5 Smarter Ways to Use Instagram Hashtags in 2019

Instagram hashtags have been a thing for sometime and will likely continue so in 2019 and above. When you think of hashtags, Instagram and Twitter readily come to mind, Facebook too. The use of hashtags (originally called pound signs) online didn’t start until the late 1990s as they were used on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) to create and categorize groups.

What has now become a trend with almost every post you find on the internet did not start until 2007. A decade and some after, the use of hashtags has now become a norm with almost every posts you find online featuring one or more.

The following chart shows how Instagram hashtags have trended in the last couple of years.

5-Year Google Trends of Instagram Hashtags

Between 2017 and 2018 there has been a renewed interest in Instagram hashtags as seen in the chart above.

Perhaps you know the importance of using Instagram hashtags. You have probably used hashtags for Instagram a couple of times too when posting on your Instagram page. And you probably think there’s nothing more to learn about Instagram hashtags. Well think again.

You see, social media is ever evolving. This means that what you know today about how to use Instagram hashtags for instance, may become obsolete by tomorrow. To not get left behind, here are

5 Smarter Ways to Use Instagram Hashtags in 2019

1 – Find Trending Instagram Hashtags

Instagram uses hashtags to sort through the around 95 million photos posted on Instagram every day. Without this, it would be almost impossible for Instagram to efficiently deliver to you the right content when you’re looking for it.

This means that hashtags for Instagram give your posts more exposure, visibility and discoverability. If you run a business account, you can find and use trending hashtags in your posts to gain more views. You can find them by searching for the best hashtags on Instagram. In 2018, some of the most used hashtags were:

• #photooftheday
• #me
• #cute

Trending Instagram hashtags like these make your posts visible to both followers and non followers alike.

2 – Use Analytics

To use Instagram hashtags effectively, you need to use an analytics tool. The more you use these analytics, the more you will discover the relationships between key hashtags in your most popular posts. Knowing this helps you to make smarter decisions on what hashtags works well for your brand. If you’re simply up for likes, this analytics tools can also help you discover hashtags for likes you can use.

While there are analytics tools, you can choose to do it manually by using excel spreadsheets. This means that you will have to manually keep tabs on which Instagram hashtags to use, how often it has been used and the several other correlations across board.

This will take plenty of time. And it can get pretty overwhelming. Imagine trying to manually keep track if you post 5 times a day and you use 15 hot Instagram hashtags per post. So it is highly recommended that you use an analytics tool to track all the data in one dashboard.

3 – Research Hot Instagram Hashtags

Another smarter way you can get the best Instagram hashtags to use for your posts is by finding out what other Instagram users are looking for online. This is a major pointer in helping you identify the best hashtags and really useful hashtags for Instagram.

You can make a list of competitors and find out what hashtags they are using. You can do this for influencers too. Find out what influencers in your industry are hashtagging and try to jump on the train.

4 – Find Out What Works for You

Research shows that 91% of top brands use seven or less Instagram hashtags per post. If you have seen this statistics before, you may think this is the norm and you may try to implement this when posting on Instagram.

Truth is with the large number of followers many of these top brands have, they don’t necessarily have to use hashtags for likes. They also may not necessarily need hashtags to get the awareness they need.

But if you don’t have the kind of numbers that works for them, you should find out what works for you. Blindly imitating what these top brands do may hurt you and your Instagram hashtag campaigns.

5 – Use a Brand Campaign Hashtag

This is one of the trickiest ways to go about Instagram hashtags. Some businesses have successfully attracted followers by creating their own campaign hashtag. A campaign hashtag needs to be funny, clever, or at least memorable in order to work.

Whenever you see hashtags, it is being used to promote a new product or an upcoming event. These Instagram hashtags are usually different from those that are trending. You can use these kinds of hashtag and also make it trend.

You can search for influencers in your industry who will use your hashtags in their posts. These can make your posts to be easily found.

Conclusion

You can make your 2019 social marketing efforts memorable by using these Instagram hashtags tips to create more awareness for your brand, products or services. Masterfully combined with several other Instagram hacks you could set yourself apart from the competition, stand out, attract and convert more followers into fans.

Author Bio

Amos Onwukwe is an AWAI trained Business and Ecommerce Copywriter. He has been featured in Huffington Post, Dumb Little Man, eCommerce Insights, Ecommerce Nation, Understanding Ecommerce, Result First, Floship, SmallBizClub, Successful Startup 101, Small Business Bonfire, Rabid Office Monkey to name a few.

He’s available for hire.

Twitter: @amos_Onwukwe