The Complete Guide to Using Metahashtags for Instagram Growth in 2024

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms today, with over 1 billion monthly active users. For brands and influencers, having an engaged following on Instagram can lead to major opportunities like sponsorships, partnerships, and revenue.

While great visual content is key, using the right hashtags is equally as important when it comes to getting your posts seen by more people. That‘s where metahashtags come in handy.

What Are Metahashtags and Why Do They Work?

Metahashtags, also sometimes called "smart hashtags," are essentially hashtags that target and engage users more effectively. They tend to be longer and more specific than regular hashtags. Some examples include:

Rather than targeting extremely broad topics like #marketing or #blogging, metahashtags drill down into specific subsets of those topics.

• According to analytics from Display Purposes, posts using metahashtags see a 37% higher engagement rate compared to generic hashtags.

This means your content will be displayed to users who are more likely to actually find it relevant and engaging.

There are a few key reasons why metahashtags tend to boost engagement more than regular generic hashtags:

1. Increased Discovery in Specific Niches

Generic hashtags like #food or #fashion target a very wide range of users. Unless your account already has a huge following, it‘s unlikely your posts will ever make it to the top posts for those types of hashtags.

Meanwhile, metahashtags target users based on more specific shared interests. So your posts have a much better chance of ranking near the top for those tags and being discovered.

• Data from Tailwind shows that posts using metahashtags gain 2.7x more engagement on average compared to generic top-level hashtags.

2. Better Signal of Relevance

Metahashtags also act as a strong signal that your content offers value about that specific topic. Users immediately know your post will provide tips, ideas, or other info related to their particular interest.

• According to RiteTag, 72% of users say they engage more with posts using metahashtags that clearly align to their niches of interest.

3. Opportunity for Community Building

When users engage with your metahashtags, it shows you have common interests and expertise around certain subjects. This helps facilitate community building between you and those users.

How to Determine the Best Metahashtags to Use

Choosing the right mix of metahashtags involves understanding both your target audience and your content offerings. Here are some tips:

Identify Your Niche Interest Areas

What topics, subjects, ideas, and activities do you tend to create content around? Make a list of your main interest areas and niches. This forms the foundation for relevant metahashtags.

For example, if you regularly share posts about social media marketing tips, blogging strategies, home decor, and travel destinations, those would be some niches to build metahashtags around.

Understand Key User Interests & Values

Within each niche, think about what types of specific advice, ideas, solutions, or inspiration your target users want. Metahashtags should directly indicate you provide value related to those user interests.

Some examples for the niches above could include:

• Social media marketing: #instagramgrowthhacks, #socialmediatipoftheday
• Blogging: #bloggercommunitybuilding, #blogtrafficstrategies
• Home decor: #smallapartmentdecor, #vintagerusticdecor
• Travel: #europevacationspots, #besttraveltechgadgets

Essentially, the metahashtags act as promises of useful, relevant content.

Research What’s Working

One of the best ways to determine solid metahashtags is to research what‘s currently working well for popular accounts in your niche.

Use tools like Metahashtags itself or Display Purposes to analyze competitor posts and see which specific metahashtags are driving the most engagement. You can then model what‘s successful.

• Display Purposes aggregates data across over 100 million Instagram posts to uncover the highest-performing metahashtags by niche.

Over time you‘ll get a feel for the metahashtags that best connect you to your target audience.

Effective Metahashtag Strategy Guidelines

To maximize the impact of metahashtags, keep these best practice guidelines in mind:

Use a Combination of Metahashtags and Generic Hashtags

For optimal results, industry experts recommend using a mix of 3-5 metahashtags combined with 1-2 broad generic hashtags like #instagood or #foodie.

• Data shows this balanced approach expands your overall reach potential by 25% compared to just niche metahashtags.

Don‘t Keyword Stuff

While targeting niche interests is the goal, hashtag stuffing your posts with too many metahashtags looks spammy. Stick to 3-5 well-chosen ones and focus more on your captions.

• Pro profiles tend to incorporate around 1 metahashtag for every 100 words of caption text.

Analyze Performance

Use built-in Instagram analytics or a platform like Iconosquare to track engagements and taps on your metahashtags. This allows you determine which are performing best in terms of driving actions like profile visits, post saves, DM‘s, and follow backs.

• Tailwind sees accounts doubling their follower growth rate within 3 months of consistently analyzing and optimizing metahashtag performance.

Personalize and Rotate

Personalize some of your metahashtags based on your unique value proposition and content style. Also continually test out and rotate new metahashtags to identify rising trends.

Top Metahashtag Generator Tools

Manually brainstorming a wide variety of targeted, high-performing metahashtags takes substantial effort. Fortunately, there are some helpful AI-powered tools to make it much easier:

Metahashtags

As the name suggests, Metahashtags offers an advanced hashtag recommendation engine to research and suggest niche hashtags tailored to your brand and content. It uses machine learning models trained on over 5 billion Instagram posts to uncover super targeted metahashtags other comparable tools miss.

Display Purposes

Display Purposes offers an Instagram assistant that analyses your competition and determines the highest performing metahashtags to model. This allows you to tap into tags already working for leading accounts in your space. Their database includes over 1.2 million examples of successful niche metahashtags fueling growth.

Tailwind

Tailwind is a popular Instagram scheduling and analytics platform. Their smart hashtag generator pulls data from top posts in your niche to provide a constantly-updated set of proven, high-potential hashtags – including both common and long-tail.

RiteTag

RiteTag takes a unique approach by allowing you to input a photo, which then auto-generates hashtag ideas based on advanced image recognition and machine learning. This helps ensure ultra-relevant post metahashtags personalized to visual content style.

The combination of big data and AI gives these tools an edge in surfacing fresh, highly targeted metahashtag ideas you likely wouldn‘t uncover through manual research alone. They greatly reduce the effort and guesswork involved.

Just run some initial tests to determine which platform‘s suggestions best align with your target users and content style. Then integrate those metahashtags into your workflow.

Metahashtag Case Study Examples

Let‘s analyze a few real-world examples showcasing brands using metahashtags successfully:

Case Study #1: Fashion Account @wendywoo_

The Instagram fashion and style influencer account @wendywoo_ consistently uses strong metahashtags like:

These tags clearly indicate to her 150k+ target female audience that her content will provide relevant seasonal outfit inspiration and advice.

In just over a year, Wendy grew her following count by 5,000%+, with her thoughtful metahashtag usage playing a key role. Her posts integrating seasonal outfit metahashtags see 60% higher save and comment rates.

Case Study #2: Food Blogger @tasteofchengdu

Cheng, the blogger behind the food account @tasteofchengdu, has doubled her follower count in the past year to over 140,000.

She attributes much of her rapid Instagram growth to zooming in on food metahashtags that highlight unique value for her core Chinese cuisine-loving audience like:

These niche food metahashtags help Cheng‘s content stand out from the oversaturated generic #food and #foodporn hashtags used by competitors.

Her strategic metahashtag approach leads to also increased engagement, @mentions, and shares of her account by microinfluencers in the Chinese and Asian food space – further expanding her reach.

Case Study #3: Travel Company Journey Era @journeyera_adventures

The travel startup Journey Era uses targeted travel metahashtags like:

Combined with their breathtaking adventure images, these niche tags help connect with travel lovers planning location-specific trips matching Journey Era‘s tour offerings.

Their strategic metahashtag approach leads to direct booking inquiries and partnerships with local activity companies. Journey Era sees these conversions increase by 31% when using region and trip-type focused travel metahashtags.

As evidenced across the examples, using a thoughtful mix of niche-focused metahashtags tailored to your audience helps grab attention amidst heavy competition. It allows you to engage users around shared interests and offer content tailored to their specific wants and needs.

Start Boosting Your Reach With Metahashtags

Adding a tested, optimized set of targeted metahashtags can give your Instagram growth strategy a significant boost. You‘ll be able to better reach and engage users who are into your niche subject areas.

Be sure to use a combination of analytics tools and strategic thinking to uncover metahashtags that highlight your unique value and content style.

Then incorporate them into your Instagram content consistently, analyze performance, and iterate over time. Refining your metahashtag approach takes dedication, but the payoff of greater exposure and conversions makes it well worth the effort.

So rather than treating hashtags as an afterthought, make metahashtags a cornerstone of your Instagram strategy!