Unlock the Latest Mysteries of Instagram Story Performance

Unlock the Latest Mysteries of Instagram Story Performance

Campaigns, events, releases, giveaways; there once were endless reasons to want to track a hashtag in Instagram stories, just like one would on Instagram posts.

Now, unless you’re looking right at a person’s participating story, which is about to disappear unless highlighted, it’s harder to track a hashtag’s stats than where your last paycheque went.

WHY?

We hate to say it. It’s the…it’s the al…

Ugh, we’re sorry, it’s the a-word; Algorithm.

If there’s a long story being told, or a bunch of little ones, viewers aren’t the only ones hitting skip when they see the progress bar go from quantity rectangles to dots. Instagram is now determining which are most (likely) viewed based on user behaviour and post performance history.

Basically, good engagement track record + target audience matching = story away, and enjoy seeing the results! Bask in those posts showing up in hashtag search.

So how can one improve their story hashtag performance?

Be Broad

While your tags on a post might be hyper-targeted, that post lives longer than a story and can more easily be found after day 1. When it comes to stories, be broad, reach that new audience. You only have 24 hours of that story to do so before it’s time to try again!

Be Transparent

Shrinking or masking your hashtags to hide them within your Instagram is no secret, even to Instagram. The network has caught on and the algorithm will no longer favour what was once a clever aesthetic technique by story publishers. So, don’t be -that- sneak.

They’re onto you.

2’s Company, 3’s Capacity

Do not fill your story with multiple hashtags like you might a post; simply put, they won’t get tracked past a threesome.

If It Takes a Book, Turn to TV

If your stories are too long, requiring too many slides, you don’t want the poorer stats of the many, many slides later people have skipped to impact the performance of your overall efforts. For the detailed storytelling, consider montaging into one complete IG TV telling.

Walk the Line

The most common hashtag spotting, besides a complete hashtag, on Instagram Stories is the BROKEN hashtag. Too many engagements and stats have gone accidentally impossible because of one simple reason; no line under the hashtag, no connection. It’s like hooking your computer up to the modem but forgetting to plug the modem into the power source. Check your hashtag for that lifeline (bad pun) to ensure a social heartbeat before the post goes up. Otherwise, it’s just a word on a screen and nothing more.