Spent 6 months thinking hashtags were dead until one post hit 50k impressions

I was totally in the camp that hashtags were old news and the algorithm just ignored them. But after I tried a mix of 5 niche tags and 5 broad ones on a post about my cat knocking over a plant, it blew up overnight. Now I'm seeing people swear they work but only if you rotate them every week. Is it really about the tags or was it just dumb luck with timing? Would love to hear if anyone else has seen a big swing from changing up their hashtag game.

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_davis311mo ago

Wait, 50k impressions just from a cat knocking over a plant? Thats wild. Honestly, I think timing is a huge part of it too because I tried a similar mix of hashtags on a post about my dog eating a sock and it barely got 200 views. But then the next week I used the exact same tags and it hit 10k. So yeah, its probably a combo of both the right tags and just catching the algorithm on a good day. Tbh I rotate mine every month because I got bored, not because I figured out some secret formula.

the_piper1mo ago

Right? It's so random, but do you think the algorithm actually tracks how long people stop to watch a video, or is it just straight up engagement numbers like likes and shares that decide if it blows up?

lewis.mila1mo ago

Gonna have to push back a little on the timing thing, @claire_davis31. I get why it feels random, but I think the algorithm cares more about the first few seconds of watch time than it does about when you post. It's not that timing doesn't matter, but if your cat video makes people stop and watch for 10 seconds while the dog sock video loses them in 2, the cat is gonna win every time no matter what time of day it is. Rotating hashtags is fine, but I'd bet your dog video just had a slower start than the cat one did.