Are you struggling to get likes, comments, shares, and followers on your Instagram posts? The reason could be you’re not using enough hashtags in your posts and reels.
💡 Read Media Monitoring: The Ultimate Guide
A Later study found that using more hashtags yields better results. The study analyzed more than 18M Instagram feed posts and found that those with 20 hashtags received the highest average reach rate.
The same study also revealed that Instagram posts with 30 hashtags had the highest average engagement rate.
While these stats prove that hashtags are instrumental in amplifying your reach and engagement, it’s essential to remember that quality matters more than quantity. Saturating your posts with generic hashtags will do you more harm than good.
To boost your presence on the platform, this article will show you how to find trending hashtags on Instagram that align with your content and audience.
How Do Instagram Hashtags Work?
Instagram hashtags are letters, words, phrases, or numbers that have the hashtag (#) symbol in front of them. The hashtags are used to label or categorize social media content and make it more discoverable on the app.
Instagram also uses hashtags to serve relevant posts to users. For example, the Instagram post below features the hashtag #LatinHeritageMonth.
Instagram will deliver this post to anyone who has shown interest in the hashtag. This includes users who have followed the hashtag, searched for it, or engaged with content using the same hashtag in the past.
Besides the Instagram feed, you can also use hashtags in Instagram Stories to expand your content’s reach and engagement. In the example below, Bonfire Adventures uses the branded hashtag #bonfiredeals in their Stories to amplify their brand message.
Moreover, you can also use them on Reels as you can see in the image below.
It is clear that hashtags can be very effective in gaining visibility and reach for your brand. And that’s the reason, you should choose the most appropriate hashtags. Some these hashtag generator tools listed in this Attrock post can be quite handy in helping you generate useful hashtags for your Instagram campaign.
Read Top 10 Best Hashtag Campaigns Of All Time
Benefits Of Using Trending Instagram Hashtags
Before we examine the ways to find trending hashtags on Instagram, let’s first explore the advantages of using them to improve your digital marketing efforts.
Exposure and Discovery
Adding popular hashtags to your posts greatly increases the chances of your content being seen by many people.
Instagram creates a gallery of the top posts for a particular hashtag and anyone who follows that hashtag will see your content when they come to this page.
To increase your chances of being featured in the coveted “Top posts” section, run an influencer marketing campaign and collaborate with the top creators in your niche.
Encourages Interactions
Trending hashtags have many followers and participants who are interested in the underlying topic.
This presents a golden opportunity to boost interactions since your post will become part of a larger conversation and users exploring that hashtag will engage with it by liking, commenting, and sharing it.
You can also embed Instagram Reel with your target hashtag on your website to drive web visitors to your Instagram. This will boost your interactions and help you gain favor with the Instagram algorithm.
Hashtags are particularly helpful if you build a poll. They can help you get the responses you need to create a successful poll campaign.
Competitor Analysis
Chances are both you and your competitors are targeting the same hashtags. By conducting a thorough competitive analysis of your hashtag strategy, you can not only spot the loopholes in your approach but also stay a step ahead of the competition.
Content Research
Trending hashtags will assist you with content research. Analyzing the top posts for a particular hashtag will help you find fresh ideas for your content. It will also help you find other less competitive hashtags worth pursuing.
Attracts More Followers
Using trending hashtags in your content expands your reach. This will help you attract a broader audience, which increases your chances of gaining new followers.
5 Ways To Find Trending Hashtags On Instagram
Now that you know the benefits of using trending hashtags, let’s go over the best ways to find relevant hashtags to grow your account.
1. Check the Instagram Explore Page
The Explore page is a collection of posts generated by a user’s reaction, followers, and accounts they follow. Marketers can explore this page to find content related to their interests.
The Explore page is also a great page to find trending hashtags on Instagram, but the process requires a lot of manual effort. You’ll have to scroll through the posts on this page and check the descriptions to identify the hashtags used by the popular accounts.
This approach is very time-consuming and there’s no guarantee you’ll find the most current trending hashtags. It’s best to consider hiring social media virtual assistants to get this job done for you.
Read Trend Analysis Made Simple: 3 Examples to Help You Get Started
2. Use Hashtag Tracking Tools
Instagram hashtag tracking tools will make it easy for you to find trending hashtags on Instagram. These tools are significantly more efficient than manual searches and will save you a lot of time and effort that can be invested elsewhere.
To use a hashtag tracking tool, simply enter keywords related to your niche. The tool will generate a comprehensive list of hashtags related to your Instagram activities.
In most cases, the Instagram growth tool will list the hashtags according to relevance to help you find the right ones to use. The highly relevant and trending hashtags will be at the top and will include insights such as post volume and engagement metrics to help you make informed decisions about which hashtags to include in your posts.
Read 7 Best Hashtag Research Tools For Social Media [Free+Paid]
3. Use Instagram’s Search Tool
The search tool on the Instagram app is also a great place to find trending hashtags on Instagram. When you search for a specific hashtag, Instagram displays the post volume to help you learn how many times the hashtag has been used.
Since post volume determines if a hashtag is trending, this is an effective way to find trending hashtags in your niche.
The image shows the post volume of the hashtag #climbing. Since the hashtag has been used 18 million times, it can be considered to be trending.
However, with 18 million posts, the #climbing hashtag is very competitive. To prevent your content from getting lost in the crowd, you should consider variations of that hashtag such as #climbinglife (1.5M posts), #climbingrocks (319K posts), and #climbinglovers (312K posts).
4. Follow Relevant Influencers
Do you know the top influencers in your industry? If so, then consider following them to find trending hashtags on Instagram.
Influencers strive to be on top of social media trends to maintain their relevance and boost the engagement rate of their posts. Because of this, they always know which hashtags are trending and frequently use them in their posts.
By following relevant influencers, you will know which hashtags are trending in your industry by studying their content.
Read 10 Most Effective Ways To Find Instagram Influencers
5. Follow Relevant Hashtags
As we’ve already mentioned, Instagram users can follow hashtags, and posts with that hashtag will appear on their feed. But did you know you can use this strategy to find trending hashtags in your niche?
This is because the posts that show up in your feed will include other hashtags that are relevant to your activities. By carefully assessing these hashtags, you will discover that some of them are trending and include them in your content.
But as you can see, this method is very tedious and will require significant time investment from you.
Final Words
Hashtags are key to your success on Instagram. The right hashtags will bring your content to a broader audience, thereby increasing your visibility and boosting engagement rates.
Use the tips shared in this article to find trending hashtags on Instagram. As a busy marketer, the manual methods will not appeal to you. Luckily, there are many tools you can use to find relevant hashtags worth pursuing.
If you want to know how you can find trending hashtags on Instagram and how you can benefit from them, book a demo, and we will help you!
