How To Choose The Best Hashtags For Instagram

Hashtags aren’t just some decorations or fillers to your lengthy, emoji-filled captions. Remember the story of Hansel and Gretel? Instagram hashtags are like those breadcrumbs that serve as traces, leading the users to where they have to be. The only difference is, you’re the one dropping these breadcrumbs in front of them, showing them the direction to your treats—your posts and whatever it is you’ve got to offer.

Thus, if you want more people to find your page and further widen your reach, it’s a must to know how these hashtags actually work. And if you want to get started now, we’ve got you covered. Read on because, in this article, we’ll share everything you need to know about choosing the best hashtags for your next posts on the ‘Gram!

The Do’s…

Before we get into the choosing part, of course, you have to know a few do’s and dont’s. These will help you strengthen the foundation of your game plan for your IG strategy.

Research your audience

Knowing your target market

If you’re on Instagram to sell merch or simply gain more viewers for your content, you have to know who exactly your audience is. And apart from making a detailed persona of your target market, you must also research their interests to ensure that your brand’s aligned with these.

You can start by browsing pages similar to your niche or looking up posts with hashtags related to your field. You can do this across all platforms, such as Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook, to make sure that you get a good grasp of who your target audience is.

Your current audience

Of course, you also have to pay attention to your current followers. Before you plan your future posts, make sure that you know who has seen your previous ones and how they have reacted to them.

In fact, with your Instagram business account, you can easily access the insights to your existing content and your overall page. These insights include the following:

• Accounts Reached or Accounts Engaged. This shows the number of users your posts have reached and their age ranges, gender, countries, and other demographics.
• Total followers. Similar to the Accounts Reached metrics, this gives you a glimpse of the trends and demographics amongst your current followers.
• Interactions. This shows the engagements for each video, image post, reels, etc.
• Discovery. This lets you know how many users, including non-followers, have viewed your posts and where they’ve found them.

Know your competitors

This one’s a no-brainer, especially if you’re on the Instagram for business. As of 2021, there are over 200 million Instagram business accounts. And thousands, or perhaps even millions of these, are under the same niche you’re in. Hence, if you want your page and content to stand out, you must see how your competitors work. You can try browsing their pages, looking at their interactions, and most importantly, paying attention to the hashtags they’re using.

And the Don’ts

Of course, a playbook isn’t complete without the don’ts. Aside from taking into account the do’s above, you must also try your best to avoid these.

Be boring and irrelevant

NEVER use unnecessary hashtags or those that are too common. You wouldn’t want to find your content about the K-pop merch you’ve designed amongst football or #adulting posts. If you don’t want your audience and content to get lost, make sure that the hashtags you’re using are related to the actual subject of your videos or images.

Use too many hashtags

Don’t let hashtags clutter your posts. While IG allows up to 30 hashtags per caption, it’d be nice to use around 5 to 10 relevant ones that would truly capture your target audience.

Wait too long

If there’s a trending hashtag related to your niche or target market, don’t wait too long before using it on your content. In this fast-paced internet world, trends and posts have a very short lifespan, so make sure to make the most out of each.

Choosing the Best Instagram Hashtags for Your Account

And we’ll get down to business. Now that you’re more prepped when it comes to curating your content, here are three fool-proof ways to choose the best hashtags for your IG account.

Make It as Unique as You!

When you post your content, you’re not only selling your merch or sharing your creations—you’re communicating your brand and making them known to your audience. Thus, if you want the viewers to remember you or your page, create a unique hashtag for your business. It can be as simple as your company name, a tagline, or a specific product.

You may also make ones you can include in specific kinds of content. For example, if you’re selling custom bags and your business’ name is Totally Totes, you can use hashtags like #TotallyThoughts for your relatable posts and #TotallyTotesTuesdays for your Tuesday design releases.

Keep It Simple

Don’t complicate things. Make sure that your hashtags are easy to understand and remember. This will make it easier for users to find the hashtags and use them in their comments and posts. Hence, while it’s nice that you’ve got hashtags unique to your brand, don’t forget to include ones that are simple and searchable.

The Research Doesn’t Stop

Research, research, research. Every day, millions of trends and discoveries arise on the internet. Hence, you have to stay updated by constantly researching the trending hashtags you can use for your page. Furthermore, if you’re just starting, this would be the best way to familiarize yourself with the hashtags being used in your niche.

Aside from browsing competitor pages, you can do this by using hashtag generators like All Hashtag and Bingbangram. You may also read articles or browse lists of trending hashtags related to a specific topic on sites like HootSuite and Influencer Marketing Hub.

Just a Few More Tips For Best Instagram Hashtags

Now, perhaps you’re more than ready to create attention-grabbing captions with your surefire hashtags finally. However, before we let you do your thing, here are a few more tips you might want to consider.

The Numbers Matter

Hashtags aren’t all about words and phrases. To make sure you reach a significant audience, you also have to pay attention to the numbers. It’s advisable to cross out hashtags with less than 20,000 to 30,000 uses and those with more than 300k. The former means that only a few people use the term or phrase in their searches, while the latter means that the posts under the hashtag are too saturated.

Cross out Any One-word Hashtags

It’s not wrong to use a one-word hashtag. However, hashtags like this can be too common and ambiguous. For example, if you’re selling hats and shirts with floral designs, don’t use one-word hashtags like #flowers. Chances are you’ll find your content buried amongst gardening posts.

Nonetheless, if you can’t avoid using these, just make sure they are 100% related to your brand or your content’s subject.

Diversify Your Hashtags

Don’t hesitate to shake things up and use short and longtail hashtags. While most people may be too lazy to type long keywords in their search bar, some are looking for specific products or content that use long, specific names or descriptions. Thus, make sure that your posts have both the short, captivating hashtags and the long, thorough ones.

Ready to publish your next trending post?

And that’s everything you need to know about choosing the best Instagram hashtags for your page. Now, all that’s left for you to do is curate your hashtags and make sure that they reach your target audience, and wait for your interactions to soar up in no time!