How to create your own hashtag on Instagram

Pick a tag nobody else is using

A good hashtag of your own is short, easy to spell and clearly yours. Common patterns:

• Brand name, alone or with a word: #HarbourCandleCo, #MadeByHarbour.
• Event and year: #MargateMakersMarket2027.
• Names, for a wedding or a family: #PriyaAndTom2027, #EllisEverAfter.
• A campaign or challenge: #HarbourAtHome, for customers' photos.

Write each word with a capital letter so it reads clearly, then read it in lower case too. Some names run together into a different word, and you want to spot that before your customers do.

Then check it. Open Instagram, go to search and type your tag. If it already has posts that aren't yours, add a word, a place or a year until it comes back empty or nearly empty. Do the same on TikTok if you post there too.

Add it to a post or reel

1. Start a new post or reel and add your photo or video.
2. In the caption, type # and your tag. Use letters, numbers and underscores only: a space or punctuation mark ends the tag.
3. Add any other hashtags you want. Instagram allows up to five on a post or reel, and your own tag counts as one of them.
4. Share the post. Your tag is now a link: tapping it shows posts that use it.

The limit is recent. Instagram's @creators account announced on 18 December 2025 that "Instagram will allow up to 5 hashtags in a reel or post", and said that fewer, more targeted tags work better than many generic ones. If you used to paste a block of 30 tags, cut it to your own tag plus up to four that describe the post.

Choose the other four

Your own tag brings together the people who already know you. The other four should help new people find the post. Describe your post below and the generator suggests tags in three groups, broad, niche and specific, up to five in total. It's set up for a small brand, but you can change the description to anything. The tags are written by AI, so check each one in Instagram before you use it.

Get people using it

A hashtag only works if people use it the same way every time. A few ways to spread it:

• Put it in your bio so new visitors see it straight away.
• Use it on every relevant post you share, including stories and reels.
• Print it on packaging, receipts, signs, table cards or invitations, spelled exactly as in your posts.
• Ask for it. "Share a photo with #HarbourAtHome" works better than hoping people guess.
• Share the best posts that use it, with credit. People are more likely to use a tag when they see others being featured.

Posts from private accounts only show to their followers, so some of the photos tagged with your hashtag won't appear when you search it. For events and weddings, ask friends to send you their best pictures as well.

When a tag isn't working

If nobody uses your tag after a few weeks, it's usually too long, too hard to spell or not visible enough. Shorten it, put it somewhere people look, and keep using it yourself. If it gets taken over by unrelated posts, choose a more specific one and move to it everywhere at once, so the old and new tags don't compete.

For the same question on TikTok, see do hashtags work on TikTok. Planning a wedding? The wedding hashtag generator starts from your names and date.