How to Use Hashtags on Instagram to Gain Followers

Using the right hashtags on Instagram is like giving your posts a GPS to find the exact audience you're looking for, rather than just hoping they stumble upon it. Get this right, and you’ll see a steady stream of new followers who are genuinely interested in what you have to say. This guide breaks down exactly how to find, organize, and use hashtags to systematically grow your Instagram account.

Understanding the 'Why' Behind Instagram Hashtags

Before building a strategy, it helps to know what a hashtag actually does on Instagram. Think of it as a filing system. When you add a hashtag like #smallbusinessowner to your post, Instagram indexes it and files it with every other post using that same tag. This makes your content discoverable in three key ways:

• On the Hashtag Page: Anyone who searches for or clicks on #smallbusinessowner will land on a page filled with posts using that tag. If your content is engaging, you’ll stand out.
• In Users’ Feeds: People can follow hashtags in the same way they follow accounts. If a potential follower follows #handmadepottery, your posts with that tag might appear directly in their feed, even if they don't follow you yet.
• Through Related Hashtags: When a user looks at a hashtag page, Instagram suggests related tags at the top. Using relevant tags increases your chances of appearing in these adjacent searches.

At its core, a good hashtag strategy isn't about gaming the algorithm, it's about making it easy for the platform to show your content to the people who will actually enjoy it.

The Foundational Types of Instagram Hashtags

Not all hashtags are created equal. A solid strategy uses a mix of different types to maximize reach and attract the right kind of followers. Let’s break down the categories you should be using.

Industry or Niche Hashtags

These are the high-level tags that describe your industry or topic. They tend to be popular and broad, but they're essential for establishing what your account is about. If you're a coffee connoisseur or own a cafe, you'd use tags like #coffee or #coffeeshop.

• Examples: #socialmediamarketing, #digitalart, #baking, #fitness

Community Hashtags

These are more specific tags that connect users around a shared interest, movement, or identity within a larger niche. They help you find your people - the most engaged and passionate users in your space. These hashtags often build a real sense of community.

• Examples: #womeninbusiness, #bakersofinstagram, #bookstagram, #doodlesofinstagram

Content-Specific Hashtags

Also known as "descriptive" hashtags, these tags describe what's actually in your specific post, whether it’s the format, the style, or the subject matter. These are hyper-relevant and tell users and the algorithm exactly what to expect from that piece of content.

• Examples: #photographytips, #reelstutorial, #chocolatecakerecipe, #ikeahack

Location-Based Hashtags

Perfect for local businesses or brands targeting a specific geographic area, these hashtags help you connect with your local community. Get as specific as you can, mixing city, neighborhood, and event-based tags.

• Examples: #nycfoodie, #londondesigner, #torontocafe, #austinartists

Branded Hashtags

A branded hashtag is unique to your business. It can be your company name (#postbase), a tagline (#yourbrandrocks), or the name of a specific campaign or event you're running. The goal here isn't broad discovery, but creating a hub for content related to your brand, including user-generated content from your customers.

• Examples: Nike's #justdoit, or a local bakeshop's #bobsbakerygoodies campaign.

How to Find Effective Hashtags for Your Account

Now that you know the types of hashtags to look for, here's how to actually find them. This requires a bit of research, but once you have an effective system, it gets much easier.

1. Analyze Your Competitors and Niche Leaders

This is the fastest way to get started. Identify 5-10 accounts that are similar to yours or cater to the audience you want to reach. Don't look at huge celebrity accounts, but at influencers or businesses that have a highly engaged community. Go through their recent posts and look at the hashtags they’re using. Are they using community tags you’ve never seen? Are they using hyper-specific descriptive tags? List the ones that seem relevant to your own content.

2. Use Instagram’s Search Feature

Instagram's own search bar is a simple but effective research tool.

1. Go to the Explore page and type in a broad seed hashtag (like #graphicdesign).
2. Tap on "Tags" to see a list of related hashtags and their post counts (how many posts have used that tag).
3. Note down tags with a healthy post count that are relevant to your post.
4. When you click into a specific hashtag page, Instagram will also show you a scrollable list of “Related” hashtags right below the 'follow' button. This is a goldmine for discovering new specific or community tags.

3. Create a Hashtag "Pyramid"

To really boost your discoverability, you need a mix of hashtags with varying degrees of popularity. Posting on a tag like #art (500 million posts) makes it nearly impossible to be seen. On the other hand, a super-niche tag might not have enough people searching for it. The pyramid strategy solves this by creating balance.

Your goal is to use a combination of tags from each category for every post:

• High-Competition Tags (Broad): These have 300,000+ posts. Use 3-5 of these. They give you a quick, short-lived burst of visibility. Example: #illustration
• Medium-Competition Tags (Niche): These have between 50,000 and 300,000 posts. Use 5-10 of these. This is your sweet spot - popular enough to get a lot of searches, but not so crowded that you disappear in minutes. It's much easier to rank in the "Top" section here. Example: #procreateart
• Low-Competition Tags (Hyper-Specific): These have under 50,000 posts. Use 10-15 of these. These are your community and content-specific tags. They bring in a smaller, but highly relevant audience who are specifically looking for what you offer. Example: #natureillustrationart

Using this mix gives you a chance at both immediate exposure and long-term discovery in targeted niches.

Building Your Hashtag Strategy: Best Practices

Finding the right hashtags is only half the battle. How you use them makes all the difference.

How Many Hashtags Should You Use?

Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, and for a long time, the advice was to use all 30. While some creators are now experimenting with fewer (3-5), for most growing accounts, using a larger number (think 15-30) still provides the most benefit. More relevant hashtags mean more ways for people to discover your content. The most important thing here isn't the final number, but that every single hashtag is relevant to the post. Don’t just add popular tags if they don’t relate to your photo or video.

Where to Put Your Hashtags: Caption vs. First Comment

You can place your hashtags directly at the end of your caption or in the first comment immediately after posting. Instagram has confirmed that both locations work equally well for discovery. The choice is purely aesthetic.

• In the caption: Keeps everything in one place. Some people "hide" the block of text by adding a few lines of periods or bullet points after their caption.
• In the first comment: Keeps your original caption looking clean and distraction-free.

There's no performance difference, so go with what you think looks best for your brand.

Develop Reusable Hashtag "Sets"

You don't need to reinvent the wheel for every single post. As you find effective hashtags, start organizing them into "sets" or "banks" based on your content pillars - the main topics you post about. For example, a bakery might have:

• A hashtag set for sourdough bread posts.
• A hashtag set for cake decorating tutorial videos.
• A hashtag set for posts about running their small business.

When you create a post, you can grab the relevant set and add a few extra content-specific tags to round it out. Be sure to mix these sets up and don’t copy and paste the exact same 30 tags on every post, as Instagram may see that as spammy behavior. A good habit is to swap out 3-5 hashtags in each set every time you use it to keep it fresh.

Track and Analyze Your Hashtag Performance

A great hashtag strategy evolves. With a business or creator account, you can use Instagram Insights to see how well your hashtags are performing. Under each post's "View Insights," you can see how many impressions came from hashtags. If a post performed unusually well, take a look at the hashtag combination you used. Did you try a new community tag that resonated? Or did you find a low-competition tag that brought in very targeted followers? This data is invaluable for refining your hashtag sets over time.

Final Thoughts

A winning Instagram hashtag strategy is not about finding one perfect tag, but about consistently using a thoughtful combination of broad, niche, and community-focused hashtags that accurately describe your content. Take the time to do the initial research, organize your findings into reusable sets, and you'll create a powerful system for connecting with the right followers.

Building out those hashtag sets is a fantastic first step, but managing them across all your posts can be a chore. This is precisely why we created Postbase, our visual calendar makes it simple to plan your content and corresponding hashtag sets for weeks in advance. You can create your content just once, customize the captions and hashtag sets for different platforms, and schedule everything across Reels, Stories, and your feed, freeing you from that last-minute scramble.