{"id":40399,"date":"2020-04-29T10:16:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T08:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/?p=40399\/"},"modified":"2020-04-29T10:16:53","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T08:16:53","slug":"how-to-use-hashtags-on-instagram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sotrender.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/how-to-use-hashtags-on-instagram\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use hashtags on Instagram and get meaningful results"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s start with a strong statement: <\/span>hashtags are immensely important on Instagram<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>You don\u2019t think so? You don\u2019t believe that they work? Well, I have to say that you are doing something wrong then. \ud83d\ude09\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today I\u2019ll guide you through tips for choosing the right hashtags, ways of looking for relevant ones, and analysing the results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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While deciding on which hashtags you should use in your posts, you should remember about following some rules.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Use relevant hashtags<\/b><\/h2>\n

Adding hashtags which are relevant to your posts is extremely important.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You may wonder, what does <\/span>relevant<\/span><\/i> in this case mean? In general, a relevant hashtag is the one that<\/span> represents clearly what is in a post you\u2019ve added<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important for two reasons: it\u2019s what Instagram\u2019s algorithm and users see.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Instagram perspective: <\/span><\/i>the algorithm<\/span><\/a> knows perfectly well what is in the picture or in a video you\u2019ve added. It may not favour your content once you add irrelevant hashtags often.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. User perspective: <\/span><\/i>once users find what they were actually looking for, there is a much bigger chance that they\u2019ll engage with your content, find it interesting and helpful. On the other hand, when they find something completely not relevant, they might just get irritated and may even report your post.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Imagine that you are looking for jewelry DIY inspiration and while browsing you find photos of cats or italian cuisine. Would you be interested in that? Would you engage? Most probably not. You will keep on scrolling unless you find what you are looking for.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s take a look at this real-life example taken from Instagram:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"hashtags<\/p>\n

    Here, a user has used, among many, hashtag #books. Was it a right move? Not necessarily, as there is no book on a photo. More relevant would be using hashtags like: #nature or #butterfly. There are also only 3 likes, which is not surprising.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    You most probably know that it\u2019s possible to follow a hashtag. But what you may not know is that you can kind of report if a post with this hashtag is not relevant to the hashtag results. Simply click the 3 dots next to the post and choose \u201cDon\u2019t show for this hashtag option\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    If many users happen to do that to your content, Instagram\u2019s algorithm will assume that your posts are not interesting and hashtags you use are not related to what you actually post. Your posts may be shown less often then, e.g. in the Explore Page, and your likes and engagement may drop as a result.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    To sum up the first rule, you have to remember that <\/span>hashtags won\u2019t be working, and what is more important, won\u2019t be effective, if you use random ones<\/b>. They should be well thought out, as they aren\u2019t less important than your creation or caption.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Say no to hashtags that are too popular<\/b><\/h2>\n

    Context and the meaning of hashtags is one thing, but what also matters is their size and volume, meaning how big they are (how big is their usage).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    You may wonder what do we mean by saying<\/span> big <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>small <\/span><\/i>hashtags. Well, a big hashtag is for example #book, which was used in total more than 45 million times. On the other hand, #booksareforeveryone, was used only 570 times, which makes it a small hashtag.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    In practice, it means that <\/span>you can\u2019t expect significant results by using hashtags which are rarely used <\/b>(in our example: #booksareforeveryone), because these are simply not popular and almost no one is looking for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    On the other hand, hashtags which were used millions of times (in our case: #books), are just the opposite: they are way too popular. Other users are adding it too often to make your content easy to find and noticed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    You may wonder then, how big hashtags should you use.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Well, there are some general rules:<\/span><\/p>\n