How to Use Hashtags on Instagram

Instagram is a great social platform to showcase quality images of your products, share helpful information with your followers, and connect to a larger community of like-minded people. How exactly do you connect with a community on Instagram? The answer is simple: use Instagram hashtags!

Hashtags are a defining feature of social media, and they continue to serve their purpose in connecting communities and fostering brand opportunities. Of course, hashtags are also tricky to use, and many of our social media clients inevitably ask for advice on using Instagram hashtags. How do you use hashtags on Instagram? How many hashtags can you use on Instagram?

Learning how to navigate Instagram can boost your brand’s profile to the next level. Let Summit Collaborations demystify the world of Instagram hashtags—we’ve answered the most common questions below!

Why Use Instagram Hashtags?

There are many reasons to use Instagram hashtags. You can increase your chance of being seen by ideal followers when you incorporate the hashtags that they are also following. Using hashtags that are pertinent to your brand, business, or product will help you connect with a larger community that you may not otherwise meet.

Some brands create their own unique hashtags so that their loyal followers and customers can be a part of your online brand community. Those hashtags help create more engagement between your brand and your loyal audience.

Additionally, if you want to participate in larger campaigns such as holidays or other social fads, using hashtags is the way to go. By using the collaborative hashtag, you join the conversation and participate in the larger campaign taking place.

Instagram hashtags give brands access to the following:

  • Connections to the larger local and industry community.
  • Brand loyalty through the use of custom hashtags.
  • Access to social conversations, fads, and campaigns.

How to Choose the Best Hashtags for Instagram

Choosing Instagram hashtags seems to be the most difficult part of incorporating them. A little bit of competitor research goes a long way when choosing which hashtags to use. Figure out who your competitors are, as well as who your ideal audience is.

Take note of what hashtags your competitors are using and do a little research into those hashtags! Click on them and see what kind of posts are also using those hashtags.

Find your ideal customers on Instagram and look at what hashtags they are interacting with. Click on those hashtags as well and investigate further.

Tools for Researching Instagram Hashtags

Once you’ve done some research into what kinds of hashtags you think you should be using, seek out a helpful online tool to help you cultivate hashtags. Check out two of our favorites:

Instagram Hashtag Generator

This free tool will help you cultivate hashtags by using keywords. It is simple and easy-to-use!

All Hashtag

All Hashtag has been around for a while and as such as greatly improved their offerings! You can get the top 30 hashtags for your keywords in just the click of a button. There are many options to explore using this tool.

How Many Instagram Hashtags Should I Use?

You can use up to 30 hashtags on a post (and 10 tags on an Instagram story). Still, although you won’t be penalized for using 30 hashtags versus 5, don’t overload your post with irrelevant or unnecessary hashtags. Your posts might gain more visibility this way, but too many hashtags can harm your brand’s authenticity.

Remember, the goal of hashtags is to boost your profile while retaining your brand image. Use hashtags to craft this image, not to harm it. Start small with 3-5 hashtags, and if these seem to do well, you can consider moving up to the 10 or 15 range.

Finally, many brands hide their hashtags beneath the “read more” of the caption. You can do this by hitting enter, inserting a period, and repeating this 5 or 6 times until the hashtags are buried below your caption.

Need Help with Instagram Hashtags?

If Instagram hashtags and social media marketing feel a bit over your head, don’t worry! Summit Collaborations is prepared to help you navigate the world of social media marketing and grow your business online. Reach out to us today for more information—we’ll be happy to discuss an Instagram strategy with you!