Understanding Hashtags in Instagram

Since the conceptualization and implementation of hashtags way back in 2007, the dependency of content discovery to the titular protagonist of this article has substantially increased. With a presence across various social media platforms, hashtags have become the most popular way of sorting and discovering content.

Painting a picture speaks volumes in comparison to textual content. Instagram, being a medium of photographs has flourished and businesses have ventured and created a strong social standing on the platform. But it all changed when Instagram decided to change their algorithm to deliver content that the users prefer over content in a chronological order. This caused a giant uproar which later led to weakening of many a brand’s Instagram standing.

The algorithm was also interjected into the hashtag structures to make the whole recipe into a complicated mess. The primary intention of the shift of this model is to get people to spend money on adverts within the application. Though hashtags on the surface look redundant, they’re still a powerful tool at reaching out to your relevant audiences.

Through experimentation, research and learning on my Instagram book blog, @theobviousmystery, I was able to understand the efficiency of hashtags and have compiled a set of best practices below. You can find an example of all the points in the post linked below

• Relevant Hashtags: It is common practice to throw in hashtags in your posts without any relevancy to the post itself. Instagram gives a huge priority to relevance in general. The same applies for hashtags. By using relevant hashtags you’re not only extending your reach but also meeting relevant audiences. For eg. Do no use #fashionblogger for a post about books.
• Do not Repeat hashtags: Using something over and over again depreciates its value. The same concept applies to hashtags too. Try to discover new hashtags and using them on the post. Instagram likes to keep things new and fresh
• The Starbucks Method: You can use a total of thirty hashtags in Instagram. Try splitting these 30 into 6 slots with each having a set of hashtags of varying post size. I will publish a separate article on this.
• Comply to Instagram community principles: Using hashtags that are offensive, have links to nudity or pornography and hashtags that promise inorganic growth such as #followforfollow can get you shadowbanned. Shadow banned is a concept in Instagram where your posts will not appear on any hashtags for a set period of time and lessen your reach drastically.
• Using hashtags in caption vs comment: It is general practice that hashtags are generally used in the captions. Instagram prefers this too. It is not that using in the comments is a crime but its better we do it the way Instagram favors.
• Hashtag research is a thing: Research yield better results every single time! So why not apply it here. Spending time on finding the hashtags relevant to you can incredibly increase your research and facilitate your growth.

Well these are some of the observations that have helped me in growing my account. I really hope they help you too. If you have any questions or know of other hashtag best practices, do let me know! Happy Gramming!