Last Updated on September 15, 2024 by admin
Instagram hashtags are powerful. They can help your posts reach a target audience, attract followers in your niche, increase engagement, and develop a more positive and recognizable brand image.Instagram hashtags are powerful. They can help your posts reach a target audience, attract followers in your niche, increase engagement, and develop a more positive and recognizable brand image. But with great power comes great responsibility (#spiderman). Hashtags can skyrocket your business to new heights, but if used too frequently or without a clear strategy in mind, they become pointless and inefficient. That‘s where this guide comes in. I’ll share my top tips and insights for choosing the right Instagram hashtags to achieve your goals in 2024 based on the latest data and my own experience working with brands. Let’s dive in! Table of Contents What is an Instagram hashtag? Why are hashtags important? Types of Instagram Hashtags How Brands Are Using Hashtags in 2024 [Data] Best Instagram Hashtags Best Practices for Using Hashtags on Instagram How to Use Hashtags on Instagram for Business How to Search Hashtags on Instagram Instagram hashtags are unique because they’re mostly used for content discovery. Like word-of-mouth in the real world, hashtags can help users explore related posts and find new accounts, trends, or communities. Instagram hashtags are also popular with niche audiences for posting targeted content. IG’s higher-than-average hashtag limit (30 max) and strong hashtag culture also make hashtags a powerful tool on the platform. Why are hashtags important? Hashtags are essentially Instagram’s sorting process. Over half of all Instagram accounts have 1,000-10,000 followers, making it tough for Instagram to deliver the right content efficiently to the right people. Hashtags help your post get discovered by viewers most interested in seeing it, making Instagram hashtags an essential part of any social media strategy. Krystal Wu, former social media community manager at HubSpot, explains the importance of hashtags this way. “Hashtags are like a funnel. For instance, #marketing is incredibly broad and attracts all types of posts. I’ve found #digitalmarketing or #marketingmotivation gives us a more specific, targeted reach. The audience searching for these hashtags are also trying to narrow their search to what we offer related to marketing, so we’re actually reaching more of the right people,” Wu says. In my view, hashtags are a better way to categorize your posts. They help you reach a target audience, and more importantly, they help your target audience find you. These users are more likely to engage with your post because it’s exactly what they were looking for. Types of Instagram Hashtags Hashtags are highly versatile little pieces of text. They can build a community, make your account more visible, or simply attract like-minded individuals to your account. Before choosing a hashtag for your post, consider the most common types and their categorizations. Branded Hashtags Branded hashtags help you build a community specifically around your brand or business. It can be a slogan, the name of a specific product you offer, or your business name. Product or Service Hashtags Companies use product hashtags for posts related to their product and service offerings. These hashtags are usually general, such as #hairsalon or #knitwear. However, I recommend you consider using more niche hashtags to share specific products and services, like #blackhairsalon or #handmadeknits. Industry Hashtags These hashtags are commonly used within your industry or niche. They help connect your content with a broader audience interested in a particular industry or topic. For example, if you’re a traveling food photographer, you might connect with those industries with hashtags like #foodie, #travelphotography, or #foodphotography. Trending Hashtags These are popular hashtags that are currently trending on Instagram. They often relate to daily themes (#tbt, #throwbackthursday), holidays (#DiaDeLosMuertos, #Pride, or #IndependenceDay), or viral topics (#barbiemovie, #budapest23). Using these hashtags can help increase the visibility of your content. Community Hashtags These hashtags are great for getting more visibility among other Instagrammers who do what you do. For example, if you’re a knitter, you might post with #knittersofinstagram. Image Source Location-Based Hashtags These are great for targeting users in a specific area. Think #hairsalonnyc or #atlantabakery. Campaign Hashtags If you’re running a sponsored ad or platform-specific giveaway, you can use a unique hashtag to track campaign activity. Event Hashtags As a company or business owner, you can use these hashtags to contribute to the conversation about a specific event or industry conference, like #SXSW2024 or #CES2024. How Brands Are Using Hashtags in 2024 [Data] The HubSpot Blog analyzed over 37 million Instagram posts to understand Instagram engagement. Here’s what I found: Many of the most engaging hashtags were Reels or video-related. Mid-sized hashtags that pull up 10k-200k posts often get better engagement. Hashtags, Explore, and Profile are the top Instagram impression sources. 62% of marketers use four to nine hashtags in an Instagram feed post. Instagram users add an average of seven hashtags to each post. Only 1% of marketers use all 30 hashtags. Posts with 11 or more hashtags perform best, followed by posts with four or fewer hashtags. 82% of marketers use hashtags as part of their Instagram strategy. 85% of marketers have a documented hashtag strategy for Instagram. 52% of social media marketers use hashtags and relevant keywords to optimize their social media accounts for search. Marketers who use hashtags on Instagram are 23% more likely to say Instagram marketing was effective for their brand last year. 30% of marketers with a documented hashtag strategy say it’s effective. In my experience working with brands on social media, these stats align with what I’ve seen drive the best results. The key is being strategic and tailoring hashtags to your specific content, audience, and goals rather than taking a scattershot approach. When you hone in on the right mix of hashtags, you can dramatically increase the visibility and impact of your Instagram content. Best Instagram Hashtags For practical use and inspiration, I’ve packed this post with hundreds of interesting and useful Instagram hashtags you can use to grow your audience. These are the most