get into more details on those later in this post.

Instagram Hashtag FAQs

How many hashtags to use on Instagram

How to hide hashtags on Instagram

How to find trending hashtags on Instagram

How to search multiple hashtags on Instagram

How to find the best Instagram hashtags for YOUR brand

How many hashtags to use on Instagram

You can include up to 30 hashtags on a regular post, and up to 10 hashtags on a Story. If you try to include more, your comment or caption won’t post.

That said, just because you can use that many hashtags for Instagram doesn’t mean you should. There’s no right number of hashtags for every business, or even for every post by the same business.

The consensus is that about 11 hashtags is a good number to start with. But the most common number of hashtags to use on Instagram is between 3 and 5.

You’ll need to do some testing to determine what works best for your particular business.

How to hide hashtags on Instagram

When you’ve spent time crafting a great Instagram caption, you may not want to end your post with a prominent collection of hashtags. Fortunately, there are a couple of easy ways to make your hashtags less visible.

How to hide Instagram hashtags in a comment:
  1. Write your caption as usual but don’t include any hashtags.
  2. Once your post is published, simply click the speech bubble icon under your post to leave a comment.
  3. Write out or paste the hashtags you want to include in the comment box and tap Post.
  4. On mobile, your hashtags won’t be visible unless a user taps View all comments. However, on desktop, your comment will remain in the top position, so this trick works better if you’re targeting a mobile audience.


Source: VW on Instagram

How to hide Instagram hashtags in the caption

You can also use hashtags within the caption itself without them being super-visible.

  1. At the bottom of your caption, tap Return or Enter. If you don’t see a Return or Enter button, tap 123 to bring it up.
  2. Enter a punctuation mark (try a period, bullet, or dash), then hit Return again.
  3. Repeat steps 2 to 4 at least three times.
  4. Instagram hides captions after three lines, so your hashtags won’t be viewable unless your followers tap … more. Even then, your hashtags will be visually separated from your caption so they don’t distract from your copy.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rocky Mountain Soap Company (@rockymountainsoapco)

How to hide hashtags on Instagram Stories

You can hide hashtags on Instagram Stories, too. One option is simply to minimize the appearance of your hashtags by pinching and shrinking them to make them quite small. You can also tap the hashtag sticker to change it from a white background to a semi-transparent one.

If you want to hide your hashtags entirely, you can paste an emoji, sticker, or GIF overtop to obscure them.


Source: Christina Newberry

How to find trending hashtags on Instagram

Unlike Twitter, Instagram doesn’t publicize a list of trending hashtags. However, if you search for a hashtag on Instagram, you’ll see how many posts use that hashtag. You’ll also see a list of other popular Instagram hashtags using similar words, with post counts included too.


Source: Instagram

To search for a hashtag on desktop, enter the hashtag including the # symbol into the search box. On mobile, enter your search term in the search box, then tap Tags.

If you’re paying attention to your Instagram feed, you’ll learn to quickly spot trending hashtags as they emerge. Don’t be too quick to jump on a trend, though. Only post using a trending hashtag if it really makes sense for your business, and for the specific content in your post.

How to search multiple hashtags on Instagram

The easiest way to search multiple hashtags on Instagram is to set up search streams in a social listening tool like Hootsuite to track the hashtags you’re interested in so you can see all the relevant content on one screen without having to conduct each one as an individual Instagram hashtag search.


Source: Hootsuite

Instagram business profiles can conduct up to 30 unique hashtag searches in any given seven-day period.

We wrote a full post about the benefits of social listening if you want to dig deeper into how this works.

How to find the best Instagram hashtags for YOUR brand

Here’s the truth. You could upload your photo to one of the many Instagram hashtag generators out there and get a bunch of free suggestions for hashtags. But, these suggestions aren’t going to be as strategic and effective as doing the research yourself.

Here’s some tips to try for coming up with Instagram hashtags that will actually drive reach and engagement.

Check out the competition

You don’t necessarily want to model your competition’s strategy too closely, but taking a look at the hashtags they use can give you some good clues about what’s working for others in your industry.

Maybe you’ll discover new hashtags to add to your repertoire. Or you could decide you don’t want to compete for the same eyeballs, in which case you can search for alternative hashtags to use.

See what hashtags your audience is already using

After all, if your audience is already using a certain hashtag, then other people just like them are probably using it too. Finding these existing Instagram communities is a great way to expand your audience and reach the people who are most likely to be interested in your business.

Keep an eye on your top followers and see what hashtags they’re using. Instagram’s search tool can give you some additional information about which hashtags the people you follow care about. When you conduct an Instagram hashtag search, the search tool will show you if anyone you follow also follows that hashtag. (Note that this only works on mobile, not on desktop.)


Source: Instagram

Use Instagram’s Related Hashtags feature

On any hashtag page, right above the “Top” and “Recent” tabs, you’ll find a list of related hashtags that you can scroll through by swiping left.


Source: Instagram

This is a great way to find relevant hashtags that might be a bit more niche than the big keyword-based hashtags you originally searched for. That means a more targeted audience with less content to compete with. These can be some of the best hashtags for Instagram brands wanting to connect with passionate communities.

Create a branded hashtag

The best hashtag for your brand may be one you create yourself. A branded hashtag is simply a tag that you create to promote your own brand or campaign.

You can then let your audience know about your hashtag by including it in your Instagram bio and highlighting it in your captions and Instagram Stories. You could also consider running a contest with a branded hashtag to popularize the hashtag while also collecting user-generated content.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by lululemon (@lululemon)


Source: Lululemon on Instagram

Make sure to follow your branded hashtag, both within the Instagram app and using a stream in your social media dashboard, so you can monitor how it’s being used. Look for opportunities to reshare great content or connect with influential members of your audience.

To follow a hashtag within Instagram, simply tap it, then tap the blue Follow button on the hashtag page.


Source: Instagram

Use Hootsuite’s hashtag generator

Coming up with the right hashtags for every. single. post. is a lot of work.

Enter: Hootsuite’s hashtag generator.

Whenever you’re creating a post in Composer, Hootsuite’s AI technology will recommend a custom set of hashtags based on your draft — the tool analyzes both your caption and the images you’ve uploaded to suggest the most relevant tags.

To use Hootsuite’s hashtag generator, follow these steps:

  1. Head to Composer and start drafting your post. Add your caption and (optionally) upload an image.
  2. Click the hashtag symbol below the text editor.

  1. The AI will generate a set of hashtags based on your input. Check the boxes next to the hashtags you want to use and click the Add hashtags button.

That’s it!

The hashtags you selected will be added to your post. You can go ahead and publish it or schedule it for later.

7 tips for how to use hashtags on Instagram

1. Use Insights to see which tags work best

If you’ve made the switch to an Instagram business profile, you have access to post insights that tell you how many impressions you received from hashtags.

1. Select the post you want data on and tap View Insights below the post on the left.

2. Swipe up to see all the insights for that post, including the number of impressions from hashtags.

This data helps you figure out which hashtags are most effective for improving reach.

2. Include hashtags on Instagram Stories

Hashtag pages have an Instagram Story icon in the top left corner. Click on it and you’ll see a collection of Stories posts tagged with the hashtag from people with public profiles.


Source: Instagram

There are two ways to add hashtags to your Stories. The first method is to use the hashtag sticker.


Source: Instagram

Or you can simply use the text tool and the # symbol to type out the hashtag the same way you would on a photo or video post.

3. Avoid banned hashtags and spammy hashtags

When inappropriate content becomes associated with a hashtag, Instagram might ban that hashtag.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t use it at all. Instead, it means that if you click on the tag, you will only see top posts. You won’t see recent posts, and there won’t be any Stories associated with the hashtag.

Here’s what it looks like when you run into a banned hashtag:


Source: Instagram

The only way to know if a hashtag is banned is to check it before you use it. This is a good practice to put in place every time you add a new hashtag to your repertoire. Using banned hashtags can cause a drop in engagement, as your use of legitimate hashtags might also become less effective because you could be dropped in the algorithm.

Even if they’re not banned, you should avoid hashtags that shamelessly solicit likes and followers. Examples include #followme, #like4like, #follow4follow, #tagsforlikes, and so on.

Using these will attract bots, spammers, and other Instagram users who have no intention of engaging with you in any meaningful way. They also show your followers that your brand is okay with engaging in spammy behaviour. And that’s not a good look.

4. Understand how hashtag pages work

Hashtag pages are a great way to expose your content to a new audience, especially if you can get featured in the Top section.

Hashtag pages show off all the content associated with a specific hashtag. If someone searches for a post and yours is the most recent with that hashtag, it will be the first thing they see in the Recent section.

Of course, it’s much easier to stay at the top of the Recent section for a less-popular or really niche hashtag.

Keep in mind that the Recent section is sorted based on when each post was originally shared. If you add hashtags later, either through a comment or by editing the caption, this won’t bump your post up for recency.

5. Don’t use irrelevant or repetitive hashtags

It might be tempting to simply copy and paste the same long list of hashtags on every post, but don’t do it. Instagram’s community guidelines clearly state that “posting repetitive comments or content” is not okay. If you use the same hashtags for every post, your content will be penalized by the algorithm.

When you create a post, only use hashtags that make sense. If you tag a post with #wanderlust, for example, your content must be something globetrotters will want to comment on, like, and share.

It’s not about getting seen by a lot of people, it’s about getting seen by the right people. That’s how hashtags lead to higher engagement and more followers. Pick and choose the right keywords for each post individually.

6. Make sure that hashtag means what you think it means

Hashtags are often a string of words stuck together. That can create some problems when it’s not clear where one word ends and the next begins.

One of the worst examples of this was the #susanalbumparty fiasco from way back in 2012. It was a launch celebration hashtag for Susan Boyle’s new album. But read it slowly and you might pick up some words in the middle that clearly make the hashtag a bit… problematic.

Amazon played with this kind of hashtag mistake to promote Top Gear. This was done on purpose, but it would be an easy mistake to combine a possessive “s” and the word “hit” by accident.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mathew chronic (@clarkson_and_memes)

Brands sometimes also are too keen to hop onto a trending hashtag without fully understanding the context. When the context is challenging, this can create a PR disaster for the brand.

And sometimes a brand just doesn’t check to see if a hashtag is already in use before creating a whole campaign. Burger King was guilty of this back in 2013, when they used the hashtag #WTFF to mean “What The French Fry.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by #WTFF (@wtff2013)

Since you already know what WTF stands for, you can probably guess why this was a problem.

7. Save hashtags for future use

If you often use the same hashtags, you can save them in a note to reduce time typing them in over and over.

Wait, didn’t we just tell you not to use the same hashtags on every post? It’s true—you should not overuse the same set of hashtags. That said, it is still really useful to have a list of hashtags relevant to the various kinds of content you post. You could even create separate lists of hashtags relevant to the different types of posts you create.

Just create a list of hashtags in your notes app, ready to add to your posts.

You can then pick and choose a few hashtags to use each time, rather than having to remember the hashtags or search for new ones for each post. This also gives you the time to check out what kind of content is already being posted for these hashtags, so you don’t make one of the mistakes mentioned above.

Just remember that every one of the Instagram hashtags you use on a post must fit with the content and should not be too repetitive. Don’t copy and paste your whole saved list onto every post.

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What happens after you follow an Instagram hashtag?

Alexandra | Feb 14, 2018

This is probably one of my most favorite new Instagram features. You can now follow Instagram hashtags (not just people).

It’s a pretty big deal. It means that:

  • You can discover more new people
  • And more people can discover you

If you are using hashtags and posting good content, Instagram will reward you: you will appear in the home feeds of people who don’t even follow you (yet). That’s amazing!

Let tell you everything you need to know about following Instagram hashtags.

How to follow a hashtag

To follow a hashtag:

  • Go on the Explore page
  • Type a hashtag you like
  • Press on the “Follow button”

Note: Read last section to see how to unfollow a hashtag.

Posts of people you don’t know will appear in your home feed

After you follow a hashtag you will see posts of people appearing in your home feed (people you don’t even follow). It will look like you are following them – which is amazing. It allows you to discover and interact with new people, from all around the world, directly from your home page.

This is an amazing opportunity to engage organically with other accounts. And if you are thoughtful with your comments, they might even reciprocate and check out your account.

Watch the Insta Stories of the hashtags you follow

After you follow a hashtag, you will also see the Insta Stories of other people who follow that hashtag! The Insta Stories of the Hashtags will appear on top of your home feed, next to the Insta Stories of all the other people you follow.

This is amazing! It means that if you add a hashtag in your Insta Story (example: #creativity), your Insta Story can be seen by people who follow this hashtag.

Note: Instagram doesn’t show the Insta Stories of everybody using a hashtag. So even if you use a hashtag in an Insta Story, you might not appear in the Insta Story hashtag. It seems like Instagram is selecting a few accounts only. How? Not sure yet. But we can only assume that if you have good Insta Story engagement and post consistently, they might feature you too!

You can see the hashtags you follow

If you’re ever feeling like you’re losing track of what hashtags you are following, don’t worry. You can see the list of Instagram hashtag you’re following.

To see which Instagram hashtag you follow:

  • Go on your Instagram feed page
  • Press on “Following”
  • Select “Hashtags”

 

How to unfollow an Instagram hashtag?

To unfollow a hashtag simply press on the “Follow” button. You will be asked to confirm that you want to unfollow the Instagram hashtag.

You will not see posts in your home feed of people using this hashtag anymore.

What Instagram hashtags should you use to appear in people’s home feeds?

Now this is a very important question. There are different types of hashtags on Instagram.

Here are two good articles to help you select the perfect hashtags for your account:

  • How to use Instagram Hashtags (17 Golden Rules)
  • 7 Tricks to Find Instagram Hashtags That Grow Your Account

I hope you found this article useful. As always, please leave me a comment below if you have any questions.

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A hashtag is a word or phrase without spaces with the # symbol in front of it. Many social networks have a hashtag search tool, which forces content creators to fight to get them in the SERPs.

In this article, I will tell you how to use hashtags on Instagram* and whether you can get followers and customers with them. And also, I will clearly show how to select hashtags for business and use them to create a portrait of the target audience.

Hashtags were especially popular in the CIS about 10 years ago, at the dawn of Instagram*. Now there is an opinion that they no longer work. In fact, this is not so.

Many users are still following certain tags. This means that publications with them get to users in the feed. That is why hashtags are still a great tool for growing coverage, which can compete in efficiency with the algorithmic feed.

Types of hashtags

Hashtags can be conditionally divided into types. Here is a classification that is common in the Russian-speaking SMM community:

Low-frequency, mid-frequency and high-frequency. Ranking by number of hashtag mentions. It is very conditional, but usually tags that were used in < 500 thousand publications are called low-frequency ones. The range of the number of medium-frequency hashtags is from 500 thousand publications to a million, and high-frequency hashtags - over a million.

Spam hashtags . The tool that started promotion on Instagram*. Ten years ago, with their help, you could get the first likes and subscribers to your account. We are talking about tags like #likesforlike and #follow4follow. Now they are useless - there are so many publications on them that yours is unlikely to get into the top. And people just stopped using hashtags for mutual PR. If you need to somehow gain the first 100-300 subscribers for a higher conversion rate from advertising, Instagram followers boost will work much more efficiently*.

Personal tags. Personal tags are those that you have created yourself. It can be the name of the company, its motto or just a phrase that you personally like. Personal tags work on brand recognition and support its image.

Personal tags are also used for promotional campaigns with UGC content. The brand comes up with a competition - for example, asks subscribers to record a creative video. To participate, you must use the branded hashtag. In this case, the competition gives the company UGC coverage, and the hashtag focuses attention: what kind of brand launched it. Plus, personal tags are convenient: to choose a winner, the brand team will simply click on this hashtag. There will be nothing superfluous: only videos of the contestants.

Another category of personal tags is hashtags-rubricators. They help the brand or blogger to structure the content on the page. Subscribers just need to click on the tag and see all the publications of the influencer on a specific topic.

Thematic hashtags. These tags are related to your business or the topic of the post and allow you to bring targeted users to the page. A must have for any commercial project.

They are usually used in two cases:

  • As an accompaniment to a helpful post on a business related topic. Let's say you're making a helpful post about how to build a bathhouse. In this case, the hashtag # do-it-yourself bath will be appropriate.
  • When we make a selling post. For example, we advertise this very construction of a bathhouse. Then the hashtag #bananazakaz will be appropriate.

Geotags. Help to attract customers and subscribers from a specific location. Usually we are talking about a city, district, street, business center or, for example, a residential complex. Examples of such hashtags: #manicurnovoslobodskaya and #banyaalmaty.

They have their own nuances. For example, the #moscow hashtag is too wide and practically useless for business because of the very high competition in the search results. But hashtags of narrower business locations can be very useful. For example, a tag with the name of a residential complex will be useful for repair teams looking for newly minted apartment owners. And also beauty salons and coffee houses, which are located near this residential complex.

Trend tags. These include tags that are relevant in a specific period of time. For example, #winter2023 and #beach season. They are quite popular, but unlike spam hashtags, getting into the top of the results for them is real. Suitable for selling goods related to a specific season, or gifts for the holidays.

How to choose hashtags for publications

Imagine that we are a company that produces baths and saunas. We work in Moscow and Moscow region. Our task is to form a list of tags that will attract buyers to our profile absolutely free of charge.

At the beginning of 2023, hashtags are relevant for the feed of posts and rils. (You can also put them in stories, but users cannot search stories by hashtags, so the tool is useless here. )

We paint everything in detail and step by step:

1. We are looking for keywords

The first thing we will do is select the “backbone” words by which we will search for hashtags. To do this, go to Wordstat Yandex. We drive in the word "bath" and look at the right column "requests similar to a bath". Here we will find words that are close in meaning to our main keyword.

From this list, the words “steam room”, “sauna” and “steam room” are suitable for us - they directly relate to our service. At the first stage, such an analysis will be sufficient. But you can go deeper by writing out the entire list of your services on a piece of paper. They will also become a source of hashtag search. For example, #bath hat #bath broom and so on. But suppose that we do not sell anything except for the construction of baths, so we will not need these keywords.

2. Find the main thematic tags

Next, based on keywords, we start searching for specific hashtags. This can be done manually by entering a keyword in the Instagram* search, or you can use a special program. I’ll show you how to collect hashtags using the Gennady bot in Telegram — it will upload them to Excel: this is convenient, because you will have to work in this format in the future.

We send all our keywords to the bot in turn - "bathhouse", "sauna", "steam room", "steam room". We get four similar lists:

Click "Download to excel" and combine the data into one file. We get a long list of around 120 hashtags. And our next task is to filter it.

We see that many hashtags are geotags: for example, #saunauf and #banyakazakhstan. We work only in Moscow and the Moscow region, so we remove such tags.

Then we remove phrases that are similar to our queries lexically, but not in meaning. For example, #pairclothing and #pairshoot.

After that, we cut off very “small” hashtags - those that have less than 400 publications. As a result, out of 120 hashtags, we are left with 38. We put this list aside - we will need it later.

3. Parse hashtags of competitors' followers

If you run an Instagram* page, you probably know your niche competitors. They, like you, have their own base of followers and clients. And most importantly, these followers are subscribed to hashtags that reflect their interests. Our task is to collect these hashtags and include them in our list in order to appear in their feed.

We selected 7 accounts for analysis - these pages are related to the theme of our business. They did not take direct competitors, because most of the profiles that sell bathhouses wind up subscribers.

Instead, we chose bathhouse bloggers, bloggers who talk about the construction of suburban housing, as well as accounts of urban public and suburban baths.

Now we are moving to the LiveDune service. We select the "Check" function and load links to all 7 accounts.

Why exactly 7 accounts? In fact, 3-5 would be enough for parsing - with the number of subscribers from 1,000. We had to increase the sample, because many profiles in the niche wind up followers (even bloggers). Not everyone will pass the filter from this seven, but it is important for us to collect data on the interests of living people.

Let's get back to working with the service. Will not delve into advanced account analysis - detailed statistics would be useful if we chose bloggers for advertising. It will be enough for us to evaluate the Engagment Rate, as well as the ratio of likes and comments and the spread of likes on posts.

Ideally, if all circles are green. But almost all accounts in our sample have one problem - low ER. This means that the profiles are suspected of cheating. On the other hand, the ER of commercial accounts is generally low, and bloggers could be shadowbanned. Therefore, it is enough to choose the pages with the best performance, and you can move on.

ER of the pages that we selected for hashtag parsing:

Next, we go to the PepperNinja service. It will help to collect hashtags, to which the followers of selected accounts are subscribed. We are interested in the tab "Instagram * - Subscribers Hashtags". We alternately enter links to our profiles and wait for the results to be uploaded.

As a result, we get 5 files with a list of hashtags. We have done a lot of extra work, but it will greatly strengthen our sample. In fact, these hashtags directly reflect the interests of our audience. For example, we would not have collected this information with the help of Gennady's bot.

In these files we find a number of single-root hashtags that we have not seen before. For example, #bath for white and #bath is not good. Let's add them to our list. As a rule, your files will be long, so it is enough to collect the most popular tags on our topic.

That's not all. Here we find important insights about our audience. She is really interested in the topic of suburban construction. The hashtags #construction, #countrylife are present in almost all selected pages. No wonder we included a blogger who writes about country life in the selection.

We also observe that people are interested in the topic of repair and space improvement: in the top hashtags #interior design, landscape design and #renovation. As a result, just by working with hashtags, we form a portrait of our target audience. These are people with a sense of style who love not only good steam, but also countryside nature. They live outside the city or plan to move there.

4. Finalizing the list of tags to work with

Finishing work with hashtags. We write out those that intersect with our niche, and then we return to Gennady's bot and determine their frequency. We leave only those that are mentioned in at least 400, and preferably in a thousand posts.

Now it's up to you to combine the two groups of hashtags. The first one we found with the help of Gennady's bot, and the second one, selected with the help of Pepper.Ninja. Voila - we get the final list of 120 hashtags.

In fact, everything is ready. We will use these hashtags in our work. They meet our criteria: they are not spammed and at the same time quite popular, related to our business and in tune with the interests of the target audience. Exactly what is needed.

True, Instagram* only allows 30 tags per post. How to be? We divide our selection into 5 groups. First you need to mix them well - that is, swap them in the list. This is necessary so that each group has tags of different topics. And related to soaring, and those related to repair and country life.

How to shuffle Excel rows in random order

Then we test each set for a week or two, depending on the frequency of your posting. After that, we change the set to a new one. You can track the results of each group on Instagram* under the "Statistics - Impressions - From Hashtags" tab.

Based on the test results, we look at which two groups worked best and work only with them. We put them in turn so that Instagram* does not regard our activity as spam and does not underestimate the coverage in the issue.

Testing can be continued: change 4-5 tags in the winning groups — follow the statistics and make selections even more effective.

How to choose hashtags for other niches

We looked at the selection of hashtags for an offline business that operates in a particular city. As you can see, almost all of our hashtags were thematic. We did not use purely geolocation hashtags like #moscowcity.

But the choice depends on the niche. If, for example, you have a nail salon in Medvedkovo, it would be worth using not only thematic, but also geolocation hashtags with the name of the district and its streets. The second, most likely, would be more.

Trending hashtags are used in seasonal business. For example, for the sale of Christmas decorations and gifts on March 8th. It should also be said about personal tags. In our example, we did not touch them. It was possible to invent them to share publications with our products. For example, #Russianbanya_company name, Finnish sauna_company name. In addition, personal tags can be used when conducting contests and advertising campaigns - we talked about this in detail at the beginning of the article.

Life hack: how to put hashtags in Instagram posts*

Finally, we will tell you how to create hidden hashtags. Tags in the caption of a post or in the first comment below it don't look good. To make them invisible, write a comment under the post, and send hashtags in response to it. Like this:

Then they will stop annoying - to see the tags, you will have to additionally click on your comment. But this rule does not apply to personalized hashtags. Usually they are placed in plain sight - at the end of the post, indented from the main text.

In Brief: What you need to know about hashtags on Instagram*

  1. Hashtags are still effective on Instagram* today. With their help, you can find people who will be interested in your products and become customers.
  2. Statistics for each specific tag cannot be tracked. But the overall reach given by the tags under the post is possible. To do this, go to the "Statistics - Impressions - From hashtags" tab.
  3. Don't use overly popular hashtags that have been used millions of times or more. It is very difficult to get to the top of them. Perhaps this is only possible for accounts that have hundreds of thousands and millions of subscribers.
  4. It is better to refuse spam hashtags altogether: they will not attract anyone except bots.
  5. Only use targeted hashtags. Select those that are related to your business or related to the topic of the post. Good work tag statistics range from a thousand to 100 thousand publications.
  6. Test hashtags. Divide them into groups and measure which ones work best. After the tests, the tags from post to post should be changed so that Instagram* does not regard your activity as spam and does not underestimate the coverage in the issue.

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how to subscribe and unsubscribe, how to promote them

Instagram is a super popular social network, the number of users of which has exceeded 100 million people. Instagram is hard to imagine without hashtags, with which you can structure your account information and promote it on the Web. We tell you how you can subscribe to hashtags on Instagram and unsubscribe from them.

Modern Instagram is hard to imagine without hashtags, with which you can sort posts and promote your account. This feature appeared on the social network in December 2017. Users quickly realized that working with hashtags can significantly speed up the promotion of their accounts, so this feature has become very popular. Targeted advertising in social networks to promote the project

What is a hashtag?

Hashtags or hashtags are keywords in social networks that consist of a term or phrase and the upcoming # symbol. These tags are used to indicate the subject of publications, navigate through materials and attract subscribers. The term "hashtag" comes from the English hash - "lattice" and tag - "label". Examples of hashtags: #horoscope, #cooking_at home, #garden_and_garden.

Words not marked with a hashtag are not hashtags and are not indexed in the search.

Instagram hashtags

Tens of millions of people post their videos and photos on Instagram every day, tagging them with appropriate hashtags. Users add tags to their profile, in the "Subscriptions" section. This allows you to follow the most interesting thematic publications not of a single user, but of many different profiles.

Hashtags are widely used to promote commercial accounts. SMM specialists create for them sets of branded hashtags that accompany any company publications on the Web. Using branded hashtags, it is easy to identify the goods and services of the company and search for them among many other materials.

How to subscribe to a hashtag

To subscribe to a hashtag, you need to click on it in the description of the post or go to the search page (click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen). This window will open. We take the hashtag #horoscope for a sample. We type in the search bar with the inscription "Find" the word "horoscope" and click on the # icon located below. A list appears in which the desired hashtag comes first. Similar names follow: #horoscope for every day, #horoscopes, #horoscopetwins, #horoscopefish, #horoscope2020, etc. Select the first line and go to the hashtag page. It remains only to click on the big blue button that says "Subscribe". After that, the best publications for this hashtag will begin to appear in our feed.

How to unsubscribe from a hashtag on Instagram

To unsubscribe from a hashtag, use the search bar to go to its page and click on the large white button labeled "Subscriptions". After that, a pop-up window will appear asking "Can I cancel my #horoscope subscription?" and two response options: "Cancel" and "Unsubscribe". If we change our mind about canceling the subscription, click on the button that says "Cancel", if we still want to unsubscribe, select the second button. After that, hashtag publications stop appearing in our feed.

Subscribe to hashtags to promote on Instagram

Instagram is a super-popular social network, the number of users of which has recently exceeded 100 million people. Every day they add 30 million new photos to it and comment on about 10,000 entries and over 1,000 posts every second. Not surprisingly, many legal entities and entrepreneurs use Instagram for their own promotion. And to make it more effective, connect hashtags.

Here are the main recommendations for using hashtags to promote your Instagram account.

  • Organize hashtags in your account content.
  • For each post, use the maximum number of hashtags (ideally up to 30).
  • Do not move all hashtags to the end of the text, distribute them evenly throughout the post to highlight the main points and keywords.
  • Use short, capacious captions as hashtags that reflect the essence of the post. Do not forget that concise inscriptions attract users, while long and intricate ones repel.
  • Use your branded hashtag in stories. This will direct the user to a page of only your posts written on a particular topic.
  • Gradually move up the popular hashtags in your topic.
  • Create your own hashtags to navigate content, products and services.
  • Promote your own hashtags.

Do not use hashtags in the description of the company's Instagram page. Such tags will not be clickable, but will only take up space that can be filled with more useful information.

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