How To Optimize Hashtags On Instagram In 2022

If you optimize your hashtags on Instagram for growth, you can reach a whole new audience of people. This will grow your brand, business, and Instagram account.

Hashtags on Instagram are a wonderful thing when done correctly.

There are different advantages to using hashtags on your content on Instagram that can help you either gain more exposure on the platform or even help grow the number of people you have following your account and boost your engagement!

If you’re looking to learn how to optimize hashtags on Instagram in 2022, how to conduct hashtag research, and how to reach a larger audience, check out these 5 tips.

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1. Use Relevant Instagram Hashtags To Increase Engagement

While using ultra-popular hashtags in conjunction with your content might get you a few extra likes (mostly from people running bots), it won’t do very much for your account in the long run.

Neither will they help you grow an engaged, targeted Instagram following.

In order to gain a super-engaged following for your account, you can try using more relevant hashtags that best describe you, what you do and who your audience is.

Using specific, niche hashtags for your account is a great way to help grow the community you have created with like-minded followers.

These niche hashtags help you more easily communicate with others, improve the stability of your posts as well as gain new followers.

TIP:

Try looking for smaller hashtags so your tag doesn’t get lost in a sea of 1M+ other posts. Also, try to look for tags that you think users are actually searching for & scrolling through. This is the best way to optimize hashtags on Instagram.

EXAMPLE:

Instead of using a tag such as #fashion try using something more specific, seasonal or use particular items you are selling, such as #wintercoats #winterclothes #winterwear #winterdress

2. Add Instagram Hashtags To Your Stories To Get On The Explore Page

This is a great way to potentially be discovered by new audiences!

When users search for a particular hashtag, if it’s popular enough, they will be able to view active, real-time stories from other Instagram users, hopefully even one of your own!

If your story does make it onto the explore page, and people like what they see from you, they might even turn into new followers. In this case, it’s important to remember that the content needs to be quality content, so you can really give people a reason to want to follow you, apart from your story being visible to them due to a simple hashtag.

TIP:

If this is something that you might be interested in doing, there are two different ways to go about this.

One is by using a hashtag sticker (this only allows you to add one hashtag, so keep that in mind!) or you can use the type tool available on stories, which gives you the freedom to add a few more hashtags to your stories.

This is a great way to maximize the exposure of both your story and your account and is usually an under-utilized hack that people tend to forget about. Test it out for yourself!

EXAMPLE:

@HealthMagazine use the hashtags of relevant celebrity names to promote their latest articles – Optimized with a direct call-to-action swipe up link at the bottom of the story.

This method can draw in users following that celebrity hashtag and also direct them straight to the article on their website. Great strategy!

3. Hide Your Instagram Hashtags In Your Stories – Secret Trick Of The Trade!

If you feel like adding optimized hashtags to your Instagram stories can make them seem a bit too ‘spammy’, there are ways you can still use them, without having them front and center on your stories.

If you want to hide your hashtags within your stories, you can type out your hashtags, and then pinch them to make them smaller in size. Next, simply add a sticker or even a GIF over the hashtag, and now it’s perfectly hidden.

TIP:

Remember that Instagram won’t register hashtags that are deemed too small in size. So, the best way to counteract this is to make them blend into the image or hide them behind another element.

EXAMPLE:

When posting a new post, try creating a story with the post in it. Write some hashtags somewhere on the story & cover them with giant writing saying ‘NEW POST’. This creates some hype around your post + it may draw in new potential viewers/followers with the hidden hashtags, without everyone knowing!

4. Tracking Your Instagram Hashtag Success

If you’ve switched to a business profile on Instagram, you have the ability to check on your account and see analyze Instagram growth over time.

You can analyze how your individual posts are performing and compare the results between them.

These business profile ‘insights’ features will allow you to see how effective your posts are at drawing in new followers.

This information based on impressions from various sources, that include the hashtags you use on your posts.

TIP:

To access this information, you’ll need to select the post you want to view your insights for, and then tap ‘View Insights’ on the bottom left.

You can then swipe up to access the full data for that post, including information on the reach, impressions, and interestingly, how the people who viewed your profile found your account.

EXAMPLE:

Track your Stories performance and compare with your post performance.

Note your best performing posts/stories and steer your content strategy in this direction to optimize your chances for better engagement results.

5. Adding Optimized Hashtags To Your Instagram Bio

By adding branded hashtags to your Instagram bio, you are effectively driving engagement up on your posts!

What’s great about this feature is that it enables you to make your Instagram bio even more functional. Bios with hashtags can be useful in promoting your Instagram community and even highlighting your branded content, to allow it to be seen by even more users.

TIP:

By including your branded hashtag in your bio, this could encourage your followers to partake in creating their own content using your optimized hashtag on Instagram, which is helping you build a community around your brand. Not only that but if it gains enough traction users will even start competing with each other to create the best content to be noticed in your branded hashtag.

This is ultimate #Goals!

EXAMPLE:

@Revolve uses the hashtag #RevolveMe in their bio with a clear call-to-action statement “tag us & #revolve me for a chance to be reposted”

These are clear directions & it gives incentive for users to not only check out the hashtag but to be a part of it themselves too. This tag has accumulated almost 300k posts already!

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