Instagram, a social media network known for its visual content, offers a lot of opportunities for expanding a business’s clientele.

Those figures don’t lie.

Eighty-one percent of Instagram users conduct product research on the platform, and even more (87% of Generation Z users) rely on Instagram for their holiday shopping.

But with so many established influencers already populating Instagram, how can you make your mark?

You make use of hash tags.

Your Instagram advertising will benefit greatly from the use of relevant hashtags.

If used correctly, they can help you reach more individuals interested in your niche content and keep them engaged.

But if you choose the wrong Instagram hashtag strategy, you may end up losing followers or failing to reach your target audience.

This manual will teach you all you need to know about the various hashtags and how they work.

We’ll also provide you with resources, case studies, and recommended practises to help you develop an effective Instagram marketing plan.

Hashtags on Instagram: what are they?

You may compare hashtags on Instagram to search terms on Google.

They sort your posts into relevant categories and make them more visible to users who don’t (yet) follow you. Similar to Instagram SEO.

You may reach people who are interested in your specialty, company, or product by using hashtags.

Instagram hashtags are easily recognisable strings of text that begin with a pound sign (#ThisIsMyHashtag).

Hashtag categories on Instagram

It’s not fair to compare hashtags. Some are short-lived fads, while others are here to stay. The three most popular hashtags are as follows.

Popular Hashtags

Hashtags that suddenly become very popular and “in style” typically only last a short while.

Their popularity can skyrocket for a variety of reasons, including timely events, memorable advertising campaigns, widespread cultural phenomena, and virality.

However, they can lose ground just as quickly as they gain it.

They won’t help you in the long run, but when applied properly, you can get a lot more people to see your content in a short amount of time.

Specific hashtags

Hashtags in your niche are those that are unique to your field.

You can more readily communicate with your intended audience while using these hashtags. They are more indicative of your actual position in your chosen sector or industry.

If they are related to your area of expertise, using them can help you attract a targeted audience. Instagram accounts may reach their target consumers by using these hashtags.

Hashtags with logos

Hashtags are used to help people find content about a specific brand or product on social media.

They employ them to collect UGC that can improve their marketing strategies.

The #ShareaCoke campaign, for instance, encouraged consumers to label images of themselves passing around the soft drink with that hashtag.

How do hashtags on Instagram function?

Hashtags are an easy way to organise the content you share on Instagram, as they link similar posts together.

They also turn into links that take you to a collection of related posts. Similarly, tweets with relevant hashtags will be displayed in related searches.

Companies utilise them to get people thinking about their products and to share information about campaigns.

Hashtags help people who are interested in your brand, products, or field find you more readily, which in turn increases your discoverability and audience size.

Hashtags on Instagram help organise your posts so that they are more easily discoverable.

Instagram hashtags can be used where?

Hashtags are readily integrated into captions for Instagram photographs and videos, Instagram Reels, and Instagram Stories using stickers.

Instagram settled a long-running issue by recommending that users include important keywords and hashtags in their captions, rather than just in comments.

Is there a magic number when using hashtags?

To begin, you need know that Instagram posts can include a maximum of 30 hashtags. However, on Instagram Stories, that limit is reduced to 10.

While the majority of Instagram users only use 1-3 hashtags each post, Instagram’s official account @creators recommended using 3-5 hashtags in September 2021.

Having too many hashtags (over ten to twenty) was also deemed to be unnecessary.

Is there a way to conceal hashtags on Instagram?

There are several options for hiding hashtags in the caption of a post.

Put them below the “See More” link.
Put some line breaks after the conclusion of your caption to do this.

If your captions exceed three lines, Instagram will hide them until the viewer taps the See More button.

Your hashtags will still be conspicuously spaced below your caption even after selecting the See More option. This keeps users from becoming sidetracked.

Make a remark with them

Putting your hashtags in the comments section is another option for maintaining complete separation.

For desktop users, the remark containing your hashtags will always appear first. However, your hashtags will only be visible to mobile users if they tap on them. Check out the feedback.

Although this strategy may be preferable for mobile users, Instagram itself recommends include hashtags in the caption.

Keep your hashtag small or hidden

You can use this method with Instagram Stories.

Hashtags can be added in the form of stickers, and being too large can be distracting.

Hide your hashtags forever by covering them up with an emoji, sticker, or GIF.

Hashtags on Instagram and their significance for marketing

One of the most effective strategies to increase your Instagram following is to make use of hashtags in all of your Instagram content, including posts, Stories, and Reels.

Your post will be visible to anybody who visits the page for that hashtag, not just your followers. By all accounts, they multiply your audience size and interest.

As an example, using a hashtag on Instagram increases engagement by 29% for accounts with 1,000 or less followers.