Looking to grow your fashion blog presence on Instagram? By reading this post you’ll learn how to use fashion hashtags for Instagram.
Instagram is undoubtedly one of the biggest social networks right now. Brands and bloggers are trying to game the network in an effort to get noticed. Visibility on Instagram is something that needs to be mastered.
Social platforms like Instagram have all but conquered the fashion marketing world. No respected fashion blogger can claim to be an expert if they’re not familiar with the ins and outs of Instagram, including Instagram hashtags.
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In recent years bloggers and influencers have turned Instagram into a respectable micro-blogging platform with its own set of rules and guidelines. We’re seeing bloggers slowly turn into curators, crafting exquisite feeds with dedication and skill.
Before I move to the nitty-gritty of how to use hashtags for your fashion blog, let’s go really quickly over what exactly are hashtags and how to properly use them.
What Are Hashtags?
Hashtags are statements that brands use to get their message across and to reach wider audiences. In brief, by including hashtags in your posts, you help Instagram index your content and make it more discoverable to everyone, no matter if they follow you or the hashtags you used.
How To Use Hashtags
There is a strategic element to picking the right hashtags. Each hashtag can help you broaden the reach of your content and expose it to a wider audience. Savvy fashion bloggers know that a combination of several relevant hashtags can help get their content to potential new fans.
People on Instagram use an abundance of hashtags compared to other social networks. That’s fine as long as they are relevant to your business or industry, and not just random tags you thought it would be cool to use. Choose well your hashtags and don’t overuse them. Not everyone would be happy to see several lines of identical hashtags.
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Benefits of Instagram For Fashion
The popularity of Instagram made it possible for anyone to express their creativity and, with little effort, potentially reach thousands of followers. More than other social networks, Instagram emphasizes the visual aspect of posts.
As such, it’s an excellent tool for fashion and beauty bloggers to showcase their talent. This makes it much easier to get an emotional response from your posts and encourage people to engage and interact with your content.
Generally speaking, there are three major groups of hashtags: content, trending, and branded. All three of them can bring a sizable amount of traffic and engagement to your website if used correctly.
Content Hashtags
These are primarily associated with a product, service or type, or any other category of content. Examples might include: #makeup, #skincare #model, #makeupartist
Trending Hashtags
Trending hashtags are hashtags made popular by others, and usually part of an ongoing conversation. Using these hashtags should be done carefully; many people wouldn’t be happy to see body-positivity hashtags being hijacked for purely promotional purposes. Examples of these include: #StayHome, #MyBodyMyChoice, #MothersDay.
Branded Hashtags
Organizations and causes use branded hashtags to promote their products and services. Brand-specific hashtags are used in promotional campaigns, events, and contests to indicate brand affiliation, as well as the type of rewards participants might win. Examples include #lushcosmetics, #louisvuitton, #ZARA
How many hashtags should be used?
When we talk about hashtags, we have to take into account what we will be talking about or promoting, as well as which social network we will use. As a rule of thumb, don’t abuse them. Not all hashtags have the same relevancy and reach. This is why you need to pick the right ones for your posts and use them carefully. When it comes to Instagram, most people assume that more hashtags is always better.
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That’s true to some extent. Although it’s socially acceptable to use more hashtags, filling your posts with nothing but tags will look overly promotional and unprofessional. There’s no need to put “#” in front of every single word. Think about your posts and how best you can describe them with fewer tags.
Pick the ones that are not just the most relevant, but also those that make the most sense to your brand and your content. Use hashtags as a way to categorize your posts and optimize them for search engines. Some bloggers advise using between ten and thirty hashtags per post. To nail those thirty tags, make sure to follow the following formula:
- 15 general fashion hashtags (#beauty)
- 5 clothing specific hashtags (#swimsuit)
- 5 niche hashtags (#curvyfashionista)
- 5 location hashtags (#nycblogger)
How to use Instagram for fashion
Instagram’s popularity among bloggers is not accidental. Creating an account takes mere minutes, and uploading photos is easy and intuitive. What’s more, visual content requires a fraction of the time to post compared with written content.
Put into perspective, this means that you will need much less time to build your brand on Instagram compared to other social networks. There are several ways you can go about promoting your content on Instagram and reaching wider audiences.
One would be by committing to a regular posting schedule. Visually appealing posts with longer descriptions get more attention. Try telling stories with your posts. People love good stories. If content is king, storytelling is god.
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The other way to share your content with your audience and potentially reach new followers is through Instagram Stories. Stories let you send images and Boomerang gifs for your viewers to enjoy. They are visible to your followers only and could be seen by clicking on your profile picture. Stories are a fun way to tag your followers along your digital adventure. Besides, well-crafted Stories are a great way to stand out in the home feed.
Finally, Live video is a feature that gives you the ability to interact directly with your audience in a live format. Live videos if done right could really boost engagement and can help you to drive more traffic to your websites.
What Are The Most Popular Hashtags?
So far, I’ve talked about the importance of using hashtags for your Instagram posts. I’ve covered how many you should use, and touched on the different types. Logically, every fashion and beauty blogger would like to know which hashtags are the most relevant and used. In the next paragraphs, I’m going to answer that by providing examples of some of the most popular hashtags for bloggers.
Top Instagram makeup and beauty hashtags
Below is a list of the most popular hashtags used by makeup and beauty bloggers. These are the most used but, as a rule of thumb, you should diversify with other tags, even if they have smaller reach. A combination of popular hashtags and more niche hashtags can deliver your post into the feeds of a targeted audience looking for a particular type of makeup or beauty products.
- #Beauty
- #Makeup
- #Hair
- #Nails
- #MakeupArtist
- #Hairstyle
- #Skincare
- #Lipstick
- #Lashes
- #MakeupAddict
Some niche hashtags that are still widely used include:
- #BeautyBlog
- #MakeupOfTheDay
- #MakeupLife
- #MakeupTutorial
- #InstaMakeup
- #InstaBeauty
- #MOTD
- #WakeUpAndMakeup
Fashion bloggers could deploy a whole arsenal of popular hashtags. Some of these are:
- #Fashion
- #OOTD
- #Style #InstaFashion
- #Vintage
- #FashionBlogger
- #Fashionista
- #StreetStyle
To diversify with more outfit-related hashtags, you can use the following:
- #OOTD
- #OOTDfashion
- #DailyLook
- #InstaOOTD
- #OutfitGoals
- #TodayImWearing
- #MeToday
- #OutfitOfTheDay
Shoe lovers can level up their Instagram game by using some of these hashtags:
- #ShoeAddict
- #InstaShoes
- #ShoeLover
- #Shoestagram
- #Shoeaholic
- #ShoeAddiction
- #ShoesOfTheDay
If you’re a fashion professional, there are a number of hashtags you can use for your posts:
- #fashiondesigner
- #fashionstylist
- #fashionmodel
- #fashionphotographer
- #fashionmodels
How to find the most popular fashion hashtags
Finding popular hashtags isn’t a hassle if you know what to look for. If you are not sure what tags would work best for you, check what other fashion bloggers are using. Try to find the biggest names in your niche, see what they share, what and how many tags they use, what hours they post, and how long their posts are. That should give you a good idea of how to style your own posts.
Another good way to improve your tagging is by using hashtag tools. These will give you enough data about the most popular and used tags, demographics, and other analytics.
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Try looking at what name brands are doing. Brands use plenty of popular and niche hashtags to reach more people. You can also copy the styles and tones of what they use and apply them to your posts.
Harness the power of the hashtag
Hashtags are an extremely powerful search indexing tool that, if used right, can deliver your content to millions of potential followers. They alongside the number of viewers you get based on your interactions with your followers, determines how well your content will perform on Instagram.
Hashtags, just like content, require careful planning. As I’ve already mentioned in the article, make sure to select some that are best for you, and not to pick too many overall.
About Irma Stefanova
Irma is a freshly graduated Marketing student. Passionate website creator and social media manager, she loves saying hello to every homeless dog she meets on the street after her busy day as a Digital PR. When she is not modeling for high fashion brands or posing for another photoshoot, she is scavenging secondhand shops for hidden gems to give things a second life and look fabulous. Connect with her on Instagram.
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