The benefits of using hashtags on Instagram are well known, and brands and cross-border e-commerce merchants habitually use hashtags as one of their main traffic generators.

Hashtags are a double-edged sword for brands and can be counterproductive when used incorrectly. While they can help fans and viewers better find what brands post, too many hashtags can make sellers’ posts look like spam.

According to surveys, the acceptable number of hashtags is 11. Instagram can use up to 30 hashtags in a single post, but the number of the most common themed hashtags is best kept to one per post.

In addition to the number of hashtags, the type of hashtag also needs attention:

Branded Hashtags: branded hashtags are typically brand names or product names, and are primarily used to increase brand awareness or deepen a user’s impression of a brand. Keeping track of these brand hashtags gives an idea of the impact of social media marketing in expanding a brand’s reach.

Content Topic Hashtags: Content topic hashtags are the most common way to increase engagement and reach. Topic hashtags are usually directly related to the content posted by the brand.

Event Topic Tags: Event topic tags are typically used for ongoing brand marketing campaigns or brand promotions.

Hot Topic Tags: Hot topic tags primarily mark popular words that are trending or getting a lot of traffic. If these trends are directly related to the brand, the traffic from these tags can be utilized to make the brand visible to more people.

A prime example of this is adidas women when it comes to using hashtags. The adidas women brand is very restrained in their use of hashtags, averaging no more than 3 per post. They have a good balance between branded hashtags and hotword hashtags, and they pay close attention to the accuracy of their hashtag use, with keywords often accurately going into brand specific categories.