#1: Place hashtags in the caption for the most impressions
- Adding hashtags in the caption almost guarantees you’ll get more impressions, regardless of the size of your Instagram account.
- No matter if your account has less than 5K followers or more than 100K, there seems to be the same recipe.
#2: Use hashtags in the first comment if you have a large follower count
- Long story short, we’ve discovered that big Instagram profiles (more than 100K followers) have the best average reach rate when placing hashtags in the first comment.
- However, smaller accounts (up to 100K followers) have a better reach rate when placing them in the caption.
#3: Hide your caption hashtags
- Hiding your caption hashtags may help the post look cleaner, less spammy and uncluttered, eliminating any chance that your hashtags steal your message’s spotlight.
- But first things first – what are these hidden hashtags and how can you benefit from doing this?
- In short “hiding your hashtags” means creating some space between your message and the hashtags, so that the hashtags can only be seen once you select the “more” option.
#4: Don’t hide the hashtags used in the first comment
- As opposed to the strategy of posting hidden hashtags in the caption, hiding them in the comment is not such a good idea.
- When using hashtags in the first comment, most brands like to show the hashtags – meaning they’re not using the dot and line-break formula explained above.
- Apparently, the engagement rate per post is higher for posts with shown hashtags in the first comment, which proves this method to be efficient.
#5. Best formulas for peak Instagram Engagement
- Small profiles, with under 5,000 followers perform better overall when using 6 hidden hashtags in the caption.
- Profiles that are a little bit bigger, with between 5,000 and 10,000 followers, might want to use 5 shown hashtags in the first comment, which has proved to bring higher engagement, despite the reach and impression rates showing otherwise.
- In this case, it’s important to keep track of your KPIs. If engagement is what you need, then go with it.
- Profiles with 10K to 50K followers need to use as few as 2 hashtags and hide them in the caption. This will bring the best engagement, impressions and reach.
- Accounts with over 50K followers, but under 100K followers should try using 8 hidden hashtags in the caption.
- However, the larger profiles that have more than 100,000 followers can hit their best engagement, reach and impression rates when placing 6 shown hashtags in the first comment.
Wrapping Up
- Increasing your likes, getting more followers and boosting engagement rates on your Instagram page is no easy job.
- Try to find your own path to achieve this and set up measurable goals.
- Also, don’t take anything at face value, see what works in your own case. While the above works in most cases, each Instagram audience in different and may interact differently with your posts.
- So how were you using your hashtags? And how many hashtags do you typically use?
Social Media Power 