Struggling to get likes, followers, and comments on your Instagram posts and reels? The key to increasing your reach and engagement lies in using the right hashtag strategy. Using trending Instagram hashtags can be your breaking-through strategy.
Finding the perfect hashtag for your Instagram campaigns can be overwhelming, especially given the sheer number of them available on the platform.
In this blog post, we’ll show you how to find trending hashtags on Instagram using 3 easy methods. This guide also helps you how to identify the trending Instagram niche hashtags to increase your visibility and engagement effectively.
Get ready to become an Instagram superstar!
Table of Content
- What are Trending Instagram Hashtags?
- 3 Ways to Find Instagram Trending Hashtags
- Do & Don’ts of Instagram Trending Hashtags
- Why Using Trending Hashtags on Instagram is Crucial?
- How to Find Trending Instagram Hashtags Using Mentionlytics
- How to Get Your Hashtag Trending on Instagram?
- Discover Instagram Trending Hashtags for Your Brand
What are Trending Instagram Hashtags?
Trending Instagram hashtags refer to the hashtags that are currently popular or frequently used on the platform. These hashtags help users discover new content and accounts on the platform and also help them get more Instagram followers.
So how does Instagram decide which hashtags are trending?
Well, it is taking into account a few things. First, it checks how many people are using the hashtag and how often they’re using it. The more people use a certain hashtag, the more likely it is to be considered trending.
Instagram also looks at how quickly a hashtag is gaining popularity, as well as the engagement on posts using that hashtag. That means if your post gets a lot of likes, comments, and shares, it can help contribute to a hashtag becoming a trending topic.
So if you want to get in on the action, you need to first find those trending Instagram hashtags. And then learn how to use them correctly.
Yes, it’s important how you use those hashtags too. But we’ll cover that a bit later. First, let’s have a look at all the methods you can use to find trending hashtags on Instagram.
3 Ways to Find Instagram Trending Hashtags
Generally, we can divide methods of finding trending hashtags on Instagram into three categories:
- Instagram hashtag-tracking apps
- Instagram features
- Ready to use Lists
Each of these methods has cons and pros. Keep reading to find out!
Using Instagram hashtag tracking apps
Hashtag tracking tools such as Mentionlytics allow you to quickly and efficiently find Instagram trending hashtags related to your niche, saving you valuable time and effort compared to manual searches.
So, how do they work exactly?
Simple. All you have to do is enter your keywords and let the platform find the trending Instagram hashtags — or in fact on any other social media — for you.
What kind of keyword should you enter into the tracker?
- Your branded keywords including your brand’s name, product name, or even branded hashtags
- Your competitors’ branded keywords
- Any other buzzword or topics in your industry that you wish to gain engagement from
And just like that by using the power of AI implemented in these tools, you’ll automatically get a comprehensive list of trending hashtags that are highly relevant to your Instagram’s activities.
Advantages of using Instagram hashtag tracking tools
This method has been proven to be the most effective method of finding Instagram trending hashtags as it has many advantages over the other methods:
- Focusing on what really works: You’ll find Instagram hashtag gems that are highly related to your business, not just a general list of highly competitive hashtags.
- Access to a variety of Metrics: You can check trends, social engagement, reach, and even sentiment for those hashtags.
- Gaining valuable insights: The tool’s insights can be valuable in developing and implementing successful hashtag-focused campaigns that improve engagement and increase your brand awareness.
- Benchmarking: Instagram hashtag trackers are powerful competitor analysis tools as well. By using them you’ll get to track and analyze their Instagram hashtag campaigns as well.
- Time-saving solutions: You don’t need to manually do anything. These tools work 24/7 days to make sure you’ll never miss a single hashtag trend.
👂Pssst: There’s a step-by-step guide at the end of this article that shows you how to find your niche-related trending hashtags using a hashtag tracker.
Using Instagram features
There are two ways to use Instagram’s built-in features to find the trending hashtags on the platform.
Use the Instagram search bar
Follow these steps to identify popular and engaging hashtags:
- Open the Instagram app and tap the search icon at the bottom of the screen.
- Type a keyword or phrase related to your niche or post in the search bar and hit the search icon.
- Click on the “Tags” tab at the top of the screen to see all of the relevant hashtag search results.
- Scroll through the list of hashtags to see which ones are most being used. Hashtags with higher posts are generally better indicators of hashtags that have great potential to get more likes, followers, and comments.
- Click on a hashtag that is relevant to your content to see top or recent posts and reels using those hashtags.
- Open some of the top posts/reels and explore what hashtags people also used along with the ones you searched.
Use Instagram’s Explore page
Very similar to the method just mentioned, using the Instagram Explore page is another easy way to find trending hashtags. Follow these simple steps:
- Open the Instagram app and click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen to go to the Explore page.
- In the search bar at the top of the screen, type in a keyword related to your niche or topic of interest. For example, if you’re a fitness blogger, you might search for “fitness” or “workout”.
- Once you’ve entered your keyword, you’ll see a grid of posts related to that topic. Instead of going to the “Tags” tab, choose the “For you” tab.
- You can also tap on any of the posts to see the full caption and view additional trending hashtags that are being used.
What are the advantages of this method?
- It’s free & easy
- You’ll get a good overview of Instagram trending hashtags
What are the problems with this method?
- Too general: You might not find the hashtags very effective.
- Time-consuming: You’ll have to manually go over every post manually.
- No Metrics: The only metric you will see is the number of times people used that hashtag. This means you won’t know how popular a hashtag is, how quickly it’s growing (or dying out), or estimate the engagement rate and social reach.
- No Tracking: Unlike dedicated tracking tools, the search bar does not allow you to track specific hashtags over time. This means you won’t be able to see how the popularity of a hashtag changes over days, weeks, or months.
Ready-to-Use Lists
This might be the easiest way to find trending hashtags on Instagram. All you have to do is use a comprehensive list of top Instagram hashtags in different categories and add them to your posts and reels.
Also, some apps such as HashtagsForLikes and All Hashtag can help you to find the right hashtags for your Instagram stories and posts.
Be careful! Some of these apps are actually hashtag generators, which means they create a hashtag based on the terms that you enter. The result they return is not necessarily the trending hashtags. So make sure that you completely understand the mechanism before you use one.
Do and Don’ts of Instagram Trending Hashtags
Do’s:
- Do narrow down your research to your niche and target audience
- Do use a mix of general trending hashtags and niche-specific hashtags
- Do add hashtags within the post’s caption or comment
- Do track the performance of the hashtags used using built-in Instagram analytics or third-party tools like Mentionlytics or Hootsuite
- Do use hashtags that describe your content rather than the ones that feel trending
- Do use hashtags with emojis ✅😉
- Do publish your content at the best time to post on Instagram to increase the power of your hashtags 💪 ⏰
Don’ts:
- Don’t use irrelevant trending hashtags or the ones that are banned (diminishes the credibility of the profile)
- Don’t overuse hashtags or exceed the maximum number of 30 hashtags allowed per post
- Don’t use the same set of hashtags repeatedly
- Don’t use hashtags solely to drive likes or follows
- Don’t use broken or misspelled hashtags
Why Using Trending Hashtags on Instagram is Crucial?
There are many reasons why using trending hashtags on Instagram is crucial for anyone looking to grow their following and increase engagement.
Below are some of the top reasons why you should hop on the hashtag train if you haven’t already:
- Using trending hashtags on Instagram can increase visibility to users beyond followers
- Relevant trending hashtags increase chances of being discovered by new audiences
- Using hashtags can lead to more engagement on posts and reels
- Trending hashtags increase the chance of being featured on Instagram’s Explore page
- Trending hashtags help stay up-to-date with current events and conversations within your business circle
Bonus: The Complete Guide to Instagram Carousels
Find Trending Instagram Hashtags using Mentionlytics
Mentionlytics is a social listening tool that automates the process of finding trending hashtags and categorizing them for you. Rather than using Instagram search, influencers, and digital marketing managers can make use of Mentionlytics.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to search on Instagram for hashtags using Mentionlytics with an example of the country estate booking website, fincas4you. In our example, we will be tracking all trending hashtags related to Ryanair flights for fincas4you.
An example of an Instagram post by fincas4you with their strategic use of hashtags.
Step 1. Start by selecting the Add Keyword/Tracker option.
Step 2. Select the option to track Something About my Brand on the next screen.
Step 3. Add a name for your campaign in the text box that shows up on the next screen. Make use of a useful name such as “Instagram Search” or “Trending Hashtags” so that it is easier to remember for future reference.
Step 4. Now you can add the keyword phrases you want to find trending or related hashtags for. The main keyword is the primary focus of the search, but you can add additional keywords or exclude keywords as well. In our example, we have added the main keyword of #ryanair.
Step 5. Select Instagram as the Data Source. Additionally, you can specify language or country filters if you wish to target particular geographical regions or languages.
Step 6. Skip the option for Social Profiles to monitor. This is because we wish to monitor trends across Instagram and therefore should not limit ourselves to a specific social profile or network.
Step 7. Configure the email alerts that you receive by setting the frequency, first-email time, and attachment settings. You can also add additional email addresses for receiving the report.
Step 8. Select Create to create your new tracker and generate reports for trending hashtags.
The Results:
The key benefit of using Mentionlytics is that it provides results, which are more comprehensive than Instagram search. Here is a breakdown of the results which are generated through the mentioned tracker that you created using the guide above.
- The Top Trending Hashtags that are related to your main keyword are sent to you in the form of a table and a word cloud as shown below.
- Here’s a word cloud showing the top Instagram trending hashtags for #ryanair.
- The Top Mentioners (influencers): the people who have used the trending hashtags the most number of times are sent to you in the form of a table.
A table showing the top mentioners of trending hashtags for #ryanair.
How to Get Your Hashtag Trending on Instagram?
If you’re trying to get a hashtag trending on Instagram, it can be a bit of a challenge, but it’s not impossible.
First, you want to come up with a unique and catchy hashtag that represents your brand or campaign. Make sure that no one used that special hashtag before.
Once you have your hashtag, start promoting it, not only on Instagram, but on all your social media platforms, website, and email newsletter to encourage followers to use it.
To make the process faster, collaborate with influencers or other brands in your industry and get them to use your hashtag in their posts and reels.
You can also host a contest or giveaway that requires users to use your hashtag to enter, which can help to generate buzz and increase engagement.
If you have the budget for it, using paid Instagram ads to promote your hashtag to a wider audience can be effective as well.
Don’t forget to share user-generated content that uses your hashtag on your Instagram profile to showcase its popularity.
Finally, consistency is key to making a hashtag trending on Instagram. Keep posting quality content that uses your hashtag to keep it active and relevant.
Discover Instagram Trending Hashtags for Your Brand
Can’t stop thinking about what trending hashtags will work for your Instagram posts and stories? Well, luckily, it’s not a mystery anymore! Sign up for Mentionlytics’ Free Trial to find out right away.
All you have to do is enter your brand name in the box below and grow your Instagram!
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