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We don’t simply do social media experiments to kill time over right here at Hootsuite HQ: we do them to serve the folks. So when considered one of our readers asks us to determine what number of hashtags to make use of for Reels, we get to work.

Reels proceed to be considered one of Instagram’s top-performing codecs… however there’s no hurt in getting somewhat hashtag assist to succeed in even additional, proper?

The query, although, is what number of tags are literally useful? Whereas it’s potential so as to add as much as 30 tags in your Instagram Reels caption, extra isn’t at all times extra.

As we’ve found via rigorous abuse of my Instagram account, three to 5 hashtags is the candy spot for Instagram posts. Will the identical be true for Reels?

As at all times, there’s just one option to discover out: submitting my Instagram followers to a barrage of hashtag-based assessments. However in my defence, that barrage of hashtag-based assessments will in all probability contain movies of pancakes. So.

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Speculation: 3-5 hashtags on reels offers you a similar quantity of attain as 30

We experimented not too long ago with hashtags on Instagram posts, and found that sticking to a most of 5 is the place you’ll obtain essentially the most attain. Although Instagram lets you add as much as 30 hashtags to any given publish, in follow, doing this can simply make your content material look spammy, and may very well damage your attain.

Based mostly on this discovery, it’s cheap to imagine that three to 5 hashtags can even be the very best wager for Instagram Reels hashtags, too, proper?

In any case, the Instagram Creators account explicitly recommends protecting the variety of hashtags at three to 5. (Although, to be truthful, this publish doesn’t particularly reference greatest practices for Instagram Reels hashtagging.)

Supply: @creators

However! Instagram Reels’ largest creators typically transcend that 5 hashtag suggestion (@Gabe, with greater than one million followers, appears to make use of 10 to 12 in his vids), so who is aware of what’s going to really be true?

Time to hit the lab!

Methodology

I made a decision to create six Instagram Reels, which I’d publish twice, every time with totally different quantities of hashtags. (I used inventory video footage, FYI!) That approach, I might precisely evaluate apples to apples — or, on this case, waterfall video to waterfall video.

Instagram Reels captions could be as much as 2,200 characters lengthy, however I saved the captions quick and candy, in order that I might attribute attain to my hashtag technique, and never key phrase website positioning. As a result of I’m a busy gal who likes to boss robots round, I tapped into the facility of the Hootsuite Owly AI author to compose the right captions.

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When it got here time to jam-pack my caption with hashtags I used a mixture of Hootsuite Composer’s AI hashtag options, hashtags from this listing of the very best Instagram Reels hashtags, and hashtags generated by aggregator Show Functions Solely.

I used the Hootsuite Planner device and scheduled these Reels to publish at optimum instances over the course of per week.

Then I checked again in with Hootsuite Analytics to see simply which hashtag rely reigned supreme.

The Preliminary Outcomes (and a Revised Methodology)

I used to be definitely not anticipating the outcomes to be so devastating. I bought zero views on something.

This was a real shocker. Not considered one of my #unimaginable #hashtags helped my content material get found?! However then I assumed again to every thing I knew in regards to the Instagram Reels algorithm and realized I’d made a horrible blunder by doing this experiment on my Experiments Solely Instagram account, @thereeldealxo.

Whereas this impersonal account is generally an awesome place to check issues out with out bothering my actual buddies or infusing my followers listing with paid spam bots, on this specific case, I bought burned unhealthy. Instagram was punishing me for my unhealthy ‘Gram conduct as a result of, actually, I used to be performing like a scammer. I don’t have any actual followers. I don’t observe anybody in any respect. I publish hardly ever and sporadically. I by no means work together with every other accounts. And as we all know, your interactions with different accounts is a key a part of the Reels algorithm.

So it was again to the drafting board with this hashtag experiment. (Please bear in mind: failure is a part of science! In the event you’re offended about it, DM the daddy of the Scientific Revolution, Sir Francis Bacon!)

For this second take, I logged into my private account and pulled collectively six extra Reels. Three featured minimal hashtags; three featured the utmost. (I attempted to match apples to apples by creating content material that was related for every hashtag group—as an illustration, one extremely hashtagged video about professional wrestling, and one minimally hashtag video about professional wrestling.)

Then, lastly, I went again to Instagram to get some precise useful info to share with you all. Time to get off the #fringe of your #seat and into some outcomes!

The Precise outcomes

TLDR: You want greater than only a nice hashtag technique to thrive on Instagram Reels. However for genuine, energetic accounts, 30 hashtags appears to be handiest for increasing your attain with Instagram Reels.

This was a shock to me, contemplating we found the other was true with our Instagram posts experiment. However reviewing the attain of all six of my Reels, the very best performing movies had 30 hashtags every.

As you’ll be able to see, there are tragically no quantity of hashtags on the planet that would make anybody care about my cute journey to California with my child and bestie. (Impolite.) However my wrestling content material and Japan journey content material clearly thrived once I utilized the utmost quantity of hashtags.

So clearly, the content material must be fascinating to a variety of individuals for this to really work, however in the event you’ve bought high quality, partaking content material to share, it appears to me like there’s no hurt in going ham with these ‘tags.

What do the outcomes imply?

As normal, it’s necessary to notice that this experiment doesn’t essentially supply an absolute conclusion, and your mileage might differ relying in your particular social media technique. However based mostly off of my expertise, listed here are some key Instagram Reels hashtag observations to think about.

Relating to Reels, pile on these hashtags

Although Instagram posts appear to do higher when there are fewer hashtags, Instagram Reels apparently have extra attain with extra hashtags (I used the utmost quantity, however even upping your hashtags from 5 to 10 or 10 to twenty may assist). After all, it may need simply been a case of 1 or two key hashtags serving to with that discoverability, however it’s laborious to know what these ones may particularly be.

Attempt to be clear, genuine and descriptive together with your hashtags to seize viewers who will really get pleasure from and interact together with your content material — tagging one thing particular like #indiewrestling will allow you to attain your target market, whereas #instagood could be too obscure that will help you join with the fitting folks. And your reel might get misplaced in a sea of content material earlier than attracting any views.

Compelling content material issues greater than hashtags

Engagement isn’t one thing that you would be able to simply magically create with the fitting variety of hashtags. It calls for time, effort, and a considerate strategy.

Whether or not I included three hashtags or 30, the posts that did the very best had been ones that provided one thing of worth to viewers. (Self-indulgent trip movies, irrespective of what number of hashtags, bought me crickets.) The lesson right here? Your time might be higher spent crafting nice movies or writing copy than furiously hitting “NEXT” on a hashtag generator.

Try our information to creating impactful visible content material right here, after which brush up in your modifying suggestions right here to make Instagram Reels with impression.

The remainder of your Instagram conduct issues, too

As I discovered from my first try at this experiment, you want greater than only a handful of nice hashtags to succeed with Instagram Reels. The algorithm takes into consideration the remainder of your Instagram conduct, too.

Do you could have a sturdy following who likes your different content material? Are you interacting with different customers on the platform? Are you posting persistently? How a lot do folks have interaction with you?

The underside line is that Instagram needs to reward creators who’re partaking with the app authentically, and bringing enjoyment or worth to others. In the event you’re not doing that, all of the hashtags on the planet aren’t going to save lots of you. So research up on the Instagram Reels algorithm and take a look at your greatest to be a superb Instagram Citizen as you’re placing your content material out into the world.

All proper, time for this courageous Instagram Reel hashtagger to hit the showers. But when this experiment has you hankering for much more social media exploration, try the remainder of our Hootsuite Experiments right here.

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