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April 24, 2016

Bookstagram 101: Hashtags

April 24, 2016

Bookstagram 101 - Hashtags

Usefulness of Hashtags

Hashtags on Instagram serve as a sorting function to help everyone find what they’re looking for. Searching for the hashtag #marissameyer will call up all the photos that have been tagged with it. Ideally, that would mean books written by Marissa Meyer or photos which she is depicted in.

Since Google doesn’t index captions on Instagram, hashtags are the only way to find specific things. If you’re searching for strawberries, only images tagged with #strawberries will yield in the search results. Images of strawberries sans hashtags will not show up. That’s why they’re infinitely useful if you want your images to be found on Instagram.

How to Employ Hashtags

There are two ways to add hashtags: (1) in the caption or (2) as a comment.

Only hashtags added with the account through which an image was posted are factored. Commenting with hashtags on someone else’s photo won’t tag them.

Many bookstagrammers add their hashtags in a comment on their own posts. After a couple of comments from others, the hashtags disappear under the cut, “View all x comment(s)” and so don’t detract from the caption.

Others integrate them within the caption. If they were to feature #TheRavenKing and flail over the perfection that #MaggieStiefvater has written, then they would note that organically, as I just did. This method avoids repetition of terms and shortens the caption as well. The additional hashtags would then be fewer, either to be added at the end of the caption or in the comments. Some opt to only add hashtags that fit organically into their captions.

These approaches aim to make hashtags as unobtrusive as possible while retaining their beneficial function. How you choose to employ hashtags is entirely up to you but it makes it easier for followers to engage with your posts if you don’t flood your entire caption with a whole load of hashtags.

Relevant Bookstagram Hashtags

To get you started, I’ve broken down relevant bookstagram hashtags into community-based, general descriptors and specific terms. Working from general to specific (or vice versa) allows you to cover a range of hashtags that are relevant to your post.

Community-Based

First off, bookstagram is a community. There are a bunch of hashtags you can use to integrate yourself and to help others find you. These are the hashtags that signify belonging to the community and tap on the shared love for books.

Examples: #bookstagram, #bookgram, #booktography, #instabooks

General Descriptors

Followed by these broad hashtags, we have more general descriptors. These encompass hashtags covering broad selections of books. Such groups could be delineated by genres as well as the inclusion of particular objects.

Examples: #yalit, #booksandtea, #bookishrainbow, #bookshelfie, #tbrpile, #bookhaul

Specific Terms

Specific terms help others find distinct books, books from certain authors or events.

Examples: #illuminae, #patrickness, #bea16

Shortcut to Adding Hashtags

After some time you’ll notice that there’s a bunch of hashtags that you use over and over again. Typing them out every single time is cumbersome. One way around that is to save them in a note taking app, then copying and pasting whenever you post a new image.

A more elegant method however, is to make use of keyboard shortcuts. It’s much quicker, for example, to type out “on the way” with “otw”. I also use these to convert fractions from 1/2 to ½. The most time saving though is when applied to standard hashtags.

This is how I’ve programmed my iPhone to turn “bkst" into

#bookstagram #instabooks #bücherliebe #booktography #yalit #bibliophile #booknerd #bookaholic #bookgram #livres #yabooks #bookphotography #yafiction #booklove

I have a couple of other variations of these, such as one which excludes references to YA books and one with a string of fewer fixed hashtags.

You too can use this shortcut to save time tagging your bookstagram posts. On iOS devices, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. At the top right you’ll see a plus sign. Tap it and proceed to add your own string of most used hashtags with a shortcut term.

For Android there’s a similar function to be found under Personal Dictionary.

Etiquette of Using Hashtags

Don’t Spoil the Fun for Others

Once in a while Instagram users make it a point to come up with an original hashtag for a specific purpose. Some use them to track their travels while others use them to rally others to post photos of an event. In the realm of bookstagram, original hashtags always accompany book photo challenges and giveaways.

A quick search of a hashtag will let you know if a hashtag’s already in use and if it’s being used for such dedicated purposes. Say you’d like to use #booksrevelinpalmtrees (I made that up); and you find that some people did post photos with that hashtag. Take a look at some of the photos and their captions might reveal that these were posted for a photo contest that @wordrevel decided to host. Proceeding to use that hashtag even though you’re not taking part in the contest spoils the fun for the participants and makes the host’s life harder when selecting winners.

Similarly, posting any random photo for #reveltogetherinmay (again, I made that up) even though it’s clearly a monthly photo challenge also spoils the fun. It confuses participants and adds redundant photos to look through if they’re going round to comment on each other’s photos. Please don’t crash dedicated hashtags just because you want exposure.

Cut out Irrelevant Hashtags

Another pitfall you want to avoid is spamming irrelevant hashtags. Tagging your yellow bookstack with #rainbowbooks, #greenbooks or #booksandflowers, even though these don’t apply makes you look confused at best and desperate at worst. It also breaks the themes attached to these hashtags for other Instagram users who’re browsing for specific types of photos. Sure, that yellow stack will stand out among the green books but not in a good way.

30 is the Limit

The number of hashtags in a post is limited to 30. This is plenty to work with. If you find that you only need 15 hashtags, don’t double up just because you can. Of course, if 30 hashtags are relevant to you post, go ahead and use them. They are your keys to being found quickly.


Some believe it’s better to use fewer hashtags. What do you think?

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Comments

  1. Rachel says

    January 28, 2019 at 05:43

    Oooh… I LOVE the idea of creating a text shortcut. I have all common hashtags I use in Notepad, but that means I have to remember to copy and paste.

  2. Loretta says

    October 21, 2017 at 21:50

    I know I’m late to the part here, but thank you so much. This was such a helpful post! I just created a Bookstagram account and am trying to get hashtags organized before I get posting. I started a note to copy + paste, but I love the shortcut idea!!! So clever, I never would have thought of that!

    • Joséphine says

      October 21, 2017 at 22:53

      I’m glad you found this shortcut useful! Also, welcome to bookstagram! I hope you’ll have lot of fun :)

  3. Megan | Ginger Mom & the Kindle Quest says

    October 8, 2017 at 10:43

    I am new to Instagram for a bookish purpose. This is very helpful. Thanks :)

  4. Bhairavee says

    July 29, 2017 at 13:12

    Hey Josephine,
    I am amazed Google brought this up as the first link for bookstagram help and I was like, I know wordrevel!
    Great post, Josephine, it helps a lot!

  5. Katie Grace says

    November 5, 2016 at 00:03

    GASP. That shortcut idea is the best idea ever. Totally going to use that — thank you!

  6. Brittany @ The Book Addict's Guide says

    June 16, 2016 at 23:49

    SHORTCUTS. BRILLIANT. I must do this now. Brilliant time saver! (And typo-saver)

  7. Jessica says

    May 3, 2016 at 21:53

    Genius about the shortcuts!!

    • Joséphine says

      May 8, 2016 at 23:23

      Glad you found them useful!

  8. Sana says

    May 1, 2016 at 15:50

    This post is great, Jo! Though I regularly add words to my phone’s dictionary, it never occurred to me to add hashtags as a shortcut. I think I’ll finally employ hashtags other than the name of the book, series and author. It’s just that I always get stumped about what other bookish hashtags to use since I hardly ever browse those myself.

    It’s a pet peeve of mine when I see people tagging for instance, the second book of a series with the title of the first, third and/or fourth book in the series. So yeah, irrelevant hashtag-ing is definitely a thing. =/

    I had no idea there’s a limit to the number of hashtags per post.

  9. Angelina says

    April 29, 2016 at 20:41

    Excellent tip on creating a shortcut for oft-used hashtags, thanks!

  10. Meg says

    April 28, 2016 at 09:58

    I never even thought to create a shortcut for hashtags! Thank you for that tip!

  11. Sara Strauss says

    April 27, 2016 at 03:34

    Amazing tips!! I’m so looking into that keyboard shortcut! Genius!
    ~Sara

  12. Esther says

    April 25, 2016 at 03:03

    Great post! Thank you! I’m starting a book blog and also its Instagram account and this was really helpful.

  13. Jackie says

    April 25, 2016 at 01:27

    These are good tips. I think I definitely want to try creating a hashtag shortcut. I always forget half of the hashtags I mean to used!

  14. Geraldine @ Corralling Books says

    April 24, 2016 at 20:59

    From my experience of using hashtags on my personal Instagram – totally agree. You gotta use hashtags well! :D but at the same time – thats a really awesome tip, to use the text correction tool so you don’t have to always type out the hashtags!

  15. Cait @ Paper Fury says

    April 24, 2016 at 16:48

    Ooh, these are such good tips! And I’m kind of relieved to know I’m hashtagging right, hehe. (I get slightly worried that I might be doing it wrong. :P I save my list of hashtags in notes and then copy/paste it over. But I never know if it makes a different (like is it better or doesn’t matter) to put hashtags in the comment section or in the actual post? Do you know if it makes a difference?

Trackbacks

  1. #Bookstagram - connecting with young adult readers | Alys Jackson Writer says:
    October 19, 2017 at 15:32

    […] with your readers by posting behind-the-scenes photographs. Remember to use #hashtags wisely. Click here if you’re unsure how to use #hashtags. Readers love to get to know their favourite authors and […]

  2. Retrospect #120: May 1 | Word Revel says:
    May 5, 2016 at 13:54

    […] the Bookstagram 101 series, I broke down the usefulness of hashtags. I also revealed a tip on how to save time on regular hashtags. After the announcement of the […]

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Joséphine. Word reveller. Loves books. Reads books. Talks about books. Photographs books. When she’s not blogging, she can be found on Instagram under @wordrevel.

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