✖ my favourite Instagram hashtags to use at the moment

✖ my favourite Instagram hashtags to use at the moment

• Saturday, 23 February 2019

Because I believe sharing is caring, I've spent the past few weeks looking through some flipping awesome Instagram hashtags for anyone to use to get their pictures out there. We all know Instagram algorithm can be quite bitchy, but it's more about accepting the fact that it exists and moving on, continuing the life as it was before and hope something we are doing is going to be the right thing.

What have I tried with Instagram and found helpful?
✖ exploring and analysing different hashtags & repeating it once in two months
✖ during my vacation I basically lived in the application and it boosted my following and engagement (which was kind of a bummer, considering that I'm not able to spend all my time in the app liking and engaging posts.)
✖ not giving a shit about numbers, no stressing over the creating and doing what feels good for you - and oh boy, it's a relief

Today, I'm not here to chat about the Instagram algorithm and find you ways to get on top of it and beat it. The funny thing about algorithms is, that us humans know how to create one, not how to control one. We can examine it all we want, but it's all computer making it's decisions, learning through the user behaviour and making its own decisions based on its previous experiences on how the user behaves. Even though it's repeating the same pieces of the code, it learns to behave the way it believes we want it to behave. What we can control, on the other hand, is our own behaviour. 

We can make decisions on which hashtags we want to use, we can make decisions on which types of pictures we want to like and we can make decisions on what kind of pictures we want to engage with. But in an app containing more than billions of pictures on billions of different things, it's hard to get yourself out there and that's why curating your own hashtags for your content is extremely crucial.

Please note, the following list of hashtags is created based on my own Instagram content. Those are the ones I've found useful, for my account. I'm sharing them, as they've boosted my engagement and I truly believe that sharing is caring. I also share some tips in this post, on how to find the perfect hashtags for you and does the amount of pictures under the hashtag mean anything.

How to choose the right hashtags for your Instagram posts?
✖ don't use generic hashtags
✖ choose hashtags with a decent amount of pictures in them
✖ change your hashtags at times

What are the generic hashtags?
The generic hashtags are the ones with multiple millions of pictures in them. Let's have an example: #love has 1 525 664 636 posts under it. Generic hashtags are usually one-word hashtags and ones that are overused. I mean, love is a wonderful hashtag, so beautiful and simple even but it's way too oversaturated for anyone to use. Once you post your picture with that hashtag, it'll disappear under the new posts within the minutes and no one is going to see that post unless you're someone with the same following as one of the Kardashians or Ariana Grande and be able to get the engagement to make your post to reach the "top posts" category under that hashtag.

Does the amount of pictures shared under a hashtag mean anything?
It does indeed. The more popular hashtag, more quickly and more likely your pictures will disappear under the newer pictures within the minutes. When there's a hashtag that is incredibly popular, like the #love, it's more likely that there are thousands of people placing a picture under that hashtag at the same time as you are. Don't get me wrong, you can use popular hashtags if you want but I don't recommend you to base your whole hashtag list on the most popular ones as then you end up getting no exposure for your pictures at all. This is also the reason why I find all the websites with those copy+paste "top most popular hashtags on Instagram" lists bullshit.

Is changing your hashtags effective?
There have been rumours about getting shadowbanned. Shadowbanning on Instagram means, that if you use the same hashtags too many times, the Instagram algorithm considers you being spammy and then hides all your content from the hashtags that you are using.
Let's skip the whole blabbing about Instagram shadowbanning and consider simply the fact that the change is good at times. I tend to have three or four sets of hashtags for the same type of pictures just so I could change them up a little. And more the merrier as they say, so it's basically more exposure to you.

Hashtags for life in general
✖ < 10k posts published
#helenemademedoit
#dailydoseofwhimsey
#ofcosymoments

✖ 10-50k posts published
#capturequiet
#curateyourownfeed
#thesehappysquares
#gloomandglow
#doitfortheaesthetic
#mystoryoflight
#thisishowihueit

✖ 50-100k posts published
#smallmomentsofcalm
#myhappyviews 

✖ > 100k posts published
#littlestoriesofmylife
#feelfreefeed
#simpleandstill
#theartofslowliving
#ofsimplethings
#slowlivingforlife
#momentsofmine
#liveauthentic
#simplicityisbeauty
#livecreatively
#slowlived

Hashtags for travellers
✖ < 10k posts published
#great_wide_somewhere

✖ 10-50k posts published
#natgeoadventures

✖ 50-100k posts published
#abmlifeiscolourful
#letsflyawayto

✖ > 100k posts published
#suitcasetravels
#culturetrip
#searchwandercollect
#postcardplaces
#huffposttravel
#thewanderingtourist
#getlostnow
#passportexpress
#adventureislife
#findyourepic
#voyaged
#moodnation
#depthsofearth
#allaboutadventures
#wonderfulglobe
#athomeintheworld
#discoverer
#nowherediary
#stayadventurous

✖ > 1m posts published
#letsgoeverywhere
#bbctravel

Hashtags for coffee-related content (obviously)
#overdosedoncaffeine (MY VERY OWN HASHTAG! Please share your coffee-related pictures with me on Instagram!)

#tablesituation
#storyofmytable
#dametravelfoodie
#explorecoffee
#coffeeworld
#coffeeshopvibes
#cafehopping
#coffeeaddictsanonymous
#prettycitycoffees