Using Hashtags

 1
Research popular hashtags for you niche. Hashtags are words and short phrases that describe and categorize the image. Hashtags help people search for your image, and can add your image to current trends. Using hashtags is incredibly important to reaching a larger audience.[2]
Instagram is a great tool for finding what the most popular trending tags are.
The top hashtags on Instagram are usually #love #photooftheday #amazing #smile #look #picoftheday #food #instadaily #girl #iphoneonly #instagood #bestoftheday #instacool #instago #all_shots #webstagram #colorful #style #swag
You can find relevant tags using websites such as www.tagsforlikes.com or download apps on your phone by searching for "tags for likes" on the app store.

 2
Add a few hashtags to each image. Add a few of the most pertinent hashtags you can find to your image. Try to limit the number of hashtags to three at the most. If you have too many hashtags, your followers will feel like your images are too spammy. Hide away the hashtags by using them withing the caption sentence e.g. "I really #love this #girl" or place them right at the bottom of the caption.
Instagram will limit you to a maximum of 30 hashtags per post.

 3

Create your own tag. If you have a decent amount of followers, you can try creating your own hashtags. This could be your company name or a slogan that applies to many of your photos. This will help brand your Instagram account, and lead to a more cohesive community presence. Use this tag in all your photos you post as well as in your Instagram accounts bio.

You can use capital letters to seperate words in a hashtag rather than spaces. Instead of "Just do it" you could use #JustDoIt

 4

Geotag your photos. Instagram users are interested in photos from locations that they know. On top of that, as you post geotagged photos, Instagram will bring up other photos from that location.

Other users posting photos from the same location may see your pictures and follow them to your account, giving you more exposure and potentially new local followers.

Avoid geotagging your photo in a location that the photo was not taken. Incorrect geotagging could lead to negative comments on your posts or other forms of backlash.

For your own safety avoid geotagging your home or work locations. Remember these geotags are visible to the public.

5

Use Interaction hashtags. If you want to try to bolster your likes, comments, or followers you can use some of the more popular like, comment, or follow trading hashtags, such as #follow4follow #like4like #comment4comment #f4f #l4l #c4c #followback #likeback #commentback #teamfollowback #alwaysfollowback etc. Just make sure that you actually hold up your part of the deal and like, comment, or follow the user back.

Some people consider this a "dirty" tactic, and you may lose some followers if you tag this too often.

While this tactic may lead to new followers, be aware that they may only follow you to gain more likes on their own photos rather than out of genuine interest.

Make sure you follow though with your side of the deal to avoid any nasty comments or unfollows.