If you'd had told me 10 previous years that I'd write an instructional guide to hashtags, I'd likely have laughed at you. (Sorry!). Just thinking about how far the hashtagging community's progress has been over the past couple of years is inspiring... I can remember exactly when I first learned of the foreign concept that is "hashtags." This must have been around the year 2010. At the time, I thought hashtags were a ridiculous small-scale gadget. My friends and me began using hashtags to have fun of the hashtags world. #Sports #Dominoes #MoreWinePlease

Okay, maybe #MoreWinePlease can be an acceptable game.

Fast forward to today and our game with hashtags has dramatically changed. I am aware of how significant and crucial hashtags are to the social media strategies of all marketers.

You're still enjoying the humor of Instagrammers with hashtags stuffed with #'s in their comments or aren't sure what these tags do, then you've come to the right spot: I'll explain all you'll need to know about hashtags in Instagram. In this thorough guide on how to utilize Instagram hashtags, you'll be able to:

• What is a hashtag?
• Why you should use hashtags on Instagram
• How can you make the most of your hashtags?
• Best ways to hashtag on Instagram
• What 20 Instagram hashtags are the most well-known?

Let's get started!

What exactly is a hashtag in the first place?

The hashtagis referred to as the pound symbol (#) has been utilized in various ways across the internet prior to August 2007. At that point, Chris Messina, a product designer from Silicon Valley, brought the hashtag to Twitter and was recognized as the creator of the hashtag in social media.

"He was inspired to think of using hashtags from Internet chat rooms with"pound" as a symbol "pound" before them," says Erin Black from CNBC. "He decided to pitch the idea to Twitter but Twitter said it was too nerdy and that it wouldn't be popular."

Jokes about them, surely?

Luckily, Messina was persistent, and the hashtag was adopted in a powerful manner. Messina was able to convince his followers to use hashtags on their Twitter posts. Then, after 2009 Twitter added a feature which let users look up hashtags. #PrettyCool!

It's important to use hashtags in every Instagram post: Here's the reason.

Then why are hashtags essential to include in Instagram promotional campaigns? Instagram marketing campaigns? In fact, posts on Instagram using hashtags have an 12.6 percent increase in engagement contrasted to posts without hashtags.

"Not just do hashtags aid social users categorize and organize content, but they're also the primary drivers behind the most effective campaign marketing," states Maddy Osman on Sprout Social.

Hashtagging is very effective due to the fact that it lets you tag similar content and make it easier to find and this is probably why hashtagged posts get more engagement than posts that are not.

"When used in a smart way hashtags can provide you with an array of benefits," says Olivia Ryan. "They can be used to get your content to an audience that is larger, boost the visibility of your brand, target a very narrow group of people, enhance your SEO, as well as use trending themes that are trending to benefit you."

Additionally, hashtags can provide you search results and is a great Instagram SEO strategy.

What do you have to lose? If you'd like your followers to be able to see your Instagram content, now is the perfect time to increase your Instagram #hashtag game! More on Inflact!