What are hashtags?
“Hashtags” are a convention now common to social networks, with Twitter being the first one to use them. Basically, they are words, abbreviations, or short phrases preceded by the number (or “pound”) sign (“#”). They are used as a way for people to freely categorize pieces of information on a social network, in order to create a sort of loose user-generated filing system.
For example, a hashtag such as “#yummy” is usually attached to pictures and/or recipes of delicious food.
How to add hashtags on Instagram
Adding hashtags on Instagram is easy! When you’re writing a caption for a photo that you’re going to post on Instagram (see our How to Add Photos to Instagram tutorial for complete instructions on the process), simply type the “#” symbol, and then type in a word, abbreviation, or phrase that briefly describes the photo or its context. You can add multiple hashtags to the same caption.
For example, I chose the hashtag “#itsmyjob” for this photo because it’s about me making a screenshot that’s necessary for writing a tutorial on Techboomers, which is, well, my job.
As you can also see in the screenshot above, when you’re adding a hashtag on Instagram, you can see how many other posts on Instagram have the same hashtag. Using more popular hashtags might be important when trying to get more people to notice your posts, and potentially follow you. We’ll cover this in more detail in a future tutorial.
Captions for your own photos aren’t the only place that you can use hashtags on Instagram, though. You can also use hashtags when commenting on other people’s photos. To comment on someone else’s photo, tap the speech bubble icon below it.
Now, simply write your comment, and then tap the paper airplane icon to post it.
Top 100 Instagram hashtags
According to the website Top-Hashtags.com, the following is a list of the 100 most popular hashtags on Instagram as of the writing of this article. Some are self-explanatory, while others you may need to do a bit of research in order to understand.
That’s a bit about hashtags on Instagram! Happy tagging!
