The Best Instagram Hashtags to Help You Get Followers

Are you ready for the most awesome list of the best Instagram hashtags to get you more followers?

This list of popular Instagram hashtags contains many things that users find interesting, such as:

  • Cute Babies, Dogs, Puppies, Cats, and Kittens
  • Compromised Friends in Party Settings
  • Stuff You Do Not Want Your Mom to See
  • Stuff Your Dad Will Not Expect
  • Stuff That Might Prevent You from Getting a Good Job
  • Stuff that Could Get You Fired
  • Popular Things
  • Events
  • Great Food
  • Wonderful Sayings
  • Abnormal Things
  • Extraterrestrial Things
  • The Weird, the Macabre, the Strange, the Unexplainable, and much more

Instagram says that the service is a visual story-telling system, as promoted by the Instagram FAQ, which allows users to send photos of outrageous events to each other instantly. To make matters worse, the Instagram platform allows photos to be changed into weird and strange forms. While the capturing of photos happens in real-time using mobile devices, the alteration happens afterwards. Then the Instagram users pass these (sometimes embarrassing photos) amongst themselves with delight and abandon. The most interesting ones become popular by using the best Instagram hashtags.

SEE ALSO: Hashtag Tracking Methods

What is a hashtag?

An Instagram “hashtag” starts with the “#” sign. That sign is a number sign, but more recently, it is now a hash.

The Best Instagram Hashtags

How Does Instagram Use Hashtags?

Twitter user Chris Medina proposed the use of hashtags in 2007, and subsequently, they became popular on all forms of social media, including Instagram. The hashtag is the simple marker of putting the “#” symbol before a keyword in a social media post. The best Instagram hashtags allow the post to be in a category according to the hashtag identification, which makes looking up similar posts on Instagram very easy.

Hashtag Popularity

Sometimes a hashtag is automatically popular, such as the hashtag #sexynudephotos of any major star or performer. Other popular hashtags are more sentimental such as #cutebaby.

We looked at the history of activity on Instagram hashtags to make our list of the most popular hashtags on Instagram as of May 8, 2016.

The top hashtag is #social.

This is so understandable because human beings are social animals. We form many relationships with each other; without these relationships, we are less happy. Many in-depth scientific research papers support this concept.

Here are the hashtags that get tons of traffic on Instagram, according to TwelveSkip. The list is by popularity:

  • #branding
  • #socialmedia
  • #sales
  • #entrepreneur
  • #entrepreneurship
  • #marketing
  • #branding
  • #tech
  • #business
  • #contestalert
  • #sweepstakes
  • #giveaway
  • #discount
  • #travel
  • #deal
  • #smallbiz
  • #success
  • #love
  • #instagood
  • #tbt
  • #photooftheday
  • #cute
  • #me
  • #beautiful
  • #happy
  • #follow
  • #followme
  • #picoftheday
  • #fashion
  • #selfie
  • #tagforlike
  • #summer
  • #girl
  • #friends
  • #fun
  • #instadaily
  • #like
  • #smile
  • #like4like
  • #igers
  • #instamood
  • #food
  • #instalike
  • #family
  • #nofilter
  • #repost
  • #amazing
  • #bestoftheday
  • #art
  • #likeforlike
  • #style
  • #life
  • #nature
  • #swag
  • #follow4follow
  • #sun
  • #instagram
  • #pretty
  • #vscocam
  • #tflers
  • #sky
  • #beach
  • #beauty
  • #lol
  • #fitness
  • #music
  • #followforfollow
  • #hair
  • #f4f
  • #party
  • #iphoneonly
  • #cool
  • #dog
  • #girls
  • #webstagram
  • #l4l
  • #hoto
  • #sunset
  • #funny
  • #iphonesia
  • #night
  • #baby
  • #instasize
  • #tweegram
  • #my
  • #cat
  • #hot
  • #foodporn
  • #pink
  • #black
  • #vsco
  • #blue
  • #love
  • #instagood
  • #me
  • #tbt
  • #cute
  • #follow
  • #followme
  • #photooftheday
  • #happy
  • #tagforlikes
  • #beautiful
  • #self
  • #girl
  • #picoftheday
  • #like4like
  • #smile
  • #friends
  • #fun
  • #like
  • #fashion
  • #summer
  • #instadaily
  • #igers
  • #instalike
  • #food
  • #swag
  • #amazing
  • #tflers
  • #bestoftheday
  • #likeforlike
  • #instamood
  • #style
  • #wcw
  • #family
  • #141
  • #nofilter
  • #lol
  • #life
  • #pretty
  • #repost
  • #hair
  • #my
  • #webstagram
  • #iphoneonly
  • #art
  • #tweegram
  • #cool
  • #followback
  • #instafollow
  • #instasize
  • #bored
  • #instacool
  • #funny
  • #mcm
  • #instago
  • #instasize
  • #vscocam
  • #girls
  • #all_shots
  • #party
  • #music
  • #eyes
  • #nature
  • #beauty
  • #night
  • #fitness
  • #beach
  • #look
  • #nice
  • #sky
  • #christmas
  • #baby

The best Instagram hashtags for restaurants are:

  • #food
  • #foodporn
  • #foodie
  • #yummie
  • #nom
  • #nomnom
  • #hungry
  • #cleaneating
  • #healthy
  • #delish
  • #paleo
  • #wine
  • #vegan
  • #vegetarian
  • #Italia
  • #pizza
  • #chinese
  • #sushi
  • #organic
  • #organicfood
  • #breakfast
  • #lunch
  • #dinner
  • #dessert
  • #foodgasm

Some of the most popular hashtags used on Instagram, as reported by Top-Hashtags, are:

  • #branding
  • #socialmedia
  • #sales
  • #entrepreneur
  • #entrepreneurship
  • #marketing
  • #tech
  • #business
  • #contestalert
  • #sweepstakes
  • #giveaway
  • #discount
  • #travel
  • #deal
  • #smallbiz
  • #success
  • #love
  • #instagood
  • #tbt
  • #photooftheday
  • #cute
  • #me
  • #beautiful
  • #happy
  • #follow
  • #followme
  • #picoftheday
  • #fashion
  • #selfie
  • #tagforlike
  • #summer
  • #girl
  • #friends
  • #fun
  • #instadaily
  • #like
  • #smile
  • #like4like
  • #igers
  • #instamood
  • #food
  • #instalike
  • #family
  • #nofilter
  • #repost
  • #amazing
  • #bestoftheday
  • #art
  • #likeforlike
  • #style
  • #life
  • #nature
  • #swag
  • #follow4follow
  • #sun
  • #instagram
  • #pretty
  • #vscocam
  • #tflers
  • #sky
  • #beach
  • #beauty
  • #lol
  • #fitness
  • #music
  • #followforfollow
  • #hair
  • #f4f
  • #party
  • #iphoneonly
  • #cool
  • #dog
  • #girls
  • #webstagram
  • #l4l
  • #hoto
  • #sunset
  • #funny
  • #iphonesia
  • #night
  • #baby
  • #instasize
  • #tweegram
  • #my
  • #cat
  • #hot
  • #foodporn
  • #pink
  • #black
  • #vsco
  • #blue

The best hashtags for restaurants are:

  • #food
  • #foodporn
  • #foodie
  • #yummie
  • #nom

The best generic hashtags are:

  • #nomnom
  • #hungry
  • #cleaneating
  • #healthy
  • #delish
  • #paleo
  • #wine
  • #vegan
  • #vegetarian
  • #Italian
  • #pizza
  • #chinese
  • #sushi
  • #organic
  • #organicfood
  • #breakfast
  • #lunch
  • #dinner
  • #dessert
  • #foodgasm

Twelveskip breaks down the popularity of hashtags on Instagram into these categories:

  • #popular
  • #instagood
  • #iphonesia
  • #photooftheday
  • #instamood
  • #picoftheday
  • #bestoftheday
  • #instadaily
  • #igdaily
  • #instagramhub
  • #instacool
  • #me
  • #photo

For fashion topics, the most popular are:

  • #style
  • #swag
  • #fashion
  • #pretty
  • #instacool
  • #instamood
  • #iphonesia
  • #fashionista
  • #picoftheday
  • #beauty
  • #ootd
  • #outfitoftheday
  • #likeback
  • #shopping
  • #dress
  • #fresh
  • #instafashion

For couples, the most popular hashtags are:

  • #us
  • #statigram
  • #home
  • #best
  • #sweet
  • #jj
  • #perfect
  • #loveyou
  • #lovehim
  • #loveher
  • #bestoftheday
  • #amazing

For best friends, the most popular hashtags are:

  • #bestfriend
  • #bestie
  • #best
  • #us
  • #jj
  • #a
  • #friend
  • #instagramer
  • #goodtimes
  • #likeback
  • #jj_forum
  • #to
  • #cute
  • #sisters
  • #friendship
  • #bestoftheday

For selfie photos, the most popular Instagram hashtags are:

  • #selfie
  • #me
  • #i
  • #a
  • #instagood
  • #ig
  • #iphonesia
  • #jj
  • #likes
  • #party
  • #f4f
  • #igers
  • #picoftheday
  • #photofotheday
  • #cute
  • #follow
  • #follow4follow
  • #bestoftheday
  • #instalove

For techies, the most popular Instagram hashtags are:

  • #iphone
  • #techaddict
  • #tech
  • #technology
  • #tagsforlikes
  • #photooftheday
  • #nerd
  • #techie
  • #gadgets
  • #device
  • #instagood
  • #instatech
  • #photooftheday
  • #picoftheday

For party people, the most popular Instagram hashtags are:

  • #drunktexts
  • #partyhard
  • #crazy
  • #craycray
  • #partypeople
  • #happy
  • #fun
  • #smile
  • #photooftheday
  • #cute
  • #friday
  • #drunk
  • #beer
  • #tgif
  • #saturday
  • #nightlife
  • #lifeisgood

For people into food, the best hashtags are:

  • #food
  • #yummy
  • #foodie
  • #delicious
  • #happy
  • #instagood
  • #foodoftheday
  • #follow
  • #tagsforlikes
  • #foodgasm
  • #tweegram
  • #instago
  • #tflers
  • #yum
  • #dessert
  • #statigram
  • #instalike
  • #instamood

For fitness, the popular hashtags are:

  • #fitfam
  • #instafitness
  • #beastmode
  • #gym
  • #instafit
  • #fitnessaddict
  • #active
  • #bestoftheday
  • #instadaily
  • #fitnessfreak
  • #health
  • #healthylife
  • #eatclean
  • #fitspo
  • #abs
  • #foodgasm
  • #lifestyle
  • #diet
  • #instahealth
  • #wellness
  • #getmoving

For inspirational messages, the popular hashtags on Instagram are:

  • #quote
  • #quoteoftheday
  • #goodvibes
  • #quotes
  • #inspire
  • #igers
  • #instalike
  • #instadaily
  • #all_shots
  • #tweegram
  • #repost
  • #instagood
  • #motivation
  • #inspiration
  • #determined
  • #quotestagram
  • #realifequotes
  • #dreams

The most truthful quotes use these popular hashtags:

  • #truth
  • #pinquotes
  • #advicequotes
  • #reality
  • #quoteoftheday
  • #quotes
  • #quote
  • #quotesdaily
  • #quotestoliveby
  • #instadaily
  • #reminder
  • #instaquote
  • #lifeiswhatyoumakeit
  • #staystrong
  • #igers

The best song lyrics as hashtags on Instagram are:

  • #lyricsquote
  • #lyrics
  • #quoteoftheday
  • #inspire
  • #music
  • #lyrics
  • #songoftheday
  • #lifequotes
  • #tagsforlikes
  • #typography
  • #instaquote
  • #statigram
  • #photooftheday
  • #words
  • #igers

Summary

The variety of hashtags in use on Instagram is phenomenal. This short list gives an example of how many possible hashtags there are. The hashtags follow trends and go in and out of popularity with breaking news, celebrity gossip, and consumer interest in television shows, movies, fashion, and other items from popular culture. The one that is certain is that Instagram posts that use hashtags are much more likely to be opened and shared.

Kylie Jenner upstaged the Kardashian sisters by hitting a record number of 30 million Instagram followers in June 2016. That means there was a great chance of getting an Instagram opened and shared during that period by simply using the hashtag #kyliejenner. Instagram would need to have some relevance to the audience, but that is pretty easy. Just think of the kind of pizza Kylie would or would not eat and take a photo of one to make an Instagram.

It is important for the web marketing efforts of any organization using Instagram to use hashtags for their postings on Instagram and to pick the most popular hashtags for the best category to get social media users’ attention. If any more questions about the best Instagram hashtags, do reach out to our social media agency team – where we can support you with campaigns or digital training for you and your business.

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