4 Tips to Optimise Your Instagram Hashtag in 2020

Tip #1: Give More Thought to What Hashtags You Use

Instead of using the most popular hashtags on Instagram, it’s best to find and use hashtags that are smaller, more niche, and have an engaged audience that’s relevant to your industry.

The best way is to look and see what Instagram hashtags your audience, competitors, and industry leaders are already using.

We’ve noticed that the more niche the topic, the more conversations users are having around it, so it pays off to really hone-in on a topic or theme. And you’d be surprised by how niche hashtags can get!

Tip #2: Keep Your Hashtags Organised

Using 10+ hashtags in your posts and stories is a good sweet spot and could improve your engagement rate.

But does that mean you always have to use that many hashtags?

No, not at all! We’ve seen all sorts of strategies and ideas on how many hashtags you should be using, but at the end of the day, it’s really up to you. If you can find 30 super-relevant hashtags to add to each post, then you should definitely go for it.

Another consideration is how your hashtags look next to your caption.

While adding hashtags to your posts is one of the best ways to boost your engagement and get your posts in front of your target audience, too many hashtags in your captions can look untidy (or worse, spammy!).

For this, we have two suggestions:

The first is to simply add line breaks before your hashtags & second option is to add your hashtags to the first comment of your Instagram post.

But what about your Instagram Stories?

Adding hashtags to your story is a great way to give your content an added chance to be discovered by new audiences. When people search for a hashtag on Instagram, if it’s popular enough, they’ll be able to view active, real-time stories on that hashtag’s page – including your own.

If you want to hide hashtags in your Instagram Stories, type out your hashtags, and then pinch them to make them smaller. Then place a GIF or image sticker over the hashtag text so it’s perfectly hidden!

Keep in mind that if you make the hashtags too small, Instagram won’t register them! So the best way is to camouflage them with the background or hide them behind another design element.

Tip #3: Use Branded Hashtags to Build an Instagram Community

Branded Instagram hashtags are a great way to help spread the word about your business, find content created about you by your followers, create a community around your business, and attract new followers.

Some brands like Airbnb use branded hashtags to curate their whole feed by reposting and sharing their fans’ photos, videos, and stories with a strong strategy in hand.

Using the hashtag #airbnbphotos, the Airbnb social team is able to find and share images of their stays to their Instagram feed. The result is a curated Instagram feed made up entirely of user-generated content (UGC).

So if you’re looking to grow your business (especially within younger demographics) UGC can seriously help skyrocket your sales and build true brand loyalty.

Tip #4: Pay Close Attention to Your Hashtag Analytics

If you want to increase your Instagram engagement, understanding which hashtags are driving more people to your posts is really important.

One option for this is to check your Instagram Insights for each post by tapping the blue bar underneath your post.

From there, you can see how many impressions you gained from hashtags under the Discovery section. The stronger your hashtag game, the more impressions you can expect!

Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t tell you which hashtags were the most effective in getting your posts discovered — so the takeaways can be somewhat limited.

If you’re looking to really amp up your strategy this year, you should definitely get in touch with my team and we'll help you extend your reach, get more engagement on your posts, and save a ton of time while managing your profile!