Finding the right hashtags is essential for your Instagram marketing strategy. A wrong hashtag usage can lead you to a failed promotion, untargeted followers, or worst, your post gets hidden by Instagram. This article will give you a complete tutorial on discovering the best & most relevant hashtags for your brand & business in 2024.
- Know what hashtags are relevant for your Instagram post
- Get inspired by influencers’ hashtag usage
- Check out the hashtags used by your competitors
- See your audience’s hashtags usage
- Search for the currently trending hashtags
- Use a hashtag generator tool
- Make your own branded hashtag
- Use simple and clear hashtags
When you think hashtags are not relevant anymore, you are wrong.
It still works and is important to help your posts gain better reach.
When you neglect its benefits, you begin to wonder how to find the right ones for your brand.
You begin to realize why you get engagement drops lately.
My recommendation: Inflact.
It has the most powerful tool to generate and analyze hashtags and is very affordable.
The Best Hashtag Tool so far
Inflact is the best AI-powered tool to find hashtags with strong analytics. Even with a free plan, Inflact serves the best results at a very affordable price.
You can also try their “Smart Selection” to sort the best hashtags for your post.
Don’t panic, this article right here is for you:
To give you the steps to discover the best hashtags for your Instagram account in 2024.
To boost your posts more discoverability, more followers, and wider reach.
Also, it’s important to choose the right hashtags
As Instagram will not promote posts using banned hashtags.
We will explain everything.
Let’s dive in.
What are Instagram Hashtags?
Instagram hashtags are a combination of letters, numbers, and emojis into idioms or phrases preceded by the symbol #.
For example #beautyvloggers, #influencerstyle, #bookstagram, and many more.
Hashtags are used to categorize content and help users find the desired content easily.
That’s why hashtags are clickable.
When you click on a certain hashtag, Instagram will direct you to a page full of posts using the hashtag.
It is also searchable, you can find them by typing in Instagram’s search bar.
Usually, they are placed at the end of a post’s caption.
You can also blend your hashtags with your captions, making them look creative.
The other Instagram users often put hashtags in the comment sections too.
Why are hashtags important in 2024?
They are helpful to increase reach.
The sole function of hashtags is to help users find content easier.
It connects people and the content they are looking for.
As a brand, this is your chance to deliver your content to more people who search using hashtags.
A big shot at growing your Instagram business beyond your current audience.
And a huge opportunity to appear on Instagram’s explore page.
When people find your post with the hashtag, you raise the possibility of:
Your content is displayed to a wider audience, getting more engagement, and more followers.
For Reels, hashtags could be your great help to make it go viral.
For Stories, they could push it to be seen by more people.
Hashtags help boost your content to the explore page and increase your overall post performance.
Banned hashtags your brand should avoid using
Instagram has Community Guidelines for users to obey.
When they do not follow, Instagram will take action like not promoting the post or even taking it down.
It includes a post using banned hashtags.
Some hashtags are banned because they either violate Instagram rules.
Or simply they are spammed by bots.
Instagram hides any post using banned hashtags to protect its users from seeing inappropriate content.
Well, they do it subtly. This means they do not necessarily tell the users to avoid it.
Rather, Instagram will not promote posts with a banned hashtag through its algorithm.
So, it’s very very important to use the right hashtags and avoid the banned ones.
Here are some of the banned hashtags you should not use in your Instagram post:
- #besties
- #costumes
- #dating
- #elevator
- #girlsonly
- #hotweather
- #italiano
- #kickoff
- #asiangirl
- #loseweight
- #mustfollow
- #newyearsday
- #prettygirl
- #rate
- #selfharm
- #tag4likes
- #valentinesday
- #youngmodel
Those are only a few of the hashtags prohibited by Instagram and there is still a lot of them.
See the full list of banned hashtags here.
And always keep in mind to avoid using them in your post.
8 ways to find the best Instagram hashtags for your brand
Here is the deal:
You can get “easy” hashtags by taking out some free recommendations from Instagram.
But that’s not gonna be a good strategy.
You need to make personalized hashtag usage for them to work effectively.
Let’s see how it’s done.
Know what hashtags are relevant for your Instagram post
First things first, before going all the way to find hashtags,
you must understand what is your post about: the context and the content.
This will help you to discover what hashtag best describes your post.
And to link what people search to your post.
See how this influencer uses #cicaplast & #acneproneskin
to promote her content about using Cicaplast for people who have acne-prone skin.
When you want to attach some hashtags to it, don’t be too broad.
Putting a hashtag with millions of people using it is not recommended
Because you will put your post into a very tight competition.
Choose a very specific hashtag that defines your post, but don’t choose a hashtag that is used only for a few people.
Pick a relevant hashtag with a decent number of users.
A hashtag that gives you a space to advance, but also relates to your content.
Use simple and clear hashtags
Rule number 2 before discovering hashtags:
Include clear hashtags that relay the message of your post.
A hashtag that contains simple, short, compact phrases, and is easy to understand.
Don’t use complicated idioms or vague and ambiguous hashtags.
Otherwise, the wrong hashtag might deliver a message you actually don’t intend to convey.
Now the preparation is ready.
Let’s get go through the ways to find the perfect hashtags for your brand!
Get inspired by influencers’ hashtag usage
Influencers are an important channel to market products.
They grow their account to establish their influence on Instagram.
Something brands should look out to. One of the strategies is hashtag usage.
Brands can inspect influencers that match their industry and niche,
Get inspiration on how they promote their content using hashtags.
It’s a successful way to use relevant hashtags for your post.
Check out the hashtags used by your competitors
Analyzing competitors always works to grow your business and battle in the market.
One way to leverage a competitor’s move is to see the hashtags in their posts.
If you sell beauty products, see how Solawave uses hashtags.
You could put this case from 2 perspectives:
Checking out their hashtag strategy can hint you some clues about what works in your industry.
Otherwise, you can avoid competition with them on one hashtag.
Search for other hashtags that still represent your brand in the industry, but not the ones your competitors used.
This way, you create another chance to develop your brand echo.
See your audience’s hashtags usage
Getting to know your audience is important for any business.
Their needs are your brand’s top priority.
Check their hashtags usage regularly as Instagram allows users to adjust their suggestion page.
See if they follow any hashtags, a great way to infiltrate the community and push your brand.
This way, you can also reach the people who might be interested in your brand.
Best tip: keep an eye on the hashtags followed by your top followers.
Here is how to do it (only available on mobile):
- Type any hashtag relevant to your niche on Instagram’s search bar.
- Pick the hashtags with your followers in them.
Leveraging Instagram features is also great to build your hashtag strategy.
Search for the currently trending hashtags
Riding the wave always works for businesses.
One way to leverage the tactic is to join the happening hashtags.
The ones that people are talking about on the social network.
For the easiest result, use a tool to find accurately trending hashtags.
Inflact is one solution you can try for an affordable option.
Another helpful tool to find them is HashtagsFoLikes.
They provide more complete results: popular, trending, and top 5 searched hashtags on Instagram.
Note down that it’s more expensive than other tools,
so it’s more convenient for enterprises with a big budget.
Make your own branded hashtag
Do you want a single hashtag page full of content talking about your brand?
Create your own branded hashtag.
This is a perfect strategy if you want to boost your campaigns or giveaways.
A branded hashtag is a personalized idiom created only for a specific brand to promote a brand or certain events.
Or simply, it’s your brand tagline.
Put your branded hashtag everywhere: your posts, Bio, Story captions, Reels, and many more.
When you use it effectively, it can drive people to follow your branded hashtag page = more brand exposure.
Don’t forget to track the progress. See how the branded hashtag can help push your content and your overall account growth.
Not only branded, but it is also helpful to check in what position your content is ranking on another hashtag.
Use a hashtag generator tool
To search for the perfect hashtag for your brand, you need a hashtag aggregator tool.
It’s very helpful to generate relevant hashtags for your brand
Quickly and accurately.
Only by inputting some keywords or images,
the tools will show some related hashtag recommendations you can use.
They cut short the whole steps to discovering your brand hashtags in a minute.
Looking for a hashtag generator to use?
See this best hashtags tools list and choose what features support your brand needs.
Also an affordable option for small businesses.
Take some notes: hashtag generators only provide suggestions.
They speed up the overall hashtag-finding process, but the final formula is still in your hand.
Final Thoughts on Encountering the best hashtags for your brand in 2024
That’s a wrap!
For the guide on how to find the perfect hashtag for your Instagram business account in 2024.
Is the Instagram hashtag still relevant in 2024?
Yes as it helps push your content to gain more reach and potential followers.
To put the best hashtags, always remember to build a mature hashtag strategy.
Don’t use hashtags randomly and avoid using the banned ones.
Understand what hashtags relate to your post, get inspired by others,
And use a hashtag generator to help ease your hashtag research.
Simply follow the steps in this guide and see how it affects your content performance.
My best tip: use a hashtag tool to simplify your process and get more ideas.
Select which one matches your needs and use it wisely.
Good luck on your Instagram marketing journey
More Questions on Finding the Best Instagram Hashtags?
Do Instagram hashtags still work?
Yes, they do. It helps boost your content on Instagram’s suggestion page, and gives your content more visibility & reaches. Take some notes that you must create good quality content first for your hashtags to work effectively.
Is it better to put hashtags in comments or caption 2024?
You can do both. Instagram confirms that hashtags are effective in both your post caption and the comments section. It doesn’t affect anything. You can put it at the end of your post, blend it in your captions to look more creative, and put them down in the comments section if you prefer cleaner posts.
How many hashtags should I use?
Some say you can use 8-15 hashtags in your post. But in research, 20 hashtags get the highest reach. More hashtags equal better reach, so use them wisely. Just do not exceed the limit of hashtag usage: a maximum of 30 hashtags in a post.
Article By
Gregory Taslaud
Founder and Full time Blogger at INSG. Inbound Marketing enthusiast since 2001, I love data, test and review Tools. On a mission to build Media & eCommerce projects with various Brands and Creators.