It’s common to feel confused about how to best employ Instagram’s hashtags for professional purposes.

To help you expand your company’s Instagram following, I’ll be discussing the proper and improper ways to use hashtags.

I tested my own advice, and the hashtags on a single post of mine generated 12,000 views.
When using Instagram for promotion, how many hash tags should I use?

Hashtags, in their most basic form, are Instagram’s in-house method for labelling and grouping posts.
Other than your username and the name box, there aren’t many search-friendly features or components of Instagram (for more, see this post on optimising your profile).

The true value of hashtags, then, lies in their ability to boost your posts’ and profile’s search engine rankings. Instagram’s equivalent of search engine optimisation is hashtags.

Every Instagram post, however, can only include a maximum of 30 hashtags.

Some authorities claim that the use of thirty hashtags makes a post look spammy. Instead of utilising all thirty of Instagram’s permitted hashtags, they advise focusing on three to five really specific ones. You may try using fewer than 30 good hashtags, as I have, but I find that I get the best reach when I do.

Each hashtag you use expands the pool of potential new followers. If you have 30 chances, there’s no need to waste any of them. In my opinion, that sums up hashtags.

Try it out for yourself and see whether using 30 hashtags on one post vs 5 specialty hashtags on another makes a difference in engagement.

How do I know where to place hashtags on Instagram?

The question was posed to Elise, “Elise, should I put hashtags in my caption, or do they go in the first comment?”

The decision is entirely up to you, so to speak.

Instagram claims that using hashtags in either the caption or the first remark has the same effect on post visibility.

I used to place my hashtags in the first remark since I like to keep them distinct from the caption’s main narrative. You must immediately submit your hashtags in a comment after you publish your post if you want them to be seen. Ideally, within ten to fifteen seconds after posting. In this way, Instagram will link the hashtags you used in the initial remark to this post.
Putting your hashtags in the description is the easiest approach if you don’t want to bother about time and acting extremely fast like this.

Where to look for useful Instagram hashtags

I suggest you begin by having a discussion with your team to choose the most appropriate hashtags for your article.

Here’s the procedure:

Take a good, hard look at the content of your photo or video. Get creative with possible words, and maybe even try typing some of them into Instagram.com as hashtags to see if they show up. Check out Instagram’s suggested hashtags under your search on instagram.com.

Think about possible key phrases by:

• Content of your post
• Where you’ll be stationed
• Brands mentioned in the post Emotions expressed in the post Lifestyle discussed in the article as a caption subject
• What you do and where you fit in

The Explore page is the second location I go when looking for inspiration via hashtags.

Your Instagram profile information is used to personalise the Explore page just for you. In other words, Instagram will only offer you content that it believes you’ll enjoy. Take a look at those comments. Look through the hashtags used in postings that are relevant to your brand, industry, or specialty to see what others are talking about. That’s a terrific way to kickstart the creative process, too.

Instagram Hashtag Selection Tips

Now that you have several potential hashtags in mind, it’s time to choose on a few for actual use.

When you click on a hashtag, you’ll be presented with a wealth of data, including the total number of posts that contain that hashtag.

This is how much a hashtag has grown in popularity. There are certain hashtags that have millions of postings linked with them, making them extremely popular. Some are very specific and limited in scope, with few users and few posts.

The size of the hashtag you should be utilising is something that should be determined by the size of your account.

If your account has a substantial number of followers, you will have more luck being discovered with larger hashtags.

Using popular hashtags might help get your posts viewed by a wider audience, but smaller accounts risk being lost in the sea of content posted by larger ones.

Instagram Story Hashtag Etiquette

In Instagram Stories, you’re limited to ten hashtags. In practise, this means that certain Instagram hashtags may be used to locate your Stories.

When posting to Stories, you should avoid using hashtags that are too specific. Select broad, industry-related terms that best describe your company. When it comes to hashtags in Stories, you want to think big. This is due to the fact that Stories only exist for a day.

The Instagram Eyedropper and the Art of Hiding Hashtags in Your Stories
Blend your hashtags into your Story’s backdrop using the eyedropper tool. Hide your hashtags by making the text the same colour as the rest of your article.

Try to use fewer hashtags

Reduce the size of your hashtags, but not too much. It’s preferable to reduce their size before selecting an appropriate GIF to hide up the hashtags. You shouldn’t reduce the size of the hashtags too much since Instagram won’t recognise them as trending topics if they’re unreadable.