Instagram remains one of the most widely used social media channels for all amateur photographers and really anyone looking to showcase their photography skills. With more than 600 million subscribers, this predominantly photo-sharing platform enables anyone with a camera to attain more exposure to his/her work leading to more followers and perhaps more clients.

Just like other social media platforms, Instagram has its own tits and bits that ought to be fully understood to take advantage of this powerful photo sharing community. This is through using the photography hashtags that marketers need to master wisely.

Instagram Hashtags – What Are They? And Should You Use Them?

Instagram hashtags are an equivalent to keywords for social media. They are identified as a phrase or words preceded by the hash symbol (#). Hashtags are used to post a description or caption about a photo or the comments section and often help in filtering and search content on various social media networks.

Through Instagram hashtags, Instagram is able to organize and rightfully categorize content that enables the platform to present the right content to right users/group of people. If you are an active social media user, you are likely to have seen hashtags in action. For those looking to increase followers, they are a great piece of puzzle used to grow the audience.

Importance of Hashtags

Some of the key benefits of using Instagram photography hashtags include:

To gain more likes

Instagram users interested in a particular field, say photography, will likely search for hashtags related to their field of interest on the Instagram search bar. Results for their searches will be based on hashtags used. Therefore, by using hashtags, you will be increasing your chances of being featured in the results and the said users accessing your content. They may, in turn, be interested in finding out more about your brand.

To gain more followers

Instagram, besides being a predominant photo-sharing platform, is more and more a marketing platform. Instagram users interested in a specific niche will always search for more content or info related to their field of interest. Using the right Instagram hashtags is the best way to make sure those users, your potential customers, find your content and follow your page. Having more followers will not only extend the reach of your posts and naturally your brand, but it also, in turn, enables your content to be viewed by more people.

To make more sales

Instagram hashtags aren’t just about growing your social media following. Whilst this could be a valuable benefit, you can take advantage of the large following to make more sales or market your services. Using specific niche hashtags that promote some of your products will draw the attention of users who are likely to purchase something related to your content.

What Makes a Good Hashtag?

Unlike what many people think, the sum of posts below a specific hashtag doesn’t guarantee that you are using the right hashtag. It only indicates the popularity of the particular subject related to the hashtag.

Various factors make a good hashtag. A combination of the sum of posts and engagement of the community are vitally important. Perhaps, the more niche a hashtag is, the better, as it enables you to stand out among your less targeted competitors and reach your target customers.

Also, some hashtags are just too damn popular. As a rule of thumb, I would advise you to avoid posting hashtags with more than five million or so posts. This way, your image will not be bogged down within seconds on that hashtag feed. Note that many users keep posting the same hashtag. You definitely want your image to be on top of the search result as long as possible to get users willing to genuinely engage with you.

Tools to Find the Best Instagram Photography Hashtags

Having covered the benefits and some aspects of what makes a good hashtag, it is time to look at how to find the best Instagram photography hashtags for you. For photography and even e-commerce related businesses, it is a great idea to begin by taking some time to search for the best Instagram hashtags for likes related to your niche. Always ensure that you make an informed decision on what to use.

There are various tools that can help you with this. Regardless of what your specific photography niche is all about, these tools will help you find hashtags that are relevant to your content. Some of the tools that come in handy include:

TagBlender – This Instagram hashtag generator tool can be used to source hashtags with high engaging rates for social media content. With this tool, you will be able to generate a seamless set of hashtags from different fields such as Fashion, Urban, Art, and People. TagBlender is free and simple to use.

HashtagsForLikes – HashtagsForLikes is the other great tool used to generate Instagram hashtags for e-commerce businesses. Just like TagBlender, it is an easy tool to use in sourcing the best and trendy Instagram hashtags related to your e-commerce business.

InstagramTags – InstagramTags is an Instagram hashtag generating tool that marketers use to access ready-made sets of various popular hashtags. This tool relates to various different fields including ‘Throwback’ to ‘Hair’ feeds. You can use InstagramTags to find endless photography hashtags that can significantly grow your social media presence.

Seekmetrics – as the name suggests, this is an analytical tool that provides comparative metrics on how you are performing compared to other competitors. This tool uses the Instagram’s API to find related hashtags. To use it as a hashtag generator, you simply need to type in a hashtag and click generate, which then offers all similar hashtags related to the one entered.

AllHashtag – All Hashtag generator tool allows users to create and analyze top and relevant hashtags. It does so by generating thousands of relevant hashtags that can simply be copied and pasted into an Instagram post. This tool curates hashtags that are based on the keyword entered. It also has three filter options that enable users to find the precise Instagram tags they are looking for.

Instagram Hashtag Limit

With the various Instagram hashtag generating tools present, it is critical that you keep your Instagram Hashtag limit in mind when posting. If you don’t know, Instagram enforces a hashtag limit of 30 hashtags per post. This limit is in place to ensure that Instagram remains relevant as well as avoid spam on the platform.

Instagram hashtag limit should guide your choice on Instagram hashtags to use when posting content on social media. If you are using one of the Instagram hashtag generators mentioned above, there is a possibility that you will receive a generic set with a maximum of 30 hashtags. From the provided options, use more relevant hashtags that you think will draw traffic that is more valuable to your content.

Top Photography Hashtags to Use

As mentioned, Hashtags are very useful in making your content on Instagram become more discoverable as well as increasing the reach and engagement on your profile. To achieve this, the formula is as simple as uploading the post and including relevant hashtags in the caption or as the first comment. Instagram does the rest. Provided you do this correctly; you should see some surge in engagements on your post in terms of likes and comments as well as an increase in followers.

Having said that, the mainstay question remains, what are the best Instagram photography hashtags to use? Well, the choice of the right hashtags hugely depends on your content. Outlined below are some of the best hashtags for photography.

Generic Hashtags

This is the one size fits it all hashtagging. Some hashtags have been active since the birth of Instagram and are still popular. It is worth noting that hashtags in this category are generally overly popular. As photos uploaded and tagged every second are stored chronologically, your beautiful city or nature shot could be lost in seconds within Instagram depths and never really reach any of your target audience.

Some generic hashtags include;
#justgoshoot #instagoodmyphoto #instaphoto #picoftheday #photooftheday #photography #iphoneography #500px #pictureoftheday #camera #photoshop #instadaily #igers #sunset #cityscape #hdr #instafocus #igworldclub #visuals #aesthetics #travellingthroughtheworld #wanderlust

Niche Hashtags

These photography hashtags are supposed to be directed towards the content you upload. Be it a hashtag highlighting the style of photography capture or describing the composition, niche hashtags are unique and worth including. However, when including niche hashtags, it is important to focus on quality over quantity. You may not reach a large engagement but will be of quality as users searching such hashtags are specifically interested in the content.

For example, if you use #rockconcert instead of just #concert you are more likely to narrow down to those who will be truly interested in your content.

Make sure to be specific to build a more targeted audience for your profile.

Some of the more Niche hashtags related to photography include:
#streetphotography #streetart #travelgram #ruleofthirds #2instagoodportraitlove #longexposure #vignette #lightphotography #vsco #vscocam #snapseed #macro #leadinglines #symmetry #viewpoint #panorama #depthoffield #goldenratio #monogram #monochrome #dodgeandburn #travelblogger #throughthelens #bokeh #urbanphoto #reflection_shotz #earthpix #moodygrams #fatalframes #reflectiongram

Although you can use some of these, you are better off using the Tools we mentioned above to search for hashtags relevant to your own niche.

Community Hubs

Community hub photography hashtags are created by the community, for the community. These hashtags have been designed to help users connect, share and most importantly grow their presence across Instagram with the incredible power of photographs.

There are endless lists of Instagram accounts, with each lying on their own niche. They include street photography, nature, travel, portrait among others. Doing this is simple. Find a community account in Instagram with posts that suit your photography style or your market, follow the page and include the relevant hashtags on your own posts to reap the rewards.

Naturally, you should expect a significant increase in engagement of those searching and most importantly using the hashtags. This can be a great way of connecting with other photographers as well as growing organic followers.

Some Photography community hashtags include;

#visualsoflife – @visualsoflife
#AGameofTones – @agameoftones
#artofvisuals #aov – @artofvisuals
#thecreatorclass – @thecreatorclass
#peoplescreatives – @thepeoplescreative
#streetsdreamsmag – @streetsdreamsmag
#worldtravelbook – @worldtravelbook
#thedailybite – @the_daily_bite_
#passionpassport – @passionpassport
#ftwotw – @waitingontheworld
#of2humans – @of2humans
#discoverearth – @discoverearth
#pursuitofportraits – @pursuitofportraits
#exploretocreate – @thevisualcollective
#portraitmood – @portraitmood

The success of your Instagram hashtags hugely relies on how you choose to use them. Below are some of the tips you can employ for a successful photography hashtagging.

Tips for Successful Hashtags

Follow the following tips to bring success in your photography venture.

Target your audience

The probability of reaching your audience with Instagram hashtags relies on whether you use them correctly. Hashtags, by nature, lets your posts to be discovered by people looking for such specific content.

For instance, if your work is centered around landscape photography, use hashtags such as #landscapephotography #landscapelover #landscape_captures #landscapes #landscape_photography #pixel_ig #landscape_hunter #landscape_lovers #landscapecaptures #landscapestyles_gf #landscape_specialist #landscapeporn #getlost #landscapephotomag #ig_landscape #trapping_tones #ig_masterpiece #ig_podium #splendid_earth #gramslayers #agameoftones #optoutside #discoverearth #exploretheglobe #nakedplanet #places_wow #earthfocus #ourplanetdaily #earthofficial #natgeo #nationalgeographic #awesome_earthpix

Optimize the hashtags you use

Since Instagram limits the use of hashtags to 30, it is prudent to use 5-10 more generic hashtags and 20-25 more niche and community hashtags. This will optimize your search resulting in precise audience reach. If you haven’t been using hashtags since you began posting, it isn’t late to add appropriate hashtags to them. You can also add them as captions or in the comments section.

Use Appropriate Hashtags

Having seen the importance of using hashtags in promoting your photos, it is important that you find appropriate hashtags to use in your photographs. As mentioned, Instagram may be flooded with hashtags resulting from the hashtags generating tools mentioned above, so make sure to be wise and also study your competitors Instagram pages to see what hashtags they are using. You are likely to unearth some good hashtags that way.

Avoid Spam Hashtags

Hashtags that have been there since the inception of Instagram are hugely popular with counts of more than 40 million pictures tagged under them. Hashtagging your photograph with these hashtags is like throwing a needle in the haystack. Some of these hashtags include #photooftheday, #beautiful, #love among others. These hashtags may invite spam comments into your post as such tags don’t lack bots that are programmed to comment on any post with particular tags.

Instagram Dos and Don’ts

Instagram is a way of categorizing Instagram posts to increase your reach. Whilst in pursuit for this, below are some of the dos and don’ts.

Do keep an eye on the trends – Instagram on itself doesn’t publish any list of trending topics. However, you can use sites like Top Hashtags and Google Trends to check out what stories have more traction online. Getting involved with such brands will help you capture some traffic and gain more followers.

Do take advantage of time-sensitive hashtags – there are several time-sensitive hashtag trend such as #ThrowbackThursday (#TBT) or #TransformationTuesday (#TFT). As a photographer, you can always find inventive ways of getting involved in these daily tags that increase your chances of increasing your reach and ultimately following. Holiday tags such as #MothersDay and #NationalFrenchFryDay can also provide an added advantage.

Do be proactive in the use of hashtags – many people get it wrong by thinking that hashtags are just used to sprinkle into their pictures or other posts. However, you should also use them to start conversations with your audience.

Don’t go hashtag lazy – hashtags are a great way of gaining interactions and increasing the number of interactions. However, don’t be carried away and keep in mind that any hashtag you use should be relevant to your post. Do not re-use the same hashtag often if it’s a low volume hashtag. The way you tell if you’re overusing a hashtag is to visit the hashtag page on Instagram. If there are more than 2 or 3 of your pictures in the first screen, then you’re overusing it and not gaining any more subscribers from it. Avoid hashtags that ask people to follow or like your posts.

Don’t jump on irrelevant hashtags – it is overly important that you keep an eye on the trends to increase your post’s visibility. However, be extra cautious to avoid using hashtags that aren’t appropriate for your brand.

In Conclusion

Correct hashtag use is the true secret for growing a Instagram account if there is one. There are many brands out there marketing their photos in Instagram. However, only few are doing extremely well in these channels. The best trick for growing a successful account is by following the most popular accounts in your niche and track their hashtag use. Study them and make a list of hashtags they commonly use. Then try to incorporate those hashtags in your own posts.