Instagram Hashtags Don’t Really Work (at least not the way you think they do)

Written by: Online Business Owner • March 21, 2022

Image Source:@mosseri on Instagram

Last Friday, in his regular weekly Q&A, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri did what he does best: cause panicked meltdowns by social media managers, creators, and online business owners around the world by revealing that hashtags…don’t really help users get more views (at least not in the way you may think).

In response to the question, “Do hashtags help views?” Mosseri replied:

“Not really. They do help us to understand what a post is about which means it might be more likely to show up in a place like a hashtag page, for instance. But, in general, no. I wouldn't try to think of hashtags as a way to get more distribution.”

In short, hashtags on Instagram do NOT help you get more distribution for your content on their own.

Instead, hashtags help the algorithm place, or categorize, your content based on its initial engagement.

As social media strategist Allie Mason explains on Twitter, “Hashtags are a tool Instagram uses to CATEGORIZE your content, but the only way the hashtags will result in more reach or views is if the people engaging with the content signal that it’s high-value.”

We’ve reported on this before in The Digest – last summer Instagram worked to explain how their confusing and secretive algorithm works, breaking down each type of discovery on the platform and how content is ranked and sorted.

Through that post we learned that while Instagram looks at a variety of factors as it places your content in its algorithm (from likes to saves to shares to your relationship with your followers and more), time spent is a vital stat for deciding how “good” your content is.

How your followers initially respond to (i.e. spend time with) your content influences how the algorithm manages your content’s distribution into other places like explore, suggested posts in the home feed, and hashtag pages.

All of that to say – hashtags by themselves won’t get you more views. But, if your content is good, it may show up in more hashtags (or in top posts for hashtags).

Lastly, just a blanket reminder that the Instagram algorithm is completely unique to every individual. That means the top posts I see in hashtags or what I find in explore differs from what you see. That adds another fun layer to the neverending game of figuring out how TF Instagram actually works!

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