We all know about the constantly changing Instagram algorithm; it seems like once you finally understand the reasoning behind an Instagram placement, they change it again. The consistently changing format will probably never, well, change, SO it's important to look into each element of the algorithm closely and often. Today, let's look at hashtags.
Relevance is key.
Now that you can actually follow hashtags, they have to make sense. If they don't, not only will your photos not be received well, but people will be able notify Instagram of the irrelevance.
Check out the hashtag above (#CoffeeInFrame). Two of the three photos fit the hashtag well, but one has absolutely nothing to do with it; That's why Instagram gave followers of the hashtag the ability to mark it not relevant. When it shows up on your feed (as shown on the right), you can click on the three dots in the corner and then click "Don't Show for This Hashtag."
People actually get upset when you hashtag things that don't make sense. One time I, unknowingly, used a hashtag that I thought was simply a fun, upbeat hashtag, but it turned out it was the name of an editing present. When users found out I was using the preset hashtag without actually using the preset, they made sure to comment and tell me I was using it incorrectly, which is honestly quite embarrassing. In an attempt to avoid such a mistake, I suggest researching.
There are some GREAT free tools to better tailor your hashtags within captions and stories, and I suggest finding your favorites and embedding them in your strategy. If you use software like Later, hashtag optimizing tools are actually located within the scheduling portion of the platform. There are also some free websites you can turn to for a quick update in hashtags like All Hashtag, Instavast and Ingramer. Some websites will even let you upload your photo, and they'll generate the hashtags for you.
Another great way to increase your reach via hashtag is by hiding them within your story. If you use the "type" tool in the story feature to create them, you can change the font to any color you want and even shrink the text so it's almost invisible. For instance, in the photo to the right, I inserted a "#coffee" in the picture, can you see it?
If you couldn't, good! That was the goal. I changed the font to black and minimized the text to fit inside the right lens of the sunglasses.
Last, but certainly not least, I wanted to quickly remind you about tracking hashtag analytics. When you go into the analytics tab on your profile (or even an individual post), under the "discovery" portion of analytics, you can find a breakdown of your impressions (as shown to the left).
This works on both posts and stories, and the categories for impressions are as such: "From Home," "From Profile," "From Location," "From Other" and, of course, "From Hashtag." If you look at "From Hashtag,"you can find the exact number of people that saw your post from one of the hashtags you used.
The shortened version of this post: keep your hashtags relevant, change/research your hashtags often and track them in the analytics tab.