Which hashtags to use

They also show your followers that your brand is okay with engaging in spammy behaviour. 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. Keep in mind that the Recent section is sorted based on when each post was originally shared. 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. Pick and choose the right keywords for each post individually. Hashtags are often a string of words stuck together. One of the worst examples of this was the susanalbumparty fiasco from way back in 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. 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. A post shared by WTFF wtff If you often use the same hashtags, you can save them in a note to reduce time typing them in over and over. 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. 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. 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. Manage your entire Instagram presence and save time with Hootsuite. Schedule posts and Stories, find the best hashtags, easily engage the audience, measure performance, and more.

Try it free today. Easily create, analyze, and schedule Instagram posts with Hootsuite. Save time and get results. Learning to schedule Instagram posts is the easiest way to save time so that you can focus on creating incredible content. Learn about the best Instagram analytics tools that will give you valuable insights into your audience and strategy, plus metric definitions. We could have SWORN you were someone who wanted to blow your competition out of the water on social media.

Our bad. Skip to content Instagram hashtags can make or break your Instagram strategy. Watch our video below, or read on! Instagram Hashtag Guide What are Instagram hashtags? Why use Instagram hashtags? Top instagram hashtags. The example below uses the timely hashtag sunsout to put a product—sunglasses—in front of an interested audience. Hashtags go in and out of favor, just like styles of clothing and slang. Sometimes trending hashtags are just hashtags people are using at the time that have surged in popularity for some reason.

Certain products have audiences with niche interests. People who are buying their own virtual reality systems, for example, are likely to be interested in all the latest technology. Customers who are interested in healthy eating may search for phrases like organic or eatinggreen. Use niche-specific hashtags to connect with a highly relevant audience. Bremont does this exceptionally well in the example below.

It uses hashtags like luxury and watchoftheday, knowing that these niche hashtags could connect them with their target audience. Sometimes hashtags can act like beacons that alert users to special events going on with your store. Are you about to host a contest? Hashtags like contestalert and instagiveaway can help you find an interested audience. A merchant with national or international reach may not have a reason to use location-based hashtags, for example, and B2B merchants with a strictly professional voice may not use a lot of entertainment-focused hashtags.

Adopt the ones that will work best for your brand and your audience. From choosing your channels to figuring out what to post, fill in the blanks to think through how you can best use social media to meet your marketing goals. We'll also send you updates on new educational guides and success stories from the Shopify newsletter.

We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe. Get started. You can use up to 30 hashtags on a single Instagram post. That answers how many you can use, but not how many you should use, which can be quite different. A fairly consistent takeaway is that you should definitely be using a few hashtags as in, more than one on every post. As for precisely how many hashtags work best, the data is inconsistent.

Some marketers swear by using just two hashtags, while others say use all In reality, the sweet spot for a single post may only be something you can uncover through testing. Nobody wants to read through 30 different hashtags, or even six for that matter, just to get to the content. Big blocks of difficult-to-read text also look visually unappealing.

Because of this, many brands opt to hide the bulk of their hashtags by strategically placing them below the See More option. Some will even take this a step further, adding significant extra spaces outside of the See More in order to aesthetically remove large chunks of hashtags from the rest of the description.

Other brands will add hashtags in a separate comment on the post, but this may cause the hashtags to lose effectiveness. For most brands, the best option is simply to make sure that your hashtags are separated by at least one line from the caption and are hidden under the See More option. This keeps the focus on your caption, increasing the likelihood that it will be read.

It also looks cleaner. That way, users are more likely to read them. Fortunately, there are plenty of Instagram hashtag generators and hashtag search engines that can streamline the process. These are the ones I recommend:. You can keep a document of different hashtags and use social media scheduling software like Agorapulse , Hootsuite , or Sprout Social.

You can create the posts on your desktop, copying and pasting hashtags or groups of hashtags to the caption as needed. Since all of these tools can now post directly to Instagram for you, this can save you a few steps. Hashtag research is a key part of distribution on Instagram. There are several different strategies you can use to conduct hashtag research, whether you want to grow your list or find new trending topics. If you want to look for trending hashtags or trending topics that are relevant right now, Twitter can give you an edge.

Instagram Hashtag Analytics are available on all Later business plans. Getting in the top posts for a hashtag is a great way to get discovered by new users. Like getting featured on the Explore Page , it can result in a huge network effect that essentially makes your post go viral on Instagram. Based on our experience, the two factors that play the biggest role in determining whether a post gets into the top posts for a hashtag are how much engagement the post gets, and how quickly it gets that engagement.

Top posts generally take their position within the first 24 hours of posting, so you need those likes and comments to roll in quickly after posting. If you can generate a lot of engagement on your Instagram post shortly after posting, this signals to Instagram that your post is quality, engaging content.

Thanks to a recent-ish update , you can now add clickable hashtags and usernames to your Instagram bio, making it a lot easier to build an Instagram bio that converts to website visits!

While adding hashtags to your posts is one of the best ways to boost your engagement and get your posts in front of your target audience, too many hashtags in your captions can look untidy or worse, spammy!

Instead, posting your hashtags in the first comment is a great way to make your caption the star of the show, without compromising any of the engagement you can get with hashtags. Open up the post scheduler in Later. You can do this from anywhere — Later on desktop, iOS, or Android. Schedule your post as usual including adding your Linkin. You can now craft, schedule and automatically post the first comment on your Instagram posts — available on all Later paid plans!

Adding hashtags to your story is a great way to give your content an added chance to be discovered by new audiences. You can add as many as 10 hashtags to each Instagram story, including 1 clickable hashtag sticker. For example, if you have a branded hashtag for your business , you can invite your followers to also follow your unique hashtag. It doubles your chances of engagement! For example, Sezane hosts a weekly giveaway and encourages their community to share photos with SezaneLovers to enter.

Create a contest where your followers upload photos on Instagram and tag their posts with your branded hashtag. Last but not least, our final tip is to avoid using banned hashtags on your Instagram posts.

You can view a list of banned Instagram hashtags here. Instagram hashtags can be a powerful tool for discovery when used properly — but they can also look spammy and damage your brand perception when used incorrectly.

The short answer? As often as possible! While some experts like Alex Tooby recommend using the maximum number of hashtags allowed, because it gives you more opportunities to be discovered, others recommend using just If you can find 30 super-relevant hashtags to add to each post, then you should definitely go for it.

Instead, try looking for ultra-niche community hashtags that are specifically relevant to the content you post. Some may be specifically for small businesses, while others might be about fashion and e-commerce.

The key is to collect and categorize them so that when they are used in a post, you can easily tell which pulls in the most engagement on your post. The first step to getting other users to share your branded hashtag is to use it yourself. According to Instagram , you can add hashtags to either the post caption or the comments. If you prefer a tidier caption, you can also add line breaks between the main part of your caption and the hashtags.