By Ryan Kh 
Which food blogger wouldn’t want to grow their Instagram following?! It’s a very hot social media platform right now and you can do with as many followers as possible! To give you an idea about the reach of Instagram, 800 million people actively engage with the platform each month! That is an amazing marketing opportunity and a very good chance to increase your visibility.
Some time ago, The Guardian, the popular UK newspaper published a report highlighting how Instagram is changing the way we eat! As per this report, unphotogenic breakfasts like cereal are being replaced by attractive alternatives such as avocado toast! Another report shared by Waitrose, a well-known UK retailer revealed that one in every 5 people share a picture of their food with their Instagram followers each month.
On a more serious note, while it’s ok to play some food roulette to shock your palette with exotic and exciting tastes every now and then, you cannot take any sort of gamble when it comes to the success of your food blog. Let’s understand the importance of using the right hashtags to grow the Instagram following of your food blog.
Using the right hashtags
Hashtags play a very key role in any kind of Instagram marketing initiative. You spend so much time and effort in clicking just the right picture of your food; the same amount of thought should be put while tagging your food photos. Tagging them with the right hashtags can ensure that potential users who might be interested in what you offer, will indeed get to see you.
A large number of food bloggers don’t use the right hashtags for their posts. They are normally so focused on using unique tags that they forget to expand their visibility by using popular tags.
So what do you think makes a hashtag right?
Hashtag marketing can prove to be a pretty tricky affair. While using generic hashtags such as #burger or #cake can help you reach a large number of people, you shouldn’t forget that these are also the most used hashtags. If you carry out some research, there are close to 60 million Instagram posts with #cake hashtag. How can you make yours standout? This can be tackled by using a good mix of niche and popular hashtags.
Your post should have 3 types of hashtags:
Popular tags – Although hashtags such as #burger, #cake etc. are extremely popular, you should still use them. A great multitude of people follow them and they are definitely worth employing, regardless of the competition. But you shouldn’t stop just there.
Niche tags – This is the category belonging to hashtags such as #foodblogeats, #tastingtable etc. They’re not so common and their followers will expect your post to have a certain theme. Using such types of hashtags can give you an entry into more exclusive type of Instagrammers.
Unique tags – The main purpose of these tags is to nurture a following for yourself. If your food blog has posts on multiple themes, a good way to help your followers find posts on any of these themes/categories, is by using unique hashtags such as #eeeats, #cookingquick and the kinds.
In the end, while Instagram allows you to have as many as 30 hashtags for every post, it’s recommended that you keep yours to less than 10 for every post.
SME Paid Under
Adam 
Digital Editor