The ultimate guide for Instagram hashtags in 2023
Optimize Your Instagram Hashtag Strategy in 2023
In today’s world, your marketing efforts cannot ignore the world of social media. Alongside its sister platform Facebook, Instagram is one of the most prominent social media platforms in the world and according to Statista there are more than 1.2 billion users on the platform – or about one sixth of the entire world’s population. With the emergence of the platform TikTok and the introduction of YouTube Shorts, Instagram has seen a shift in focus from photos to videos. However, photos are still a staple of the platform, and many posts contain both photos and videos.
Considering all of this, a marketing perspective must beg the question: how do you stand out on Instagram with so much competition? The answer is simple: hashtags. We are Movidmo and we offer social media video ad templates. In this article we would like to discuss Instagram hashtags and how to stand out in 2023.
How to Stand Out on Instagram
To stand out on Instagram, you first need to post quality content. This means that the pictures and videos you post are clear, high-resolution, optimized for size, and are relevant to your business. You can have up to 10 images or videos per post with one of these as the featured image or video. Choosing the one that stands out the most, having a good thumbnail for your videos, making sure audio quality is good on your videos, and making sure your posts have a description are all important steps to take to make sure that your content is top-notch so that once you stand out people will like your content, follow you, and hopefully purchase your products or services.
How Instagram Hashtags Work
Now that you are ready to post your high quality content with a post description, it is time to make it so that your content stands out and gets seen in the first place. As we previously mentioned, hashtags are the secret to success on Instagram. But what exactly is a hashtag? Merriam-Webster defines hashtag as “a word or phrase preceded by the symbol # that classifies or categorizes the accompanying text”. For example: #movidmo, #blogpost, #instagram.
Hashtags are a vital part of Instagram. Essentially, each hashtag is a keyword. If you have done other types of marketing or SEO work, you are likely familiar with keywords or search terms. People can search for content on Instagram by hashtag, simply by putting “#” and then any phrase. This will tell them exactly how many posts there are that use that hashtag and if they click on it they can scroll through content that is exclusively related to that phrase. This makes hashtags the perfect method of growing your audience and expanding your reach on Instagram.
Additionally, people can follow hashtags just like they can follow pages, so anytime a new post comes up using that hashtag people can see it. Therefore, it is crucial that you find a wide range of hashtags that might be relevant to you or your business to help find different audiences from different searches who might be interested in what you are posting.
Instagram Hashtag Guide for 2023
Now, how are you going to position your Instagram marketing this year? Having a hashtag strategy based on hashtag research will set you up for success and help your posts to get more reach.
Currently, here are the top 20 hashtags on Instagram:
- #love
- #instagood
- #fashion
- #photooftheday
- #beautiful
- #art
- #photography
- #happy
- #picoftheday
- #cute
- #follow
- #tbt
- #followme
- #nature
- #like4like
- #travel
- #style
- #repost
- #summer
Whether you use #tbt for “Throwback Thursday”, #photooftheday for the picture you choose to post on a specific day, or #love for something romantic, trying to fit top hashtags into your posts will help you to get more views. There are nearly two billion posts with #love – who knows who might find your post when you use this!
Here are a few different categories you can consider when choosing hashtags:
- Daily hashtags relating to the days of the week
- Location hashtags relating to where your business is
- Holiday or season hashtags relating to specific holidays or seasons
- Industry hashtags relating to your specific industry
- Relevant phrase hashtags for words that relate to your products or services
- Emotion hashtags relating to specific emotions
How many Instagram hashtags should you use?
This is a common question and is an important part of your strategy. You should start off using more to test which ones seem to drive better results, and then you can narrow it down a bit to some of the most successful ones. You are allowed up to 30 hashtags, but we recommend that you use between 5 and 10 hashtags. Using 30 might be overkill, but only using 1 or 2 might be very limiting.
Don’t Forget to Use Hashtags on Your Instagram Story
Instagram allows users to make a story that lasts for 24 hours. You can use up to 10 hashtags on a story. Posting stories and adding hashtags is allowing you to get more out of your content, working for you on two fronts: the post itself and the story.
Use Video Ad Templates for Content that will Stand Out
Hashtags will help you to reach a larger audience and stand with your competition, but high quality content will help you get more followers and stand out from your competition. Here at Movidmo, our social media video ads templates will help you to design stunning videos and video ads for social media. Stay above the competition so you can #standout.
Send us a message if you have any questions! Just press "Contact Us" at the top of our website to access our contact form and send us a message. Someone from the Movidmo team will get back to you as soon as possible. Take the reins on your Instagram marketing strategy in 2023.
Need more help with finding the right hashtags? Stay tuned for our next blog post about the ins and outs of researching specific hashtag keywords for your business!