If you are active on Instagram and want to generate reach, you have to use the right hashtags for your posts. But how do you find them and how many should you use per post?
What is a #hashtag anyway?
That is probably clear to most of you, but we will explain it to you again briefly: Hashtags are actually nothing more than keywords that make posts on Instagram accessible to other users.
Relevant hashtags for your posts
Many wonders which hashtags they should use and what the relevant hashtags are for their target group. There are several ways to find relevant keywords. You can do the following steps:
- Determine your topic as precisely as possible.
- Then write down all relevant keywords on this topic.
- Searches for related hashtags directly on Instagram.
- Check out which hashtags your target group or competition uses in successful posts.
- Of course, you can also use research tools like “Hashtagify” to find relevant hashtags.
- Also, think of local or regional hashtags. Most cities have specific hashtags (e.g. #wirsindtrier instead of just #trier).
- Sort your list and write down the 30 most relevant hashtags.
- Repeat this hashtag research regularly and adjust your list if necessary.
Tip: Save a list of hashtags that you want to use in the notes. So you can easily copy them and use them in your posts.
Niches Hashtags vs. general hashtags
Remember the more general the hashtag, the bigger the competition. If you want to generate reach, you should refrain from using hashtags that are too general. These have such a high volume that your posts will never be visible to users. Instead, you should use so-called niche hashtags. So you speak directly to a target group that shows interest in similar things anyway. They also have a smaller volume, meaning that thousands of images are not posted with this hashtag per minute. So the chance for the visibility of your post increases enormously.
Hashtags are basically used to get more reaches to your post. Without hashtags, your post may just be limited to your followers. If you already have a large following on Instagram, you don’t need to use them as your post is already reaching too many people. But if you don’t have enough following, you can buy real Instagram followers to build enough follower count. More people will engage with the content you generate with hard work.
Spammy Hashtags
While there are useful hashtags on Instagram, shitty one does exist also. Try to stay away from Spammy hashtags. Spammy hashtags are those having huge numbers of posts on them. They don’t even cover any niche, category or product.
They are just used by every person who has a general idea or hashtags and wants to use it for his post reach. If you also make use of these, you may get traced by hackers or spammers. This can be dangerous for your account. So, don’t use such hashtags.
i.e. #love #fashion #hot #popular #viral etc.
How many hashtags should I use?
Don’t waste your reach by using only a few hashtags. You can use a total of 30 hashtags per post – and you should do that. Be careful not to accidentally post more than 30 hashtags, because then your entire text will simply disappear under the post.
Hashtags in the post or first comment?
According to Instagram, whether you put the hashtags directly in the post or in the first comment does not affect the reach. In order to make your post as clean as possible, we would rely on the second variant.
Use hashtags in the story too
You can also use hashtags in your story. The cool thing about it: Instagram plays its own story collections for certain locations and hashtags, in which stories are displayed by people who have used the same hashtag. If your story appears in this collection, you can easily get more views and attract more people to your profile.
Follow all the steps discussed in this post to get your posts focused on the people you need them to see. These ways are not even enough, you can explore more on hashtags as there exists much useful information about hashtags.
