For over a decade now, we’ve seen Instagram users make use of hashtags in an attempt to get better coverage for their posts and reach across the app.
But as time evolves, so do trends and a new experiment is laying to rest old theories, the reality of which we may not be aware of.
The effectiveness provided by hashtags may not be as great as other techniques, and by this we mean SEO and relevant keywords.
Thanks to Hootsuite that recently introduced With the results of their latest social media experiment, we’re gaining a lot of insight into ways to improve your in-app reach.
In the month of March this year, we saw many questions being raised in the direction of Adam Mosseri related to how creators can better reach their target audiences and whether hashtags made any difference or not.
To many people’s surprise, the Instagram CEO’s answer was “not really,” and that left many content creators second-guessing themselves.
Now, Hootsuite’s new experiment points this out as well, clearly eschewing old theories tied to hashtag practices.
To get better views and engagement, the popular social media management company says you need to work on search engine optimization and really choose your keywords carefully.
It is difficult to think how the hashtag phenomenon that has been with us since 2011 could no longer be enough to produce results for users. We’ve been categorizing posts this way for years, not to mention it’s also an easy way to locate posts.
In the meantime, let’s take a look at how Hootsuite came to this conclusion. The company partnered with writer Stacey McLachlan to conduct an experiment to see how captions actually affected post performance.
Stacey posted a total of 10 Instagram posts, of which 50% focused on certain keywords while the other half linked to hashtags for images that were similar to those seen in the image itself.
According to their findings, almost 30% more reach was seen for posts with SEO keywords than those provided with hashtags. Aside from that, he found that user engagement was also much higher for SEO posts than the hashtag counterpart.
In case you don’t know, monetization for content creators has a lot to do with reach as well as user engagement with posts. But over time, many creators have complained about how their engagements have dropped to new lows.
Stacey says she followed all the guidelines provided by the app regarding how best to use hashtags, including adding a certain number and not going overboard.
While Instagram didn’t directly comment on the new study, it did share a few tips for creators about the hashtag concept.
They claim that content and user interaction really go a long way to impact posts, more than hashtags. Well, now that we know, we’re still hoping that the app can one day miraculously reveal how exactly its algorithm works because the mystery is taking its toll.
Read below: Instagram will soon allow users to schedule posts and reels directly through the app
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