Each & every Instagram user has a great amount of interest in one or more specific topics, and may have followed several pages related to those topics!
This has led to Instagram adding a great addition to its social network, which is following Instagram Hashtags.
Many users go into the hashtag search panel to see posts that are related to a particular topic and by doing so, they can see all of their favorite hashtag posts; if you search for a specific hashtag for instance #sea on Instagram, posts on public profile pages (profile pages that are not Private) that include that hashtag will be displayed to you.
Posts in private profile pages will not be displayed. Suppose a page is private and the administrator has posted a photo with #sea, if you don’t follow that page, that post won’t show up in the hashtag search panel.
In this article, we are going to teach you how to follow your favorite hashtags and see all the posts related to them.
If you’re ready, follow along with the article below!
Following a Hashtag on Instagram
If you want to view the posts and stories related to a certain hashtag, you first have to follow the topic through its popular hashtag.
You have to log in to the hashtag page to be able to follow that hashtag; there are two ways to do this:
- From the post that had previously used that hashtag; just click that hashtag to enter the hashtag page you intend to follow.
- Enter the Tags tab through the Explore section on Instagram and search for the hashtag you wish to follow. Now enter the desired profile page to see the posts and stories that include the intended hashtag.
Now that you have entered the hashtag page you want, there is an option named Follow at the top of that page.
If you click on it, that hashtag will be added to your profile’s following list.
From now on, all the new posts and stories that have that certain hashtag will be displayed on the front most page of the Instagram feed.
How to Unfollow the Hashtags that we have Previously Followed?
Many users will want to unfollow a certain hashtag after some time for a variety of reasons, such as a large number of new posts displayed for that hashtag.
To do this, simply login to your Instagram profile page, then enter the hashtags section in the Following section of your profile.
Here, you can unfollow that certain hashtag. You can also see the Unfollow option by logging in to any hashtag profile page (the page from where you had initially followed that hashtag).
Click on the Unfollow option to unfollow the intended hashtag.
How do Followed Hashtags Appear on the Instagram Feed Page?
As an Instagram user, you must have followed a number of users and seen their posts on the front page of your Instagram Feed!
User posts appear alongside their usernames on the front page on Instagram, and you can see the number of Likes and even the comments for that post.
Displaying Hashtag Posts is Slightly Different from User Posts! If you’ve followed a hashtag, only some of that hashtag’s posts will be shown to you by Instagram.
Based on Instagram algorithms, posts that you might like or be interested in will be displayed on your Instagram front page, because if Instagram wanted to show you all your favorite hashtag posts, thousands of posts a day would appear on your Instagram feed which will definitely bother you greatly.
That’s why Instagram shows you only a limited number of posts that include that certain hashtag according to your activity on this social network.
If you have followed a specific hashtag, Instagram will show you the followed hashtag when displaying posts with that hashtag instead of the usual username of the person who has shared that post:
In the image above, the user has followed the hashtag #SMMW18 and Instagram is displaying a post with this hashtag to this user.
The hashtag name is displayed instead of the username, and of course, the username of the person who has shared this image can be seen below the hashtag.
It’s interesting to know that when displaying Stories related to a hashtag that you have followed, Instagram also displays the hashtag instead of displaying a username.
Also, instead of the stories being displayed one by one, a collection of them will be displayed in a single story:
The image above shows the hashtag #SMMW18. If you open that story, all the stories that users have shared with this hashtag will be displayed.
In this way, hundreds of stories won’t be seen in your profile and they won’t bother you.
You can easily see the stories for this hashtag; the other important thing is that in the stories section.
You also see the hashtag instead of the username and you can also see the username of the person who has shared that story under the hashtag:
An Important Note! In every hashtag that you follow, there are many interesting posts that you may like; there are also posts that you are not interested in seeing!
By Liking and posting comments below the hashtag posts you are interested in, Instagram will find out which posts you are fond of most and will show you similar images on the first page of your Instagram Feed.
So if you follow a hashtag, only Like posts that interest you and don’t Like the ones that don’t interest you because if you do, Instagram will show you other similar posts and this will bother you.
Also, if you are not interested in a post, just click on the three dots at the top right of the post and select the Don’t Show for This Hashtag option so you won’t see other similar posts on your Instagram Feed page.
Note that some hashtags not only may have a specific name but even a brand name or a specific term may be used on Instagram!
For instance, if you are interested in animals, you might want to follow the hashtag #goat and expect that only images of this animal will be displayed for you!
But the reality is that if you search this hashtag on Instagram, you will realize that many athletes will use the word goat (as the short form for the greatest of all time) and if you follow this hashtag, you will see a lot of posts related to these athletes on your Instagram Feed page.
Of course, this problem will easily be resolved within a few days; just click on the three dots in the unrelated hashtag posts and select the Don’t Show for this hashtag option we discussed in the previous section.
Over time, Instagram will learn what your intention is for following that certain hashtag and will only display related posts to you.
After a few days of tracking hashtags and hiding irrelevant content, you will easily view your favorite content in the Instagram feed and enjoy following hashtags on Instagram.
Which Hashtags are Most Useful When it Comes to Increasing Customers for our Business?
Instagram has tons of users and this means that the target audience of any business is active on Instagram.
If you are active on Instagram, you’ve probably seen a lot of different pages that are related to small or large companies or businesses.
For instance, if you are keen on clothes shopping, you most definitely follow several pages related to clothes shopping and clothing stores and may even do some of your shopping through these pages.
How many people do you think do the same?
There are many users who do their shopping online and have their shopping delivered to them in less than a week.
In fact, these businesses use Instagram to introduce their products or services, and it’s interesting to know that many of them have increased their revenues greatly by doing so.
If we want to use hashtags to expand our business, several types of hashtags will greatly help you!
Follow us along as we assess 5 types of a hashtag that help businesses grow and expand:
Follow Your Own Brand’s Hashtag!
Many businesses have their own brand hashtag; in fact, any post that is shared with this hashtag belongs to you.
Many of these posts tag you, but you may not be tagged in some of them but by using hashtags, you can view all these posts.
If your brand is well-known, you most probably have a proprietary hashtag for your brand, and if you search for it, you’ll view many posts that are relevant to your hashtag.
For instance, if you search for the #nike hashtag on Instagram, you will see millions of posts because of the millions of users that use this company’s products.
Now, if you search the hashtag for a newly established business, you will find very few posts related to it and most of them will be posts that have been shared on the profile page of that business.
Of course, you don’t need to worry because the number of dedicated hashtag posts for your business will increases as time goes by.
To encourage users to share posts with your proprietary hashtag, follow your own hashtag and also show it to other users and the followers of your page through a Story when a user shares a related post with that hashtag.
This will encourage users to share posts with your business hashtag, and you can easily boost the amount of user interaction by doing so.
Users sometimes share great posts and these can give you great ideas for generating content for that page; for instance, users might share their views about your activities in a Post or Story, and you can easily use these opinions to generate Stories or Posts for your Instagram profile page.
In this case, you can even teach users how they can follow a hashtag on Instagram or your own hashtag; for instance, you can include your hashtag in a Story that you share with your followers and ask users to follow your own branded hashtag by entering this page!
Follow the Hashtags Related to Different Events!
There are certain events in every business field that will help you greatly in producing content for your Instagram profile page.
These events can help a lot in way of enhancing the users’ interaction with your page; for instance, you can discuss these events with users, or by sharing a Post about that certain event, have users share their opinions as comments.
Some of these events that are useful in enhancing user engagement include:
- Conferences or gatherings related to your field of business
- Live events related to local business activities such as concerts, sporting competitions, or celebrations
- Volunteer work and charity events
- User-favorite events that are related to your business field; for instance, if you sell telescopes, you can use an eclipse event to increase users’ interactions or even to produce content.
Using these 4 ideas, you can easily generate effective Posts and increase interactions on your profile page.
Utilizing High-Profile Topics that are Related to Your Business!
In every field of activity, there are topics that users tend to interact with well; for instance, if you are selling restaurant food online, you can follow the hashtags of the best local or worldwide restaurants and get inspirational ideas for producing your own content.
Business Instagram pages sometimes contain content that is not directly related to that business, but users and followers of that page interact very well with such Posts.
This will help you bring up your profile page Posts using hashtags and thus, attract more users to your profile page.
Follow the Hashtags Related to Your Competitions or Campaigns!
Have you ever heard of Instagram Competitions or seen Posts related to competitions on this social network?
Instagram Competitions are contests that can greatly enhance user interaction. One way to post competition-related posts that helps a lot to boost your profile page is to use a proprietary hashtag for your competition, but first, make sure that this hashtag has not been used by other users or it has been used, it was used in the past.
Because if users share Posts that are irrelevant to your Instagram Competition at the time of the contest, they will create some disturbance and the contest trend will be hindered!
If you are not familiar with the concept of Instagram Competitions, I suggest you read the article about Instagram Competitions.
Finding Hashtags to Generate Entertaining & Interesting Content
The main purpose of users who use Instagram is entertainment and spending their free time!
While Instagram greatly helps businesses to grow, the reality is what we’ve already said; in fact, every time a purchase is made on your Instagram profile page, it’s done in the users’ leisure time.
Try to follow topics and hashtags on Instagram to attract users’ attention. Don’t always focus on generating content to introduce your products and services and try to generate engaging and entertaining Posts for users too.
How to Find Target Audience for Our Business Using Hashtags?
The most important purpose of businesses in using Instagram is to find their target audience!
The Target Audience is people who need the products or services of a certain business.
With the new feature on Instagram, all users can follow the hashtags they desire and see Posts related to those hashtags.
In the past, if a user needed to buy a particular product or use a certain service, they would probably go to hashtags related to that field after searching through different pages.
Nowadays, because of certain Instagram algorithms, using hashtags has become a bit cleverer, and Posts that are related to hashtags are usually displayed to users.
By using the hashtags associated with your products or services, you can easily attract new customers and sell your product or service to them.
The more targeted & aimed the use of hashtags is, the more Target Audiences will be attracted, and the bigger the Target Audience is, the greater the chances are of finding customers and ultimately increasing sales.
For instance, suppose you have a local business that only operates in a specific geographical region such as the city of Tehran! By using a hashtag of Tehran, you can easily attract more audiences.
You can also attract more audiences to your business by applying more targeted hashtags.
Conclusion
The Instagram hashtags feature is a great feature that allows users to view posts on different pages all in one go.
Recently on Instagram, the ability to follow hashtags has been added and you can easily follow posts related to your favorite hashtags.
Now You Tell Us! If you are the administrator of an Instagram profile page and are interested in different hashtags, do you reckon that following that hashtag as a user will affect the increase of sales for the business?
Please share your experiences with us and other users in the Comments section.
Hi, I’m Alomen; an Instagram and digital marketing expert. This Website shows tutorials, tips, and tricks on how to use Instagram. If you have any questions or problems with Instagram, you can call me with the hashtag #Alomen and I will answer in now time. Sign up for our email newsletter to stay in touch with our Team.
