Oh, the hashtag. Hashtags have a long history, and started out as the pound sign on the telephone, but has made its way to social media. Hashtags were first used in 2007 on Twitter and are now the universal symbol for connecting people with content on a global scale.
People even use them when they’re speaking these days! For that reason, using them on Instagram is more important than ever if you want to get your content seen by more people (more on how in a bit).
Hashtags on Instagram can be so broad that it can be tough to know which ones will get you the best results; most people use a free-for-all hashtag strategy that spams their content with whatever hashtags that may come to mind, but is that the best way?
When you have a centered and targeted hashtag strategy, you can get much more growth with even fewer hashtags. There are plenty of awesome hashtag apps out there that can help you figure out which ones to use.
After you check out our article, you’ll know:
• Why you need hashtags on Instagram and other social media
• Best Instagram hashtag apps
• 3 pro tips to use hashtags on Instagram and other social networks
You’ll feel ready as ever to start using hashtags to drive better Instagram results! Let’s get started.
Why You Need Hashtags on Instagram
In order to understand why you need hashtags on Instagram, you’ll have to understand how they work first. This article will primarily focus on Instagram, but pretty much all of the information applies to all other social media networks, including Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and more.
When you use a hashtag on your social media content, this is what happens:
• Your content becomes discoverable through hashtag feeds. People will be able to search a hashtag and find your content in that particular search. This means that people who have never come across your content or page before will have the opportunity to see you.
• You get more visibility. When you use hashtags, you become a relevant part of social media trending topics and discussion. Social media always moves based on trends, so being a part of trending topics helps you get seen.
• People in your niche notice you. Using niche-specific hashtags will get you seen not only by more people, but by the right people. This is the key, and we’ll talk more about this later on.
All in all, you can see that the clear benefit of hashtags is getting your content seen by many more viewers and staying relevant on social media networks. You should always keep your accounts set to public so that you can appear in these hashtag feeds, otherwise your posts will only be visible to those that already follow you.
Using the right hashtags is vital in order to get the best results. The following 5 hashtag apps will completely transform the way you think about, understand, and use hashtags on Instagram and other networks.
Best Instagram Hashtag Apps
All of the following apps offer top of the line quality in terms of hashtag searches, statistics, organization, as well as generation. When you use these tools, you’ll be able to double, triple, or even quadruple your Instagram reach and visibility.
Most of the tools out there will give you the general performance stats and trends according to Instagram, but the hashtag generation and suggestions can still be applied to your content on other platforms.
Let’s take a look.
1. Task Ant
One of the most accessible and practical hashtag apps for Instagram is without a doubt Task Ant. There are few hashtag tools that offer the ease of use and effective results that Task Ant provides.
Task Ant not only provides performance statistics for all hashtags based on your particular queries and filters, you can also generate hashtags that are most relevant for your content and organize them into sets for easy posting and content application.
No more writing down and looking for hashtags on notes or word processors, no more re-writing hashtags for your content— Task Ant makes everything so quick with an incredibly streamlined process for hashtag search and posting.
Task Ant is compatible both for iOS and Android, so nobody is left out, and it’s one of the most affordable, cost-effective hashtag apps out there. They’ve helped thousands of top brands and influencers optimize their hashtag strategy.
You will wonder how you ever survived hashtags without Task Ant!
2. Display Purposes
A fun and interesting way to check out some hashtags for your content, Display Purposes will give you a variety of useful options that can help you get better hashtags. You’ll search a keyword at the top and they will show you related tags that can work for your content.
It’s a very simple yet effective way to get some basic hashtag suggestions. Display Purposes will also give you some general usage statistics so that you can understand how the tag is performing and what you can expect when using it.
While it doesn’t have the organization and filtering capabilities of some other tools on this list, if you need a few suggestions, they can do the trick.
3. TalkWalker
TalkWalker is an advanced hashtag tool that will help you to find a plethora of information about the hashtags you use and track your hashtag campaigns. It’s a bit pricey, so you can check out their free demo to see if it’ll work for your brand or business.
You can compare hashtags and see which one would be a better selection for your content, and it’s extremely easy to use. You’ll even be able to see who is using the hashtag and what the KPIs are for the hashtag. It’s a very intuitive app.
TalkWalker is a favorite among many top brands and competitors, so check them out.
4. Keyhole
Keyhole has a really great user interface and it will primarily track the success of different hashtags online. The great thing is that you can use this for any social media network. It’ll also help you to create hashtags that are relevant for your brand or business.
It gives hashtag suggestions based on the searches that you make, and they will help you to create a sophisticated hashtag campaign to keep your content under new eyes.
Keyhole is an extremely well-designed hashtag app, and the price tag shows it, but you’re likely to see good results if you use the tool effectively.
5. Tagboard
Tagboard is a multi-platform hashtag app that will help you get a visual perspective on how hashtags are being used on the platform, seeing a visual board of all the posts at one time. This is helpful for those that work better visually.
You can also save the ones that are relevant to you and your niche. This can also be a great app to help you get inspiration for future content creation as well as which posts to share that can boost your engagement and get you tagging and partnering with other players in your niche.
Pro Hashtag Tip 1: Use Specific Hashtags
Using very general hashtags like #fitness, #yummy, #sunday, etc. aren’t going to drive great results as anyone in any niche will be using these tags. Always go for something that is brand or niche-specific so that you can reach people who will actually care about your content.
That’s why these hashtag apps are so beneficial— they’ll give you ideas that you may have never even considered, and they’ll tell you which ones actually work.
Pro Hashtag Tip 2: Don’t Spam Your Posts with Tags
Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags on one post, but more doesn’t necessarily mean better. Because Instagram’s algorithm decides which posts are valuable and who to show them to, having a bunch of hashtags may cause your post to look spammy and actually perform worse.
Research shows that anywhere from 4 tags to 11 tags are the optimal number to see best results; for that reason, you should ensure that you use the right ones, and that’s where the hashtag apps come in.
You can post hashtags throughout your caption, in bulk at the end of your caption, or even in the first comment of your post once it goes live.
Pro Hashtag Tip 3: Check out Competitors and Trends
A great benefit of many hashtag apps is that you can see who is using the hashtag, or at least how many users, and what is performing well. If you choose a hashtag that has thousands and thousands of posts, you may not get as much visibility as you would with a slightly less-used one.
Understanding which tags are performing well in your niche and how many users are applying which tags can help you to choose the right ones for optimal visibility and reach through your hashtag campaigns.
This work can be tiring and confusing; use a hashtag app to do it for you.
Conclusion: Best Hashtag Apps
All in all, these 5 hashtag apps will completely transform your hashtag strategy and get you in front of more Instagram users. You can also use the tools to help you with other social media networks so that you can solidify your presence on all networks.
Use some of these hashtag apps and implement our three tips and you’ll see results from hashtags that you never dreamed of!
