Instagram hashtags work in a complex way. Just using the most popular and trending hashtags doesn’t cut it.
I’m saying this from my own personal experience. I used to put in the most popular hashtags of my niche in my Instagram caption and then get disappointed when I get trashy reach from it.
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Why popular hashtags aren’t the best ones
It’s quite simple. All the popular hashtags have over a million posts in them easily.
Most popular hashtags have over 10 million posts. It makes it difficult for your post to climb up on the top 9 posts in these hashtags.
Because everyone is using it, the competition level is very high. If your caption has all the hashtags of the popular and trending category, the reach is bound to be a bare minimum.
For example, I post portraits on my Instagram. If I search #portraits in the search bar on Instagram, I see the following hashtags in the top results:
These top hashtags have way over 1 million posts. #portraitphotography has 32 million! The chances of your post crawling up to the top 9 posts are close to none.
Whereas, if you scroll down a little, you will see:
The hashtags like #portraitsmf will be easier to rank on. It has just 36,831 posts in it.
How to find more similar hashtags?
Click on #portraitsmf and you will be redirected to a page that shows all the posts in it. Click on the arrow beside the follow button and it will suggest you similar hashtags.
Keep a check on the number of posts in those hashtags. 15-200k is a good number.
Also Read: How To Use Instagram Stories To Get More Followers
Which hashtags will work for you
This is not one of those posts where I will list down the hashtags for you. The whole point of having unique and less popular hashtags will be in the drain because then every reader of the blog will be using the same set.
As a result, those hashtags will become populated too.
Here’s how to find hashtags for your posts. Do not use the same ones again by copy-pasting them from the previous post to a new one.
What do you see in this picture?
Have a look at the hashtags I put in the caption. The portrait has neon lighting so I have put 2-3 in neon-related hashtags.
Brandon Woelfel and Kai Boet are great portrait photographers and are quite popular on Instagram.
Usually, an artist’s own hashtag is not that competitive. That’s why I have used #kaiboet (1,000+ posts) and #brandonwoelfel (140k+ posts).
Another reason why I chose their hashtags was that Brandon shoots with neon lights and signs too. Kai Boet’s portraits are amazingly retouched and most of them are close-ups.
So, the trick is to find other famous artists who have a similar theme as your post and use their hashtag.
Where to start your search for the perfect hashtag
Look for the artist in your city/niche whose post always shows up on your feed.
See the hashtags they have used in the caption and try to find the one with less number of posts in them.
You just have to find one. You can find the rest by seeing the suggested hashtags in the way I explained above.
Also Read: 35 FREE Aesthetic Frames For Instagram Post And Stories (Transparent PNG)
Getting a higher reach from the hashtags you used
Getting the best out of the hashtags you used is a bit lengthy process. But when you see the reach your post gets, it is worth it.
Always make sure that you’re active on Instagram around 15 minutes before you are about to publish a post.
And you should have about half an hour in your hands after you post, to help boost the post you did.
So, what do you after you hit the share button?
Click on the hashtags in your caption and engage with random posts that you see in that hashtag. Only comment on the posts you like and the comments should be genuine.
Don’t post spammy and fake-appreciative comments. Do this for about 6-7 of the hashtags you used.
This will help your post to rank higher in those hashtags.
How to get a more engaging audience on your posts
Again, head over to the profiles of the top artists in your niche and see the commentor’s profiles.
Because they commented, we are sure they are active on Instagram. Go to their profile and engage with their posts.
These people are more likely to come back to your profile and do the same.
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