May 06--You can't use Instagram effectively without embracing hashtags, and the company's recent changes to how they work should make you #:-).
Here's what's new and what it means for you.
You can't change the past. Once upon a time, hashtagging an old photo would boost that photo to the top of the hashtag search page. That's no longer the case. Now, photos and videos appear on hashtag pages in the order that they were posted. So if you add a hashtag to a 2-year-old photo, the photo appears on the hashtag page according to when it was originally posted, not by the time the hashtag was added. That's much fairer. Before the change, people would hashtag old photos to make them immediately visible. To do that now, you'd have to reupload the photo or a different version of the photo and add the hashtag. This means it's harder to enter a photo contest or challenge with an old photo; new photos get priority in search results.
You can now hashtag emoji. I find it so fitting that Instagram is the network embracing emoji in hashtags. There's the caption, of course, but Instagram is all about visuals. So hashtagging something that's not a word just makes sense. And it's fun. Type a hashtag and the dog emoji to see some really cute pups. Type a hashtag and one of the many cat faces -- why are there more cats than dogs, anyway? -- to see everything from cat cookie jars to sleeping cats to cats at the zoo. I was worried about what I'd see if I hashtagged the dog emoji and the poop emoji. I'm happy to say that Instagram's search filters are working as intended -- for the most part. I was surprised to find out that hashtagging an umbrella and a dog and a cat did not return photos of heavy rain but hashtagging a cherry and a vanilla ice cream cone returned a beautiful shot of a cherry vanilla ice cream cone.
Remember: Emojis serve dual purposes on Instagram. You can and should use them to make sure people can find your photos, but you can also use them to stand out. Instagram has a max of 30 hashtags per post, but just because you get 30 doesn't mean you should use 30. For business use, I'd say no more than 5 to 10 relevant hashtags. You have more freedom with personal use, but too much of anything is no good.
One thing to note about hashtagging emojis: There's one you can't hashtag and that's the eggplant. I'll let you guess why. (Hint: The Internet is 12 years old.) So while you can't hashtag that gorgeous plate of eggplant parm with the eggplant emoji followed by the spaghetti emoji, you can go old-school and add to the already robust collections for #eggplantparmigiana and #eggplantparmesan.
All hashtagging aside ... If you care more about the photos than the hashtags, Instagram recently added three cool new filters. According to the Instagram blog, Lark is good for landscapes, desaturating reds while increasing blues and greens. Reyes adds a dusty, vintage look. And Juno helps your photos of people stand out by tinting cool tones green and making warm tones pop and whites glow.
The one thing Instagram hasn't addressed is the shape of the photo. Your So Social columnist longs for the day we can apply hashtags and filters to vertical images.
What questions do you have about social media? Tweet them to @scottkleinberg. He might select yours for use in a future column.
