Tip - How many hashtags to use in an Instagram post?

[Former_Member]

Hi Everyone,

Hashtags are crucial on Instagram. They aggregate posts on a particular topic. You are allowed up to 30 hashtags in a post. However, using 30 hashtags in a post will definitely make your post come across as spam.

Relevance is more important than number. The objective of using a hashtag should be to make your post findable in appropriate streams. Even if you use extremely popular, but unrelated, hashtags, your posts (no matter how good they are) will not receive engagement as users are looking for posts on a completely different topic

Up to 10 hashtags is good for engagement as long as all of them are relevant. Here is an easy way to find relevant hashtags:

- Instagram Search: You can look for ‘Tags’ in Instagram’s search bar. You’ll also get the total number of posts per tag.

Note: Search results for singular and plural tags are different on Instagram. For e.g. Etsyshop and Etsyshops will give you different posts. Make sure you include both - singular and plural form - of tags for important search words.

Next time, do a quick search for relevant hashtags on Instagram before posting. It’s not as important to use a specific number of hashtags as it is to use correct hashtags.

How many hashtags do you use? If you have any useful tips on hashtags, do share them with us.

Akanksha

[KittyStoykovich]

Great post of info! thanks :-)

[Former_Member]

You're welcome Kitty. I am so glad you liked the post. Let us know what worked for you.

Akanksha

[Knit360five]

Hashtags were something I forgot to use until recently. Time will tell if it brings me any traffic. Searching the hashtags are also a good way to find people to follow and/or see what kind of posts are going under that hashtag.

[Former_Member]

I use on the main message between 4-6 hashtags that are most impactful for that initial finding, and then use the first comment to add the rest in order to maximize using hashtags.

A great FREE resource to learn how to maximize your use of Instagram is following: @theinstagramexpert


A few other pointers:

- make your own store hashtags (double check if is unique for obvious reason)
- ask your clients to use a specific hashtag to find and share their purchase photos (free advertising ;)
- learn what are the hashtag in your community that best represent your business and stick to repeating and alternating those from time to time
- use the free service of "iconosquare.com" and learn when, how often and what kind of photos your audience is most active, which photos got most likes and most comments. This is free!
- always search ahead of time each hashtag and double check what kind of photos are related under this (last thing you want is an inapropiate image that doesn't represent the message your business portraits)
- lastly, avoid the highly popular hashtags. why? this will drown your photos and be less likely for new customers to see your upload.

I'm a bit of a nerd, but by no means any expert :P Hope this helps :)

[Former_Member]

Thanks, Jessy. Those are some great tips.

Akanksha

[Former_Member]

Glad to help a bit :-) Happy selling everyone!

[kikiverde]

Does anyone have tips or ideas on which hashtags to search to find potential customers? All I seem to find it fellow handmade entrepreneurs (which is awesome) but I'd love to also be able to reach people who would potentially be interested in buying my products.

[Former_Member]

@kikiverde - Hashtags would work similar to tags on Etsy. Your potential target audience would use keywords to search for relevant posts / deals / from sellers on Instagram. Using these keywords as hashtags will help you in being found in such searches. You need to focus on being on top of these searches by posting frequently.

I hope this helps.

Akanksha

[inalittlebit]

I use whatever is relevant to what I am posting. I will try to engage with those who comment and check who likes the photo too. I use anywhere from 5-10 hash tags it gets rough sometimes when you got to rack your brain on what to post. But you got to keep at it. I really like the idea of hashtagging in the comments. I didn't know you could do that. :)