How to Use Hashtags to Increase Your Reach on Instagram

Please raise your hand if you have ever felt personally victimized by Instagram’s algorithm. I know I have! I recently used a new hashtag strategy on a recent photo of mine, and it increased my reach tremendously. Keep reading to find out how to use hashtags to increase your reach on Instagram.

*disclaimer: I am not an Instagram wizard, and by all means, I am not saying this is 100% guaranteed to work. But it is worth a shot!

Here is where you start:

Write Down 5 Topics You Post About

I recommend writing all of this down in your notepad on your phone, or in a text message to yourself.

For example, this could be

• city you live in
• fashion
• blogging
• home decor
• fitness

Search Each Topic in Instagram via Hashtag

For example, I’ll search #blogging .

Instagram is great because it shows similar hashtags when searching for one… and on top of that, it shows how many posts people have made using that particular hashtag.

Scroll through these hashtags and write down in your notepad:

• five hashtags with less than 50k posts
• five hashtags with 50-200k posts
• five hashtags with 200-500k posts
• five hashtags with 500k-1mil posts

Be sure they are hashtags that fit you and your brand… and 5 is just what I use, feel free to use more.

Do the above for all 5 of your categories.

Here is what my notepad looks like for under hashtags with under 50k:

Don’t use these specific hashtags.. they are old & outdated, you’ll benefit more from researching on your own… TRUST ME.

Use Hashtags from All Number Groups

Now, what do you do after you have done all of your research?

When it is time to post, go into each note and copy your hashtags from each number group.

Copy the blogging hashtags with under 50k, blogging hashtags with 50-200k posts, blogging hashtags with 200-500k posts, and blogging hashtags with 500k-1mil posts and paste them into a comment under your photo.

You can of course still include your typical hashtags as well – I always include #cincinnatibloggers and #girlaboutohio !

I should also note, you don’t have to only use hashtags from one category such as #blogging. I typically mix – as long as it makes sense. IE – if my photo is based in Cincinnati, but is promoting a recent blog post on instagram hashtags – i’ll mix it up and use #blogging and #cincinnati hashtags.
But I still only use 5 from each number group.

Should this work, as the engagement on your post increases, you will appear on the trending page for the hashtags you used!

Below are the results I got when using this method! 78% of the people I reached weren’t following me, and over 3,000 found my post through hashtags!

Check out my post that pulled in these numbers!

What do you think? Are you going to give it a try? If you do, be sure to comment below!

If you liked this post on how to use hashtags to increase your reach on Instagram, check out my ‘How I Edit My Instagram Photos‘ post!