In this, we will look at what a subculture is on Instagram and how studying Instagram hashtags will help you identify subcultures and discover trends in Gen Z culture.

What is a subculture? 

Google describes subculture as

 “a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.”

Think of a friend whose a sneaker-head, or a chef who’s super passionate about Chinese recipes; You probably would have no idea about what Jordan 1’s and Congee were if they were not friends giving you access to information. 

If you then were to buy your first pair of jordans or take up cooking Chinese recipes, congrats you would now be apart of a subculture. 

Hashtags are the Link 

If you are a businessman/or woman, influencer looking to create content, or just a regular guy/or girl looking for new content, identifying subcultures within Instagram hashtags, will help you discover new and emerging trends.

Instagram hashtags are words or multi-word phrases that categorize content and track topics.

 For just 5-10 minutes a day, you can use Instagram hashtags to see the app and its users from a bird’s eye view. 

 You can see what the top post are in the Hypebae hashtag, or 

the thriftshoppersoflosangeles hashtag. 

You can see who has the most likes, what styles of video get the most engagement, and ultimately you’ll be able to spot what’s hot and what’s not.

Search the top influencers and be on alert for fan pages, spam accounts, and finsta’s, because that’s where the kids are really interacting.

Gen Z Instagram users LOVE spam pages. Creating a spam page gives the user a sense of privacy and allows them to show a different side of themselves. 

Most of the influencers you may be looking to hire or collaborate with probably have spam pages and it’s more than likely located linked in their bio. 

They can post what’s out of the norm and is often where they share, opinions, stories, and content that would not normally be posted on Instagram. 

Equate it to updating your status on Myspace rather than Facebook or Resharing on Tumblr rather than retweeting on Twitter; The premise never changes but the lens is always different. 

 Many subcultures exist on Instagram. The one you are looking for is largely dependent upon your industry. 

This strategy can be a game-changer in your marketing efforts and does not require any added effort.