Hashtags – Why do we use them?

It’s 2016 and social media is bigger than ever before. Naturally, when it comes to Instagram, there are certain strategies that you have to use if you want to increase your likes and followers. Of course, one of these is hashtags! If you want to grow your reach, or grow your brand if you are a brand on Instagram, then using hashtags to your advantage is a must. Also, using them correctly is equally important. 

Yet, have you ever wondered what the best hashtags to use are in 2016? For instance, what exactly do you want to use hashtags for? Is it to gain more likes, or followers, or comments? Likewise, do you want to use a hashtag for a particular purpose? Well don’t worry – we’ve completed our own study and gathered the best hashtags to use this year!

The results are in for 2016!

After analysing a set of 160,000 selfies, we have discovered which tags get you the most amount of likes and followers. These are the top 7 tags that improve likes on your Instagram account. #L4L was the best one, getting you an additional 25% likes per photo that contains that tag. These tags all do imply that you will like, comment, or follow the user back. Therefore, what’s not to like about using these hashtags!

And now, here are the most popular hashtags of 2016 grouped by topic. Copy and paste these hashtags into your Instagram posts to get more likes, comments and followers!

#love #InstafamousPro #instafamous #cute #tweegram #photooftheday #20likes #amazing #smile #follow4follow #like4like #look #instalike #igers #picoftheday #food #instadaily #instafollow #followme #girl #iphoneonly #instagood #bestoftheday #instacool #instago #all_shots #follow #webstagram #colorful #style #swag

2nd best

#fun #instagramers #InstafamousPro #food #smile #pretty #followme #nature #lol #dog #hair #onedirection #sunset #swag #throwbackthursday #instagood #beach #statigram #friends #hot #funny #blue #life #art #instahub #photo #cool #pink #bestoftheday #clouds

3rd best

#amazing #InstaFamousPro  #InstaFamous #followme #all_shots #textgram #family #instago #igaddict #awesome #girls #instagood #my #bored #baby #music #red #green #water #harrystyles #bestoftheday #black #party #white #yum #flower #2012 #night #instalove #niallhoran #jj_forum

Follows

#follow #f4f #followme #TagsForLikes #TFLers #TagsForLikesApp #followforfollow #follow4follow #teamfollowback #followher #followbackteam #followhim #followall #followalways #followback #me #love #pleasefollow #follows #follower #following

Comments

#comment #comment4comment #TagsForLikes #TFLers #c4c #commenter #comments #commenting #love #comments4comments #instagood #commentteam #commentback #commentbackteam #commentbelow #photooftheday #commentall #commentalways #pleasecomment

Likes

#followme #like4like #instafamouspro #instafamous #liker #likes #l4l #likes4likes #photooftheday #love #likeforlike #likesforlikes #liketeam #likeback #likebackteam #instagood #likeall #likealways #TagsForLikesApp #liking

Shoutout

#shoutout #shoutouts #shout #out #TagsForLikes #TFLers #TagsForLikesApp #shoutouter #instagood #s4s #shoutoutforshoutout #shoutout4shoutout #so #so4so #photooftheday #ilovemyfollowers #love #sobackteam #soback #follow #f4f #followforfollow #followback #followhim #followher #followall #followme #shout_out

All in one

#fslc #followshoutoutlikecomment #InstaFamousPro #instafamous #follow #shoutout #followme #comment #TagsForLikes #f4f #s4s #l4l #c4c #followback #shoutoutback #likeback #commentback #love #instagood #photooftheday #pleasefollow #pleaseshoutout #pleaselike #pleasecomment #teamfslcback #fslcback #follows #shoutouts #likes #comments #fslcalways

Final Thoughts

So there you have it – the best hashtags to use on Instagram this year. Hashtags can be extremely influential, especially when used appropriately. Furthermore, around 95 million photo are posted on Instagram daily, so using the correct hashtags for your audience is essential – good luck!