The Guide to Using Instagram Hashtags

Getting noticed being noticed on Instagram feels nice if you're doing it for pleasure. However, if it's your intention to use Instagram to increase awareness of your company double-taps acquire a new meaning.

In the face of 1.16 billion Instagram accounts competing for attention, getting into the spotlight is getting more challenging. So what can you do to make yourself stand out?

There are a variety of ways to increase your Instagram presence, and making use of Instagram hashtags is one of them. When used properly hashtags will attract more attention and increase engagement for your content.

To help you develop an effective hashtag strategy I've prepared this guide with simple tips, tricks, and templates. I'll also provide my own personal experience about how I increased my followers. After this guide, I've included an extensive list of 500+ popular Instagram hashtags you can paste to your posts and get discovered by a new audience on Instagram!

How do hashtags work?

Hashtags organize content by topics and assist Instagram to understand what your content is about. A brief look at the history of hashtags: in 2007, Twitter users complained that they were seeing too much content. To address the issue, American blogger and product consultant Chris Messina suggested:

Although Twitter has allegedly replied by saying "these things are for nerds" however, a string of events resulted in the first widespread usage of hashtags that let users easily track updates. As of the decade, hashtags were made to use on all social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube.

But why do brands use hashtags so avidly? They function as filters for the awe-inspiring quantity of content that is posted on the platform every single day and help users to locate relevant and interesting posts. Let's see how content is sorted.

Disclaimer: It is good until June 30th 2022. The coupon is redeemable for purchases on the Printful website and will not be exchanged to cash. The coupon is not applicable to orders for samples. The coupon is for one-time usage only. It can not be duplicated or combined with any other coupon. The coupon excludes shipping fees as well as taxes.

How does the Instagram algorithm work?

As we've seen, hashtags connect content that is related to a specific topic. To understand why we use hashtags on Instagram allow us to focus on the mechanism for a while, starting by looking at the algorithms.

Instagram's algorithm Instagram algorithm is an algorithm that determines what content is displayed in the app. If you visit your Instagram feed the content you see is a blend of all your Instagram behaviors. More specifically, there are six factors that affect the Instagram algorithm:

• Interest--If a user actively interacts with an account, Instagram will boost the posts of the account

• Relationships--the Instagram algorithm is designed to prioritize posts from people or brands who the user connects with most

• The time for posting is important to Instagram as it wants to offer its users fresh content so it takes note of the time since a post was published

• Frequency: Instagram checks how often the user logs into the app. For those who frequent scrolling it will display a feed that is more chronological. For people who don't have a lot of time, the feed will be curated according to what the system thinks users will enjoy the most.

• Following--If an account is followed by many Instagram accounts Instagram has a lot of content to choose from and will not show all posts on the feed.

• Usage--The more time a user spends on the app and the more time they spend on it, the more efficient Instagram is at finding relevant content based on user preferences

All of these factors come into the helm when it comes to your visibility on a page with hashtags. The more popular your post appears, the better, as it's more easily discovered by those who haven't followed you on Instagram yet. If you want to follow hashtags on Instagram navigate to the Explore tab (the small magnifying glass icon) in the section called Tags. select the hashtag you're interested in, then click Follow. Then you'll see the most popular posts using this hashtag on your feed.

If you're an online store owner, here's one more reason to create Business Accounts--the in-app Shop feature. Connect your account to your Facebook catalog and begin tagging products in your photos and stories. When a person clicks the item on the photo it will automatically take them into your Facebook shop for more information.

It's all about experimentation and analysis of your account's performance. The Business Account helps you do that. Be active, engage with other Instagram accounts, take as much action as you can using Instagram pods or DM groups. You can also keep track of your the performance of your entire account.

More on Inflact.