Are you looking to maximize your Instagram reach and connect with audiences beyond just your followers? Want to leverage real-time trends and larger conversations?
Integrating the most popular hashtags into your Instagram marketing strategy can provide these benefits and more.
But with billions of hashtags used across over 500 million posts daily, determining the current “top trenders” is crucial.
In this comprehensive guide, we breakdown actionable tips to identify and incorporate trending Instagram hashtags that align with your brand and industry.
You’ll learn research-backed processes for:
- Monitoring your niche hashtags
- Utilizing Instagram search suggestions
- Tracking top performers with tools
- Piggybacking on viral news moments
- Analyzing performance data
Let’s explore the when, why and how trending hashtags can transform your Instagram presence.
Why Do Trending Hashtags Matter?
Before jumping into sourcing tactics, let’s overview the key reasons trending hashtags should be central to your Instagram marketing:
Increased Visibility & Potential Reach
Trending hashtags deal with topics that are currently popular. This equates to an abundance of people searching and posting around related terms.
Including trending hashtags means tapping into these already active conversations around subjects your audience cares about right now. This can introduce your brand to many more interested users.
According to recent data, top trending hashtags average over 1 million associated posts. Compare that to broader industry hashtags in the 10-100k range or micro-niche tags under 10k.
Chance of Being Featured & Discovered
The Instagram algorithm favors content expected to perform well. This includes posts using trending hashtags indicating likely high engagement and shares.
As Instagram guru Jenn Herman notes, “using a mix of popular hashtags when publishing new posts gives you a better chance to be found in Explore and hashtag pages where you’re more discoverable.”
This algorithmic boost means additional opportunities to get your posts featured in the Explore Page and hashtag discovery feeds.
More Ways to Connect with Your Audience
Half of Instagram users rely on hashtags to find relevant, interesting content and accounts.
Aligning branded posts with trending topics provides multiple avenues for ideal customers to encounter you organically during their usual searches and browsing.
Instead of only reaching your individual followers, well-optimized hashtags help you engage users regardless of whether they currently follow you. Expand beyond your existing circle to grow your community.
Now let’s explore proven tactics to determine today’s top trending hashtags…
Tactic #1: Research Your Niche Hashtags
The first step to hashtag research is analyzing competitor and industry accounts similar to yours. These closely related pages will be targeting the same audience.
Review which niche hashtags currently perform well for them right now based on:
- Usage frequency
- Post placement
- Overall engagement
Sort their posts by engagement levels in the last 30 days. Identify which hashtags are associated with their all-star top-performing pieces of content. Take notes on tag patterns that capture attention.
You can then model success by working those same hashtags into your own content where relevant. This ensures you tap into audiences actively following and searching those terms.
To illustrate, a kombucha shop would analyze tags used by other natural fermented tea companies. If #buchkreation and #ferments currently drive high likes and comments, repurposing those hashtags can help also boost their reach and engagement.
Tactic #2: Check Instagram’s Recommendations
Instagram offers a super simple starting point to research relevant hashtags.
Open the app and pull down the search tab. Rather than inputting a user handle, start typing a keyword related to your post like “yoga” or “baking”.
Even before fully entering the term, suggested hashtags will populate below. The algorithm detects related high-volume tags like:
The auto-suggested hashtags reflect those widely used by others around similar topics. So they provide a short-cut to high-potential tags.
You can tap into any hashtag to evaluate it further. This shows usage numbers like total posts, as well as the types of top posts prominently displayed.
Analyze the level of engagement on featured photos which indicate benchmarks. If a small hashtag has posts routinely getting 10K+ likes, it signals opportunity to establish yourself as an early adopter.
Make Instagram’s recommendations even more tailored by adding qualifying terms like locations or movements. Searching #austinbaker gives more niche local options than simply #baking alone.
Tactic #3: Utilize Hashtag Tracking Tools
While Instagram provides a start, dedicated hashtag tools pull far more robust usage data. Specialty platforms analyze trending topics across social networks like Twitter, Facebook and TikTok as well.
Key analytics to examine when assessing potential hashtags include:
- Recent popularity and usage
- Post volume metrics
- Estimated audience reach
- Engagement rates
For example, a food blogger scheduling weekly recipes may input “mealplanning” and instantly view performance data for hashtags like:
The ability to compare quantitative engagement and audience size estimates between thousands of options saves tons of manual effort.
You can instantly validate which resonate most with users based on hard data versus guesswork.
Tactic #4: Jump on Trending News
Monitor sites like Google Trends for insight into current event and pop culture moments drawing attention.
Identify front-page news like political debates, celebrity moments, or movie releases trending across search and social media. These headlines also point to related hashtag opportunities.
For example, rampant searches for Wordle – the daily online word guessing game – highlighted how brands outside gaming capitalized using #wordle, #wordlecolors and #wordlepuzzle hashtags by tying themes into content.
UFC events, new song drops by popular artists, or even seasonal moments like the Super Bowl or Olympics all provide avenues to connect your industry to emerging popular topics through hashtags.
Tactic #5: Tracking Branded Hashtag Campaigns
In addition to broader hashtags, consider launching an original branded campaign relevant to your products or audience.
The ice cream shop Coastal Creamery drives engagement through hashtag challenges like #coastalcolorhunt and #coastalOOFTD. Followers post photos of their ice cream cones and colorful beach settings.
This user-generated content provides free visuals while showing authentic enjoyment customers gain from their experience.
The hashtag also persists to function as a central hub showcasing their memorable moments long-term through archived story highlights and email newsletters.
No matter your industry, brainstorm creative, themed hashtags for customers to rally around and embed themselves into your brand story.
Tactic #6: Schedule Posts Strategically
As with most social media marketing, timing is critical when deploying hashtag campaigns.
The goal is catching posts during peak exposure windows based on historical data available within advanced hashtag tools.
Key datapoints include:
- Best engagement hours
- Peak traffic periods
- Recommended frequency
For example, internal testing may prove #foodie features work best 3x per week, avoiding Sundays when engagement lags. Scheduling tools then allow auto-queueing content to align with ideal posting cadences.
Pair knowledgeable timing choices with trending now signals to benefit from real-time spikes surrounding breaking developments.
Tactic #7: Analyze Your Performance
While third-party tools provide general hashtag benchmarks, analyzing your own metrics is most insightful.
Consistently check Instagram Insights to identify “top hashtags” currently accounting for the highest impressions and engagement on your posts.
Look at performance amongst niche, branded and trending hashtags to optimize future content.
Are short punchy tags like #blessed or #tasty driving more clicks than longer phrases?
Do global trending topics or community-specific hashtags perform better?
Let this internal data guide editing hashtag selection moving forward to ensure you build the right groups proven to connect with your readers.
Conclusion
As a critical lever for expanding content visibility and reach, hashtag optimization must be an integral piece of Instagram strategy.
By actively tracking trending topics along with niche hashtags, creatively tying into emerging conversations and analyzing performance data, your account visibility will continue growing.
What tips do you find most useful for researching current Instagram hashtags? Share your top wins or questions around maximizing hashtags!