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Hashtag Cannibalism

February 10, 2017

Redfish Lake, Idaho

Most of the time, our hashtags can be useless. Especially if we use the same ones on every single post. What do I mean by that?

For example, I will post a photo with ten hashtags. The photo gains popularity and becomes featured on “top posts”. In 6 hours, I will post a different photo with the same ten hashtags. Now there is a second photo with these hashtags that is competing for the “top posts”.. Either the first photo or the second photo will appear in the “top posts”. I’ve seen both of my photos in the “top posts” but that rarely happens. I am not entirely sure how Instagram regulates “top posts” for hashtags, but from my observation, I will only have one of my photos in the “top posts” at any given time.

That is why I coined the phrase “Hashtag Cannibalism”. When I will post multiple photos with the same hashtags in a short period of time, usually only one photo will remain featured on “top posts”.

A good solution to this issue is to create several sets of hashtags. For example, on Monday, I will use set A, on Tuesday, set B, and so on. That way, my photos will stay in the “top posts” category for as long as possible.