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You might not realize this, but Instagram hashtags can make or break your marketing strategy on Instagram. If you use them the right way, you are going to be able to promote your posts to more people, who are going to be interested in your service or product, or your brand in general.
However, if you use the wrong hashtags, you can actually set your company back a little bit, which can result in receiving followers that you didn't want to in the first place, or even being penalized by the algorithm that Instagram uses to promote people. If you want to be successful and effective with your hashtags, you need to understand how many hashtags you should use on Instagram.
In this article, we're going to talk about the importance of hashtags, why you should use them, and how many hashtags you should use on Instagram.
What are Instagram Hashtags?
Let's start with the basics. A hashtag is a combination of numbers, letters and even an emoji, that is always preceded by the hash symbol. Hashtags are used to categorize your content and make it easy for people to discover it on Instagram.
You can also click on a hashtag. This means that if you select an Instagram hashtag, a page is going to come up with content that is relevant to that keyword.
Why Use Hashtags?
Hashtags are a really important part of your marketing strategy, because they can expand your Instagram audience, and help you get more reach in general. When you make the most of a hashtag your post is going to come up on that page for that specific hashtag.
If you include a hashtag in your story, then your story is going to be included in that hashtag page. People also choose to follow specific hashtags, which means that they are going to see your content come up in their feed, even if they don't follow you yet. As a result, hashtags are a really good way of building your online community, and motivating people to interact with your brand.
How Many Hashtags Should I Use on Instagram?
Now, to the million-dollar question, how many hashtags should you use on Instagram. As far as Instagram goes, you can include as many as 30 hashtags on a post in your newsfeed, and if you're looking at your Instagram story, you can include as many as ten.
If you try to include more than 30 in your posts, or 10 in your stories, then your content isn't going to post. Now, the important thing to remember is just because you can use this many hashtags, doesn't mean that you should.
There is no correct number for every single business out there, and even for every single post by a specific business.
However, the general consensus in the industry is that 11 hashtags is an ideal number to begin with. The most popular number of hashtags that are used on Instagram is between three and five. As you can see, this is a lot lower than that 30 that you are allowed, which means that you need to be on the conservative side of things when using your hashtags.
You don't want to go all out and overwhelm your audience with too many hashtags. This can make your company look spammy.
In order to get the perfect number of hashtags for your company, you will need to do a little bit of testing. Try out a specific number of hashtags for a week or so, and then switch it up, and see if this does anything to the success of your brand on Instagram.
When thinking about the right Instagram marketing strategy for your company, it is all about experimenting with different methods, and the same applies for hashtags.
How to Hide Instagram Hashtags
Now that you have a better idea of how many hashtags you should be using on your posts and your Instagram stories, you might be wondering what the best approach is when it comes to where you place them.
We think the best approach is hiding your hashtags, so that they don't overwhelm your audience when they first begin to interact with your content. If you have spent a bit of time crafting a really good Instagram caption, the last thing that you want to do is spam it with hashtags.
Let's take a look at how to hide Instagram hashtags in a comment.
1. Write your caption as you normally would, but don't write your hashtags yet.
2. Once you have published your post, select the icon that looks like a speech bubble under your post, so that you can be the first to leave a comment.
3. In this comment, you can include all the hashtags that you want to, whether this is including hashtags that you have thought of in the moment, or pasting them from notes on your phone, where you have set up a specific list based on your market research.
4. If somebody is looking at your content through their phone, they aren't going to be able to see your hashtags unless they select ‘view all comments’. However, if they are looking at your content through desktop, they are going to be able to see your hashtags.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, hashtags are an integral part of being able to grow and be successful on Instagram. You've got to make sure that you not only choose the right hashtags for your business, but you understand the perfect number to use when it pertains to your specific company.
Once you've landed on this number, don't be afraid to mix it up from time to time, because you've also got to remember that what might have worked with the Instagram algorithm last week, might not necessarily work this week.
It's all about playing around with your hashtags and seeing what is going to end up being the best fit for your brand. Good luck growing your brand, and good luck figuring out the perfect number of hashtags to use.