How to find the best hashtags for Instagram

Knowing what and how to use the best hashtags for Instagram can greatly benefit your profile. It can help extend your reach, engage the right and targeted audience, work better with the Instagram algorithm, and boost public brand awareness. However, to gain these benefits, there are certain strategies you must know first. In addition, it can often be difficult to gauge trending topics and the lists of hashtags that are making rounds on the world wide web.

Instagram marketing is different from Facebook and Twitter. This means that using hashtags on the social photo-sharing app means something entirely different for your profile and audience. The hardest part is coming up with the right strategy for your specific brand.

You need to tailor the hashtags you will use according to the type of profile you’re endorsing. Check out the rest of this article for a more detailed guide on using the best hashtags for Instagram.

Hashtags and trending topics

Hashtags are now a huge part of the internet, especially on social media platforms. In more ways than one, they are an effective tool at finding out the latest trending topics. People use them to keep track of certain events, people, places, and whatever else.

They are also used to make something go trending. If enough people use the same hashtag, it becomes viral and more people will talk about it until basically everyone knows.

Relevant hashtags may also become viral simply for being related to an already viral hashtag. This tool is quite effective for many brands, celebrities, organizations, and mass movements. Hashtags certainly get the ball rolling, and they can be a very effective tool for your Instagram profile if you use them right.

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Finding the best hashtags for Instagram

Popular hashtags on Instagram aren’t necessarily the same hashtags that are trending on Twitter and other platforms. Sometimes, business owners use hashtag generators to make sure they are using the right and relevant ones. It is important to know which ones to use to maximize the benefits you want for your profile. First, figure out your branding or theme and work from there.

Some hashtags are better used together because they are relevant to one another. Therefore, your chances of gaining more likes and followers would be to use these hashtags together. Below are some top hashtags sorted out by category, depending on how you want to use them.

Profile Hashtags

If you are only building up your profile and gaining more followers, you can use hashtags as a tool. This is more likely if you are a new Instagram user. There are communities out there who might be into the same things as you. However, if you are not yet too concerned about your target audience and want to build up a steady stream of followers first, you can use these hashtags.

• #followme
• #likeforlike
• #like4like
• #follow4follow
• #followforfollow
• #f4f

If you’re okay with random followers racking up your follower count, these are the hashtags that might generate new followers. The quality of these users may vary as these are usually Instagram profiles that trade likes and follows to gain traffic to their pages. If you use hashtags like #follow4follow, that means you have to follow them back once they start following you.

Location Hashtags

If your business has a physical location or you’re based somewhere, you can use this to your advantage. Use your city or town’s name as a hashtag.

Come up with catchy hashtags or ones that the most popular merchants use in the same business as you are if it’s generic to the area. For example, #NYCLife or #CityOfDreams are pretty generic. Partner this with other related hashtags like traveling or the kind of places your business is associated with.

• #travelgram
• #wanderlust
• #vacation
• #staycation
• #beachweather
• #tourist
• #travelbug
• #traveltuesday
• #wanderlustwednesday

Brand Hashtags

Apart from the details on your profile bio and the theme you have going for your brand, trending hashtags can help you get more exposure. You can use a couple of them to build brand awareness. Try coming up with something that suits your branding, whether it’s something witty or sentimental. These hashtags can also be only exclusive to your brand, so people know it’s yours.

For example, #MaybeItsMaybelline is popular because it is catchy and only associated with the makeup company. Pair these up with other relevant hashtags as well. If you are doing giveaways, try some generic hashtags together with your specific one if that is how you will monitor entries.

• #instagiveaway
• #instacontest
• #winitwednesday
• #giveaway
• #contestalert
• #contestentry
• #winit
• #freebie

Timely and Trending Hashtags

So many global happenings trended on mainstream media because of hashtags. This is another way that hashtags are useful not just for promotion but also for calling people’s attention. Current events in the news and the media also often use hashtags so people can monitor these events in real-time.

Suppose you are growing a media company or starting in journalism. In that case, you have to stay updated with the currently trending hashtags related to your field of reporting and partner them with other hashtags.

• #breakingnews
• #currentevents
• #happeningrightnow
• #trendingtopic
• #watchnow
• #live
• #stayupdated

Entertainment Hashtags

These hashtags are geared towards strengthening the branding you already have with your audience rather than establishing it. These are often specific hashtags and made to sound catchy, so your target audience is more inclined to buy.

Generic ones haven’t banned hashtags though. You can still use them. Maybe together or on specific posts, depending on your social media strategy.

• #styleinspo
• #shopitlikeitshot
• #bigsalesbigsavings
• #ootd
• #outfitoftheday
• #shoppingaddict
• #beautydoesnthavetobepain
• #currentlywearing
• #lookgoodfeelgood
• #makinglifeeasier
• #weekendmoviemarathon

Lifestyle Hashtags

If you are building a brand targeted towards a specific niche, it’s best to use hashtags related to the industry you’re in. For example, health food stores can use #eatclean #eatgreen and other variations of the same sort. Specific niche hashtags are more likely to show up on people’s feeds who are interested in what you have to sell or promote. Some of these hashtags are pretty generic as well.

• #instafood
• #foodporn
• #foodie
• #organic
• #healthyeats
• #vegetarian
• #vegan
• #glutenfree
• #homemade
• #madefromscratch
• #lookgoodfeelgood
• #feeltheburn
• #nopainnogain
• #cardio
• #fitfam
• #yogafordays
• #fitlife
• #trainhard
• #noexcuses
• #puppylove
• #mansbestfriend
• #womansbestfriend
• #catsofinstagram
• #dogsofinstagram
• #dogstagram
• #doglife
• #catlife
• #instapet

Generic Hashtags

Generic hashtags are ones that you can generally apply to any post. They are frequently used, and thus, are also frequently followed and looked at by Instagram users. Due to this high reach, there is a high chance that your post will get noticed. A good strategy would be to use both a branded hashtag and a generic one and see if that works for your branding.

• #photooftheday
• #instagood
• #nofilter
• #loveinstagood
• #lovelivelaugh
• #tbt
• #picoftheday
• #nature
• #lifeisgood
• #instapic
• #instadaily
• #selfie
• #instamood
• #bestoftheday

Special Events Hashtags

A single post can rack up to hundreds of likes with just a single hashtag if it’s popular enough and crosses many people’s timelines. Hashtags can also signify special events in your life that you want the world to see. Apart from coming up with witty hashtags and taglines for your wedding, birthday, or anniversary, you can use some of the most popular special events hashtags out there.

• #tyingtheknot
• #heasked
• #shesaidyes
• #junewedding
• #sayyestothedress
• #loveislove
• #stockingstuffers
• #merrychristmas
• #underthetree
• #spookyhalloween
• #happythanksgiving
• #valentineformyvalentine
• #happyfourth
• #newyearseve
• #holidaycraze
• #holidayspirit
• #kwanzaa
• #hanukkahgift
• #eidalfitr
• #eidmubarak

How do Instagram hashtags work?

To put it plainly, hashtags are clickable phrases and topics you can attach to almost every post on social media. It uses the character “#” to signify that it is a working hashtag. You will be redirected to other similar posts with the same content or something relevant to it when you click it.

It works pretty much the same way on Instagram. On the discover page, a search bar is on the top, and you can search and browse any content on Instagram with the same hashtag.

Since posts on Instagram with hashtags are used to discover content, you can use hashtags that are popular or relevant and gain a steady stream of an audience if they follow that hashtag. Just be sure to put your profile on public so everyone can view it if your goal is to amass likes and views. You can even add hashtags to your profile bios and Instagram stories now.

Will using hashtags help you gain more followers?

As mentioned before, using free hashtags on your posts can help you maximize audience reach and engagement. Each hashtag serves a different purpose and will take any user who clicks on them to a specific page dedicated only to that hashtag. Using the right ones will up your chances of crossing people’s timelines. If they take an interest and find your content relevant, they might follow you or your brand-specific hashtag.

Do hashtags guarantee more followers? The right ones will often gain you a few follows, but it’s not always a guarantee. That’s why many startup businesses and brands use plenty of hashtags in hopes of gaining some traction in one or the other.

That’s part of their hashtag strategies. Additionally, if you study Instagram’s algorithms, verified accounts usually gain top posts on hashtag pages, so that’s another strategy you might want to look into as well.

Summary

Hashtags are free, thank goodness, and they are a useful tool available to everyone. You can stay updated with your favorite celebrities, get real-time updates on breaking news events, see relevant content on your timeline, and promote all you want using hashtags. Unfortunately, in apps like Twitter, the character count is limited, so hashtags are often limited.

Instagram allows for longer captions in posts. There are strategies to hide hashtags from the caption, so it doesn’t look like an eyesore or spam when people click on it. You can use up to thirty hashtags on Instagram too, and maximizing that would be a good idea if you’re just starting. A pretty consistent takeaway from most users is that using a couple of hashtags (more than one or two) will generate more clicks and views.