Hashtag Protocol

Meta

Also no expert I would definitely like to know more about the use of hashtags. What I used to do was to pay attention on the hashtags used by people I follow. I've hand-written down a lot of them, sorted by topic. On top of that, adding hashtags about the subject matter of the piece. There are many hashtags you would not make up yourself just by thinking of it, so it's worth it checking out what's popular at the moment. Some hashtags have millions of entries and the probability to bee visible diminishes. On the other hand you might be visible on rarely used hashtags, but nobody watches them ... no easy task ...

NessIllustration

Basic guidelines:

You're allowed 30 hashtags per picture. Use all of them, because they're your search terms
Don't use overused hashtags like #art or #love. People use those so much that your picture will get drowned out in seconds in the new posts section. Look at the number of posts that use this hashtag: if it's more than 2-3 millions it's starting to be overused. Instead, try to have 10 hashtags in the 5 figures, 10 hashtags in the 6 figures, and the last 10 in the 7 figures (ideally no more than 3 millions)
Try to think of what people would search. If you do a picture of an elephant you might be tempted to do #elephant. But there's a big chance this hashtag if very overused and that people looking for that want photos, not art. Try something like #elephantart or #animalart for instance. #childrenillustration and #childrenbook are also things people interested specifically in your art will look for.
A good way to find hashtags is to look at posts from other artists in your niche/industry and see what they're using. It might give you ideas!
There are also accounts that feature artists, and if you can get on those it will give you a huge boost of views and followers at once! Most of these accounts have their own hashtag, or you can tag them. By doing this you are "entered" in the running for a chance to be featured.
Once you have a solid list of hashtags, you can copy/paste it to avoid doing this exercise every single time! I have 3 lists of hashtags for different contexts that I copy/paste. Every 4-5 months I go through them to update and improve.

I hope this helps!

Eli

@NessIllustration Thank you, this is solid advice! I am always so baffled by how to tag my stuff!

Zachary Drenski

@Eli @jdubz you can also search a hashtag. You'll see how buried your post is and also if the art pops compared to other posts.

jdubz

Great feedback thanks everyone. I believe I'm getting a better picture of how to at least be more intelligent about it.

And Zach that's a great thing to do as well. Good tip!

jdubz

Just to continue some practical application here because why not learn as much as possible hah. I posted the below image and then I did some research and ended up with the following 10 or so hashtags:

#birdillustration #bluebird #illustration #illustration_art #procreate #animalart #childrenillustration #cuteillustrations #movtivation #painting

Honestly I have no idea how I'd get to 30, so I've got to work on that. Did I miss anything big or did I use one that didn't make sense?

I did notice though that many people/organizations I follow only use like 4 to 10. I didn't see many that went over that except for maybe the ones that actually came out of the main childrens illustration IG page.

NessIllustration

For ideas on how to get to 30, here are some of mine: #childrenillustration #illustration_best #childrenbookart #childrensillustrators #childrenbookillustration #childrenillustrator #illustration_daily #illustratenow #artforchildren #illustrationoftheday #instaillustration #kidlitart #kidsillustration #illustratorsofinstagram #illustrated #womenofillustration #freelanceillustrator #cuteillustration #professionalartist #illustrationdaily #illustrationage #illustrationwork #illustrationer #illustrationnow #illustrationforkids #illustrationoninstagram #illustrationofinstagram #illustrationdrawing #illustrationaday #illustrationworks

NessIllustration

For you I would also definitely suggest #digitalpainting (8 million posts) and #digitalpaintings (99k posts) moreso than #painting which is overused (over 85 million posts)

jdubz

Great thanks for the suggestions Ness! That's super helpful. I didn't even think to check "digitalpainting" and I can see that's a huge difference.

Sagar Jaid

Nice.

I'm using this tool.

https://hashtagfor.co/hashtags-for-follow/

I wonder no one is talking about this website.