What are hashtags?

They started on Twitter and have spread to just about every social network. But it’s on Instagram where hashtags are most important.

Baseball fan? Search #bluejays to find posts about my beloved Toronto Blue Jays. Love knitting? Search #knittingmom or #knittingpatterns.

On Instagram hashtags are searchable. People search hashtags to find posts about topics they’re interested in.

People can follow hashtags on Instagram. When you follow a hashtag on Instagram periodically a post will pop up in your feed that is using the hashtag, even if you’re not following that account.

That’s one of the key reasons why hashtags are so important if you’re trying to grow on Instagram. It allows you to get discovered by new people; people who are interested in what you’re posting about.

You can use up to 30 hashtags in a post, ten in your Stories and in your IGTV description.

3 Keys to Using Hashtags

1. Don’t use the same hashtags in every post. Mix them up – you’ll get better results.
2. If you’re a smaller account, don’t use hashtags that have been used millions of times. You’ll disappear in the noise. Use hashtags that have been used between 1,000 and 100,000 times. If you show up at the top of the search page for the smaller hashtags you have a better chance of being seen by new people
3. Spend time discovering what hashtags your customers are using. If you’re only getting comments from your competitors you’re using the wrong hashtags.