What hashtags should I use on Instagram?

[Edit: This post has been updated in September 2021 to reflect new advice on hashtags given by the Instagram Creators account.]

Figuring out whether you’re using hashtags correctly is a normal part of using Instagram, especially if you’re a small business owner or have little social media experience. There’s a lot of information out there, not to mention hundreds of thousands (if not millions!) of hashtags out there since Instagram’s inception 10 years ago.

Maybe you’ve been using the same hashtags for a few years and aren’t sure where to get started in finding new ones. Maybe you’re up to your eyeballs in hashtag research (or you’ve decided to save yourself the time by buying the Inclusive Hashtag Collection 😉) but you’re still not any clearer on which hashtags will work best for you.

Worry not, friend. I have some tips for you to consider when narrowing down the hashtags to use on your posts.

So, what Instagram hashtags should you be using? It depends on 3 things:

Your audience

Think about the hashtags your customers / clients / ideal audience will likely be using themselves. If your business targets other small business owners or self-employed folks, you could use hashtags like #businesspassionate or #smallbusinesslifestyle. Say you sell jewellery, you may use hashtags like #neverenoughrings or #daintynecklace.

And be sure to take lifestyle (sometimes called community-generated) hashtags into consideration. If your audience consists of creative Disney-heads, they’re likely to hang out at #enchantedcreators, or if they’re voracious readers they’ll probably use something like #junereads.

Using these kinds of hashtags in your posts is a great way to reach new people who will be in the market for what you’re selling.

Your niche

These kinds of hashtags are important because it’s what people will be searching for when they need a service, product, information, or entertainment you deliver. For example, I often use #socialmediatips101 and #smallbizmarketing on my posts so that people in need of advice in this area will be able to find what they are looking for.

You! …yes, you!!!

Most people want to know more about the humans behind the biz. Make sure to use hashtags that best describe you, your interests, your values… anything that tells people who you are as a person. Whether you’re an artist, part of the LGBTQ+ community, a writer, a life coach, a gluten-free blogger… tell people who you are!

These hashtags will help you find your peers with similar life experiences, not just in terms of those who may buy from you, but also other business owners who may be interested in collaborating with you.

Do you just use hashtags from each category?

Depending on the different types of posts you create, you’ll want to use one hashtag theme/group more than the others.

• If you want to build a relationship with your audience over time, use more hashtags about your customers.

• If you want your customers to search for a specific product or service, use more hashtags about your niche.

• If you want to become a thought leader in your industry, use hashtags that describe who you are.

Should you use all 30 hashtags?

With 30 hashtags available to use per post, you may be tempted to do this. I wouldn’t blame you, this has been common advice before, because Instagram had never told us anything to the contrary.

However, in September 2021, the Instagram Creators account annouced that the optimum amount of hashtags to use per post are 3-5, and that adding 10-20 more hashtags won’t actually do anything to improve your posts’ discoverability. Wild, right?

It seems like the platform is opting for relevance of hashtags over quantity, which to be honest isn’t overly suprising considering the growing number of account posting everyday. Still, you should definitely keep on experiementing with the types of hashtags that work for you, keep seeking out niche hashtags relevant to your content, while tracking their performance.

Flick is a great tool for this, as they will track all of your Instagram hashtags’ performance and tell you which ones your posts have ranked in. If you nerd out on analytics, I would highly recommend looking into Flick, as it’s like Instagram Insights on steroids with all of its bonus features.

You also want to be careful about using hashtags with too many lifetime posts, which I speak more about on this post.

And you should always be folding in new hashtags to your posts—my general recommendation for newbies to hashtag strategy is refreshing the hashtags you’re using every couple of months.

I hope this post has been useful in helping you narrow down what kind of hashtags to use when planning around your content. Remember that you have fab content that deserves to be seen by your people! If you’d like to hear me speak more about all things hashtags, listen to me on Episode 27 of the Business Proposal Podcast, or if you’re interested in working together, check out my services page.