Instagram feeds begin to fill up with Valentine’s Day stuff around the beginning of February each year. It won’t be long until you see an increase in online displays of love combined with memes, valentine’s day gifts and posts condemning the commercialism of the event, and, of course, tons of Valentine’s-themed sponsored content. While opinions on the romantic holiday vary, its ability to generate excitement on social media should not be underestimated. Choose the best valentine’s day hashtags to increase the reach of your campaign and decide how you want to approach Valentine’s Day in 2023 your Instagram strategy. Not sure where to begin? Here is all you need to know.

Learn about the most popular Valentine’s Day hashtags

When deciding what hashtags to use for your seasonal posts, it’s wise to start with the basics. So you don’t have to; we compiled a list of the most popular Valentine’s Day hashtags in 2022. Here they are!

#ValentinesDay (24.8 million posts on Instagram) 

The most visible Valentine’s Day hashtag in 2022 is also the most universal – as seen above, it could be used in posts marketing children’s apparel. After all, the primary aim of hashtags is to boost the discoverability of content, and you don’t want your posts to be lost among the millions of updates that use the #valentinesday hashtag. Less popular hashtags simply rank higher in the hashtag browser.

Notable variations include:

• #valentinesday2022 (636 thousand posts) 
• #happyvalentinesday (9.9 million posts) 
• #valentinesdaycards (83.5 thousand posts) 
• #valentinesdayideas (77.8 thousand posts) 
• #valentinesdayflowers (77.7 thousand posts) 
• #valentinesdayspecial (128 thousand posts) 

#ValentinesDayGift (1.9 million posts on Instagram) 

While it may not be as popular as #ValentinesDay, this Valentine hashtag has a lot of value – it might drive new customers to your Instagram account. Consider it an opportunity to bring your brand in front of new, valuable eyes organically. According to studies, 40% of all Valentine’s Day-related searches in 2015 included the term gift!

Notable variations include:

• #valentinesdaygifts (369 thousand posts) 
• #valentinesdaygiftideas (146 thousand posts) 
• #valentinesdaygiveaway (41.6 thousand posts) 
• #valentinesdaygiftsforher (29.7 thousand posts) 

#GalentinesDay (1.1 million posts on Instagram) 

Valentine’s Day isn’t necessarily associated with romantic love. Make sure to include it in your Valentine’s Day communications to show that you understand the demands of everyone in your audience. Girl Power!

Notable variations include:

• #galentinesdaygiveaway (3 thousand posts) 
• #galentinesdaygift (6 thousand posts) 
• #galentinesday2022 (1 thousand posts) 
• #galentinesdayparty (6 thousand posts) 

#AntiValentinesDay (91.2 thousand posts on Instagram) 

#AntiValentinesDay is another hashtag you can use to make your content more accessible to those who don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day in the traditional sense. As unpleasant as it may sound, it can offer a great deal of humor to your messages. Consider combining it with Valentine’s Day memes!

Notable variations include:

• #singlesawarenessday (49 thousand posts)
• #antivalentines (34.5 thousand posts)
• #antivalentinesdayparty (1.6 thousand posts)
• #antivalentinesdaymakeup (3.8 thousand posts)

Make your own Valentine’s Day hashtags

Consider using a branded Valentine hashtag if you’re planning an extensive social media Valentine’s Day campaign that will promote a charitable cause or include user contests. This will make it easy for your audience to participate. Here are some instances of effective branded Valentine’s Day hashtags.

#Lushvalentines

Lush used this special hashtag in their Valentine’s Day posts, but the community quickly caught on, resulting in an astounding 41 thousand posts.

#payloveforward

To honor inclusive love, The Body Shop launched the hashtag #payloveforward. It was used in the brand’s Valentine’s Day messaging across international social media channels, as well as in UGC contests in several regions.

#lindtlove

Lindt uses this branded hashtag all year, but it is especially significant around Valentine’s Day. Last year, the brand collaborated with a few influencers to spread the word to new audiences.

Explore popular hashtags

Before we finish, there is one more type of hashtag you should be aware of while planning your Valentine’s Day campaign: trending hashtags. Instead of listing previous year’s trends or attempting to predict the future, we’ll show you a few strategies to locate hashtags that are now popular. Rather than providing you with the fish, we will teach you how to fish.

1. Make use of Instagram’s Explore page

When you go to the Search tab in the Instagram app, the Explore page is the first thing you see. It is a compilation of trending content curated for each individual user based on their Instagram usage.

In the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, you’ll surely see a lot of Valentine’s Day stuff here – explore, search for trends, and get inspired.

1. Make use of a hashtag exploration tool

Automate the process and let the software handle the heavy lifting! There are several solutions available; begin with a free solution such as All Hashtag.

1. Keep track of your competitors

Using NapoleonCat’s hashtag analysis, you can quickly determine which hashtags your rivals are using and which perform the best. In our so-called “hashtag cloud,” you’ll first receive a basic overview of your competitors’ hashtags. One glimpse is all it takes to discover if you’re missing out on a trend that your competitors are embracing:

A more thorough hashtag performance will also be available in the form of a table. The hashtags will be classified based on the number of posts, comments, likes, and engagement rate:

Conclusion

Here are the top hashtags and hashtag strategies for boosting your Valentine’s Day social media marketing campaigns. Use our tips to make sure that your Valentine’s Day posts reach the intended audiences, and don’t forget to track your progress and use what you learn to future campaigns. Best wishes!