Hashtags on Instagram - how do you use them?
Tips
1 April 2023
How do hashtags work on Instagram? Many budding creators may wonder about this, especially as it is something worth using. With hashtags, you can increase your visibility online and reach your audience more easily. You also need to be careful not to destroy your reach with excessive enthusiasm and reduce the number of interested parties by not inserting them correctly.
Hashtags on Instagram - what are they for?
When browsing through posts on social media, it is sometimes easy to get lost and it is useful to have a tool to direct your searches. So how do hashtags on Instagram work?
Words preceded by # without spaces are used to tag posts. If you decide to share a photo of your office décor, you can include the tag #officedesing (and more) in the description, and anyone looking for inspiration on how to decorate their own workspace will also see your photo when they type the phrase into the app's search engine.
Hashtags have an organising function. In addition, used in the right way, they can improve the visibility of your profile and increase your reach.
How do you choose hashtags on Instagram?
Instagram is a visual platform with more than 1 billion active users, making it a great place to showcase your products and sales. This is mostly done through Instagram hashtags.
Adding a keyword with # to a post allows you to click on and search for similarly tagged posts. This way, if someone is interested in other posts under the same tag, they can simply click on it to see other users' posts. This is a powerfully visibility-enhancing activity, as your post may reach people who do not follow you directly. However, they may find out about you through the hashtag.
Which hashtags for Instagram? When looking for the best tags for yourself, it's worth looking at how particular hashtags work and which ones make a real difference in reaching people interested in your brand. You can mix broad and narrow hashtags, i.e. reaching a very specific audience and the masses. Using them under one post influences you to reach specific users potentially interested in your services. 
Banned and banned hashtags on Instagram, or community rules
Community rules are a general set of recommendations according to which users should use Instagram. They relate to copyright, age-appropriate content, publishing valuable content and complying with the law.
Accordingly, Instagram restricts the activities of those promoting, for example, terrorism, organised crime, hate speech, sexual services, the sale of weapons, alcohol, cigarettes (by private individuals), non-medical substances and medicines. The portal aims to respect other members of the community and therefore fights against threats and hate speech, blackmail or humiliation.
These are punitive behaviours that can manifest themselves, among other things, through appropriate tagging. To avoid this, hashtags should beware of words associated with attitudes that Instagram in no way endorses.
To check that your profile does not have banned hashtags, the profile can be filtered through programmes available on the internet or you can check individual phrases that you intend to use.
How many hashtags to use at a time for posts on Instagram?
Many people wonder how many hashtags can be added under a single post. Instagram allows 30 tags to be added. It is worth remembering that the number of characters in the description is limited to 2200 characters. If you exceed this length, parts of the post (including the #) may be deleted. One solution is to flip the tags into a comment under the post - this way the post can be longer and the hashtags will still serve their purpose.
Instagram itself declares that the placement of between nine and 11 hashtags in a post has the best effect on expanding reach. It is important that the tags correspond to the message of the post and make a real contribution to extending a particular tag with qualitative and specific content. 
How do you check the popularity of hashtags?
There are many tools that monitor and track popular hashtags, which allows you to target the most frequently used tags by users. Don't forget that the best hashtags are not the most popular ones, but those that realistically describe your content and will respond to searches by potential customers.
Popular hashtags on Instagram, such as #love, #food, #beautiful, #followme, #style, #look, etc., can be found really often, nevertheless they contribute little. Sometimes, especially when the hashtag relates to a niche, it is worth betting on something less popular but that goes directly to the people who are interested in, for example, following the hashtag.
The more, the better? What mistakes with hashtags should you not make?
Although Instagram allows you to post more hashtags to expand your own reach, it is recommended to use only 1/3 of the allowed number of tags. How many hashtags to add on Instagram? It is not difficult to see that moderation is recommended in this case.
Too many of them can be downright overwhelming for users. Furthermore, if there are too many hashtags, the post, instead of reaching a specific audience, will get into the mainstream, where it may go completely unnoticed, thus losing its reach.
In the 10 or so hashtags, you can specialise the group you want to reach by using narrower designations and also add some broader ones, so that you can interest people in a particular product beyond those already predetermined.
Another mistake is the use of tags that may entail receiving a ban. This applies in particular to content that does not comply with community policy.
The most popular hashtags on Instagram
Reaching for the most popular hashtags on Instagram doesn't have to hurt at all, especially if the activity you are involved in fits with what each hashtag describes.
They are usually very general (#instafood, #selfie, #instadaily, #summer), but those involved in, for example, cooking, fashion or creating their personal brand can benefit from them. This is because the audience is very broad, as is the case with the popular hashtags: #love, #instagood, #fashion, #travek, #fitness or #photooftheday.
Whether and how to create your own hashtags on Instagram?
How do you add a hashtag on Instagram? It is trivially easy. Just add the # sign in the description under the photo in a comment or InstaStories, and then without spaces, type in the hashtag by which you can search for the content, e.g. #inpost, #paczkomat, #nadaniepaczki etc..
Creating your own hashtags can also be helpful in creating a brand image in the market. Distributing it well and ensuring its visibility will make it recognisable and influence the marketing of your business. It will also improve its recognition among people who do not normally follow you.
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