Using hashtags well, without wasting time.

What hashtags actually do

A hashtag is a term with a hash sign in front of it, such as #joinery or #bridalbouquet. On Instagram it makes your post findable through that keyword. Anyone who searches for the hashtag or follows it can see your post, even if they don't follow you.

Hashtags used to be seen as the most important way to more reach. Today other things play a big role: how people react to a post, whether they save or share it, and what the image and text are about. Keywords in the caption also help a post get found in search. So hashtags are no magic trick, but they're a useful tool for giving your post a topic.

How many hashtags? The honest answer

There's no ideal number, even though you constantly find figures for it online. Instagram only allows a limited number of hashtags per post, and that limit has changed before. You'll find the current limit in Instagram's help pages.

In the past, Instagram itself has tended to recommend a few well-chosen hashtags rather than long lists. For a small business that means: better a handful of terms that really fit the post than a long wall of hashtags. A wall like that soon looks cluttered, and nobody reads it anyway. The only way to find out how many work well for you is to try it out.

Finding the right hashtags

Good hashtags describe what can be seen in the post and match terms your customers would search for. This is how you find them:

• Think like your customers: Nobody who doesn't know you searches for your company name. But they might well search for #solidwoodtable or #bridalbouquet.
• Use Instagram search: Type in a term and see which related hashtags are suggested and which posts appear there.
• Check the surroundings: If a hashtag only shows ads, spam or completely different topics, leave it out.
• Mix: Combine a broad term for your industry with a more specific one for the topic of the post and perhaps a local one.
• Your own hashtag: A hashtag for your business is mainly worth it if customers use it too, for example on photos of cakes or hairstyles.

Local hashtags for local businesses

For most small businesses, customers nearby count for more than followers on the other side of the world. Local hashtags link a topic with a place, such as the name of your town or region. A hair salon can use a hashtag with the town's name alongside a general hairdressing hashtag.

Here too, check whether the local hashtag is actually used. One that only you use won't bring any new visitors. Many towns and regions have a few established hashtags used by locals and tourism pages.

The location is also worth adding: when you post, Instagram lets you specify a place. For a café, a bakery or a florist, that's often at least as useful as a hashtag.

Mistakes to avoid

Some mistakes come up again and again with businesses. Most of them are easy to avoid:

• Always the same block: Copying the same list under every post assigns posts to the wrong topics. Adapt the hashtags to the content.
• Only huge hashtags: Under very popular terms such as #food, a small business's post quickly gets lost.
• Unrelated trends: Hashtags on topics that have nothing to do with you bring the wrong visitors and look unprofessional.
• Restricted hashtags: Instagram restricts some hashtags, for example when a lot of inappropriate content has been posted there. A quick look in search shows whether posts are displayed normally.
• Promises in hashtags: Practices, pharmacies and law firms are subject to their own professional rules. Anything that counts as a promise of a cure or of success is also a problem as a hashtag.
• Hashtags instead of text: Hashtags don't replace a good caption. Text first, then hashtags.

Test instead of guessing

Whether hashtags do anything for you is shown by the statistics of your professional account. For individual posts you can see how people came across them, for example via the home feed, your profile or search. Instagram has changed which sources are shown several times, so check what your account displays.

Run a simple test over a few weeks: use a few very specific hashtags on some posts and more, broader ones on others. Then compare the reach and reactions of similar posts. If you hardly see a difference, you know you don't need to spend much time searching for hashtags.

A joinery's post could look like this: “This oak corner bench moved in with its new family yesterday. Made to measure, oiled, built for lots of dinners together. #joinery #solidwood #cornerbench”. A few terms that describe exactly what can be seen.