How to use hashtags to increase your Instagram reach

In our “Instagram Guides,” we'll look at Instagram, explain its new and old features, and show you how to get the most out of the platform for your marketing strategy. Today: How you can use hashtags to increase your Instagram reach.

Hashtags are the perfect way to boost your organic reach on Instagram, especially when you want to reach a new audience with your content.

To serve your marketing purpose well, you can use hashtags. They can help to boost engagements and post impressions or increase the number of followers for your account.

What are hashtags on Instagram?

Instagram hashtags are like keywords or collections. You can use them to categorize your content and in this way get discovered by potential followers.

You can either use your hashtags in full sentences in your caption, or you can gather all of them at the end. But be careful: It can sometimes get a bit messy to have hashtags in your written text.

Some users don’t even use them at all. But hashtags sure can help to increase your organic reach on the platform.

You will get the most success out of your hashtags if you use the trending ones that match your business or a special event you want to post about.

Trending hashtags on Instagram are like other popular trends. Sooner or later, they become the in-topics.

Instagram limits the number of hashtags you can paste into your caption to 30.

How do you boost your Instagram reach with hashtags?

Like always with Instagram, increasing your reach is all about taking advantage of the algorithm.

The main thing you can achieve with your hashtags is to make it on the Explore tab in the app. This is the area where users discover new Instagram content from accounts they aren’t already following.

Here is how you can make the algorithm work to your advantage.

When you browse through the hashtag sections, you can see how many posts have already been tagged with specific hashtags.

The most important thing is to use hashtags to specifically describe your content.

Not sure what hashtags you should use? You can use the hashtag browser to find similar hashtags. It automatically generates suggestions when you type in a specific word.

It can also be helpful to have an eye on trending hashtags or viral trends. If they fit your content in a relevant way, you can benefit from the trend.

What analytics tools does Instagram provide?

Of course, it is essential to monitor your hashtag strategy. This way, you can analyze your hashtag performance and adjust your strategy if needed.

Therefore, you can use the default Instagram Insights. Go to your profile and tap the menu in the upper right corner. Then tap Insights. Or just click the Insights button right under your post.

But don't expect too much from the default insights—they aren’t very informative. They only show you the total number of visitors who have seen your post because of your hashtags.

If you need more statistics about individual hashtags or the composition of your target group, you can always use external social media management tools.

Conclusion: Hashtags can help to boost your Instagram reach

Hashtags can help to increase your organic reach on Instagram. But they are not a cure-all. You should always keep in mind that content is still king; hashtags only provide some extra help. Storrito helps with the creation of Instagram stories. The platform can be used within a team to create and schedule Stories.