Today we’re welcoming back branding and lifestyle guru, Anastasia Casey of The Identité Collective with a topic that may feel like you’re winging it most of the time: hashtags. Which ones are best? Should I have a strategy? Where do I post them—the caption or the comments? How many do I post? Well, today she’s answering all of those questions, including a master list of some of the best ones to use if you’re in the design world and the best ones to follow if you want ALL the home inspiration.

From The Identité Collective… The best hashtags for interior designers can be hard to identify and overwhelming to research. With ever changing algorithms, it’s more important than ever to be switching up your hashtags used and really focus in on niching them. Just as careful curation is essential when pitching your work to be published, it’s just as critical when selecting hashtags.

For each of our social clients, we spend 40+ hours researching, curating and testing hashtags each month. There is a specific formula to optimizing a hashtag strategy that combines both largely followed hashtags with strategic and targeted ones.

Formula For Crafting a Hashtag Strategy

10 Largely Followed, Popular Hashtags in Your Industry
(these likely have 250,000+ posts to them)

10 Industry Specific, Carefully Curated Hashtags
(these are likely “hosted” hashtags from fellow designers or brands)

5 Location + Industry Specific Hashtags
(#SFDesigner for example)

5 Tags Specific to the Image
(if it’s a white living room, use #whitelivingroom)

Instagram reports that posts with 11 hashtags perform the best, however, we believe that statistic is taken out of context. If Instagram is taking an average of posts with all 30 hashtags used (the maximum number allowed), plus all of the posts with no hashtags used (think personal, private accounts), the average would naturally fall somewhere between 10 and 20 hashtags.

From our professional experience managing over two dozen accounts in the last two years, we’ve found using all 30 hashtags, especially as an interior designer, is imperative to rapid growth development.

As a general rule, we add hashtags to a post in the comments section, 45 minutes to one hour after the initial post. You can read more about our social media strategy here in our algorithm case study here. If sharing any behind-the-scenes content in Instagram Stories, be thinking about including 1 or 2 key hashtags in those posts as well.

Thoughts on “Branded Hashtags”

Using the best hashtags for interior designers is key – but there is a second tier of branding designers can monopolize on. Leaders in the industry like Amber Interiors and Studio McGee create a custom hashtag for each project. That way, whenever you post an image from that project, you can use that hashtag like a filing system. Consider it a mini-portfolio. When someone sees one of your projects they like, they’ll click the hashtag to see any photos filed under it.

Additionally, grow your community and increase engagement by crafting a branded hashtag which you invite other users to use. #IDCOatHome is a hashtag we just recently rolled out, and it’s already received hundreds of posts. It’s so rewarding to be able to keep up with our followers on a more intimate level, without relying on the algorithm to show us (or not show us) their posts in our feed. We of course love the #HowIHaven hashtag, too!

The Best Hashtags for Interior Designers

Below, we’ve compiled a list of the most beautifully curated, widely used hashtags for interior designers. Use this as a starting point to follow the formula listed above. Once you’ve crafted a list of 30 hashtags bespoke to your business, copy and save them to a note on your phone. For best engagement over time, try crafting three hashtag groups to rotate between with each post. It keeps it fresh, organic, and more likely to preform in the algorithm.

#FindItStyleIt

#SMMakeLifeBeautiful

#SODomino

#JungalowStyle

#HomeWithRue

#HowIHaven

#IDCOatHome

#GreigeStyle

#OneRoomChallenge

#CurrentDesignSituation

#ApartmentTherapy

#HouseEnvy

#MyDomaine

#AmbularInteriorsAintGotNothingOnMe

#InMyDomaine

#LonnyLiving

#DesignSponge

#MyCovetedHome

#BeckiOwensFeature

#RueDaily

#HowYouHome

#HWFridayFeature

#TheNewSouthern

#FindItStyleIt

#MakeTimeForDesign

#HowWeDwell

#CurrentDesignSituation

#SimplyStyleYourSpace

#VogueLiving

#MySMPHome

#MyOKLStyle

#InspoToYourHome

#Interior_and_Living

#ElleDecor

#CaliforniaCasual

#RugMadeTheRoom

Did we forget any? LET US KNOW! Tell us in the comments below which hashtags you love to follow, and more importantly, which hashtags you love to use! Don’t forget – we love seeing your posts! Use #IDCOatHome and #HowIHaven on all your interior design photos so we can keep up with all your incredible work.

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For more tips on expanding your interior design portfolio’s exposure or lifestyle brand’s website, check out these posts:

• Optimizing your Interior Design Portfolio for Pinterest
• How to Get Your Work Published
• Branding Your Portfolio

The Identité Collective is a full service creative studio for interior designers and boutique lifestyle brands. Offering bespoke branding, web design and social media content creation, we help brands built around beautiful living elevate their digital presence to represent the physical spaces they design. Want to work together? Shoot us an inquiry here.