- Why hashtags on a friendship post behave differently
- Step by step: building the set
- A real example, not a theory
- The tags I'd avoid
- The part nobody wants to hear
- What about TikTok and Facebook
- Refreshing your set over time
- Building your own small library of tags
- Location tags deserve a mention too
- Timing matters more than most people think
- Frequently asked questions
The quick answer: mix two or three broad friendship hashtags with two or three smaller, specific ones tied to what's happening in the photo, keep the total under ten, and put them in a first comment rather than the caption if you want the words to stay clean. Instagram's own guidance is that quality beats quantity, and I've tested this on client accounts enough times to trust it over the "use all 30" advice that's still floating around from years ago.
Why hashtags on a friendship post behave differently
A best friend post isn't trying to reach cold strangers the way a product launch is. Its job is to get seen by people who already care about friendship content, birthday tributes, or "tag your person" style posts, so the hashtags need to sit in that specific lane rather than chase the biggest possible audience. I've run social accounts since 2005 and the pattern hasn't changed even as the platforms have: broad tags get you buried in a firehose, narrow tags get you noticed by the right small pond.
Step by step: building the set
- Start with the emotion in the photo. Is it a birthday, a reunion, a random Tuesday, a holiday together? That word becomes your anchor.
- Search that anchor word in Instagram's search bar and look at the post count next to each suggested tag. Anything over 5 million posts is too broad to compete in, anything under 1,000 is often dead.
- Pick two tags in the 50,000 to 500,000 post range, that's your sweet spot for visibility without being invisible.
- Add one or two tags specific to the moment: the location, the occasion, or a phrase unique to your friendship (yes, an inside joke hashtag can work, it just won't drive discovery, it drives connection when she screenshots it).
- Add one broad tag at most, something like #bestfriends or #friendshipgoals, purely as a safety net for the algorithm's classification, not as your main strategy.
- Keep the total between five and nine. Instagram allows up to 30 but caps how many show meaningfully in search results, and posts stuffed with 30 tags read as low effort to anyone scrolling.
A real example, not a theory
I posted a birthday photo of me and a friend of over fifteen years last year and used exactly this method: #bestfriendbirthday, #friendshipgoals, #girlswhosupportgirls, plus a location tag and one tag naming the specific event we were at. That post outperformed a similar one from two years earlier where I'd used the maximum 30 tags, mostly broad ones like #love and #instagood that have zero relevance to friendship content specifically. Fewer, sharper tags beat a scattergun every time I've tested it, on my own account and on client accounts I manage.
Caption or first comment, does it matter
Instagram has confirmed hashtags work identically whether they're in the caption or the first comment, so this is a style choice, not a performance one. I put them in the first comment on personal posts because it keeps the caption readable, especially for an emotional friendship post where you want the words to land without a hashtag block underneath breaking the mood. For business accounts chasing discovery hard, caption placement can nudge slightly faster indexing, but for a personal best friend post that difference won't matter.
The tags I'd avoid
Skip #love, #instagood, #photooftheday and #picoftheday entirely. They're so oversaturated that a normal account's post vanishes within seconds of posting, buried under accounts with millions of followers using the exact same tag. I know they feel safe because everyone uses them, but that's precisely why they do nothing for you. A niche tag with 80,000 posts will put you in front of more relevant eyes than a tag with 400 million posts ever will.
The part nobody wants to hear
Hashtags on Instagram matter far less than they did in 2019. The platform now leans heavily on its recommendation algorithm reading your caption text, your engagement in the first hour, and who you're tagged with, rather than hashtag matching alone. So don't spend twenty minutes agonising over the perfect ten tags and then post at a dead hour with a rushed caption. The tags are a small lever. The photo, the caption, and tagging your friend directly so it hits her notifications and her followers' feeds through the tag, that does more work than any hashtag will.
Tagging versus hashtagging
People conflate these and they're different tools. Tagging your friend in the photo (not just mentioning her in the caption) puts the post directly on her profile under tagged posts and can surface it to her followers. Hashtagging puts it in a searchable pool of similar content. For a best friend post specifically, the tag does more of the emotional and reach work; the hashtags are a smaller supporting layer.
What about TikTok and Facebook
If you're cross-posting the same friendship content, TikTok rewards fewer, more specific hashtags too, three to five is plenty, and TikTok's search function treats hashtags almost like keywords now, so match them to what someone would type, like "best friend trip" rather than a vague #friends. Facebook barely uses hashtags for reach at all these days, they're mostly decorative there, so don't bother optimising a Facebook caption around them the way you would Instagram or TikTok.
Refreshing your set over time
Hashtag communities shift. A tag that was thriving eighteen months ago can quietly die as the people using it move on to a newer phrase. Every few months, search your go-to friendship tags again and check the post count is still climbing, not frozen. If a tag hasn't gained posts in the last month of results you can see, it's stagnant, swap it out.
Building your own small library of tags
Rather than typing hashtags fresh every time you post something about a friend, keep a running note on your phone of three sets: one for birthdays, one for general "just because" friendship posts, and one for milestone events like a wedding or a reunion trip. Each set should have your two or three mid-sized tags already researched, so posting doesn't turn into a ten minute research task every time. I keep mine in the Notes app on my phone, updated every couple of months when I notice a tag has gone quiet or a new one has picked up momentum in my niche. Swap in one new tag per set every so often rather than rebuilding the whole list from scratch, that way you keep some consistency for the algorithm to recognise your posting pattern while still testing fresh options.
What the numbers show on a personal account
On a personal account with a modest following, don't expect hashtags to bring in thousands of new followers. Their job is smaller and more honest than that: they get your post in front of a few hundred extra people who are actively browsing that topic, on top of the people who already follow you. For a best friend post, that's often enough, a handful of strangers who relate to the caption, maybe a comment or two from someone going through something similar. Treat hashtags as a modest boost, not a growth strategy, and you won't be disappointed when the numbers come back small but relevant.
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Location tags deserve a mention too
If the photo was taken somewhere specific, a city, a cafe, a landmark, add a location tag alongside your hashtags. Location tags on Instagram work through a separate discovery feed to hashtags, so a friendship post tagged at a well-known local spot can surface to people browsing that place even if they've never searched a friendship hashtag in their life. It's a free extra layer of reach that costs you nothing beyond tapping the location field before you post.
Timing matters more than most people think
Even the best hashtag set underperforms if you post at a quiet hour. Check your own account's insights, on a personal profile switch to a professional account temporarily if you need to see when your specific followers are online, then post within that window. A friendship post shared at 7am when nobody's scrolling gets a fraction of the reach the same post would get at 8pm. Hashtags can only work with the traffic that's browsing at the time you post, they can't manufacture an audience out of a dead hour.
I have written more around this on the site: How to Pick the Best Hashtags for a Best Friend Post in 2026, How Do You Post an Instagram Story From Android in Hindi, Where Exactly Should You Put Your Instagram Hashtags for Best Results.
Related tool: my free hashtag set checker.
Frequently asked questions
How many hashtags should a best friend post use?
Between five and nine works best. Instagram allows up to 30 but engagement typically drops once you go much past ten, and it reads as spammy on a personal post.
Do hashtags go in the caption or the first comment?
Either works the same for reach, Instagram has confirmed this. Use whichever keeps your caption looking the way you want it to look.
Should I use #bestfriends or something more specific?
Use one broad tag like #bestfriends as a safety net, but build most of your set around specific, smaller tags tied to the occasion or moment in the photo, that's where the real visibility comes from.
Do hashtags even matter for reach anymore?
Less than they used to. Instagram's algorithm now weighs your caption text, early engagement, and tagged accounts more heavily than hashtag matching alone, so treat hashtags as a small supporting tool, not your main strategy.
