Let's Hash Out #Instagram

Recently, verified Instagram account @creators shared with its 6.3m strong audience how to make better use of hashtags in their social media posts on the platform.

You’re probably wondering why this change is so significant? Well, according to the above account, people should now aim to include between 3-5 hashtags in their posts.

In this blog, we’re going to explain what hashtags are, how they are used, and take a look back at their history on Instagram.

What Is A Hashtag & How Do I Use It?

So, for those who’re just starting out by setting up your account on Instagram, you’ll benefit from understanding the “What’s and How’s” of hashtags. Put simply, what do they do and how do they help your business?

Hashtags are tags that start with the (#) symbol. They are followed by either; letters, numbers, symbols, or emojis that you can assign to any post you create and share on social media. They’re clickable and can be followed much in the same way that accounts can. They’re a way of labelling your content so it can be found when others search for something similar. Using hashtags is a great way to push your content out to the masses. It’s key to remember to use relevant hashtags.

What Do You Mean By Relevant Hashtags?

What we mean by this is to use hashtags that:

Relate to what you’re posting e.g. the image itself
Relevant to the type of audience you hope see your post e.g. a specific interest held by your target audience when scrolling through Instagram

If your hashtags aren’t relevant enough, the chances of your content being seen by relevant potential customers will be low.

What Has Changed?

In the past, it was encouraged for people to use between 10-30 hashtags in a single post! The idea behind this was to increase the volume of more relevant hashtags, so you had a better chance of being discovered when your hashtags were followed or clicked.

It’s worth noting here, that just because you’re able to include up to 30 hashtags doesn’t mean that you should. It’s hard to pinpoint what the exact “magic” number is for getting this approach right but having too many hashtags can sometimes make matters worse.

Let’s put this into a practice example.

Let’s say you’re a painter and you want to sell a painting that you’ve worked on by promoting it on Instragram. When the time comes to add your hashtags, you think that only 4 are really relevant. The question is, should you go through the trouble of trying to include a possible 30 hashtags just to meet the previous recommendation?

The answer is no. What’s more important is to use the relevant hashtags.

Instagram account @creators noticed this trend and ultimately recommended that we use fewer hashtags, and post hashtags into their captions – rather than the comments section.

So, Why This Change?

From what we can find, it seems to be that hashtags aren’t as popular as they once were for finding new content and accounts on Instagram. Most people search for content using keywords in the search box at the top of Instagram. Now, that doesn’t mean that hashtags aren’t still important, it’s more about the way in which they are used which has changed.

Additionally, the use of up to 30 hashtags wasn’t being used as effectively as it was perhaps intended to be used. Instead, millions of accounts felt the pressure to include loads of hashtags – even if they weren’t relevant – which had a negative impact on their marketing strategy and results. Interestingly, Mention collected data surrounding the effectiveness of hashtags on Instagram. Check out the graph below:

Key Takeaways

Use specific and relevant hashtags
Use between 3-5 hashtags per post
Hashtags are still important and useful tools for content discovery

As you can see, hashtags are still relevant to market your social media content to the right audience. Using them effectively can maximise results.

If you’re looking to see how you can improve your current marketing strategy, why not contact us today?