I’m playing around with hashtags right now and wanted more thoughts on this:
Just tried a new batch of hashtags on a post that seemed like it should go well. However, the hashtag reach seemed pretty low.
I wondered if it was one of the new hashtags, so deleted one that had sub-10k posts and was mainly low quality pictures (I know, I shouldn’t use that anyway!).
Now my hashtag reach is going up. Is this a thing? Is it confirmation bias? I would have thought IG would penalise me for removing hashtags after posting, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.
How long after you posted did you wait to delete the bad hashtag? It may have just taken time for hashtag reach to start
Probably an hour. Perhaps I could leave it longer next time to see what happens.
I don’t think a bad hashtag affects ranking in top posts, as I saw someone ranking in like 4 even though they included a hashtag banned from recent posts.
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You know, I think you’re right; It was probably confirmation bias. The post has picked up, and looking at other ones, they seem to be taking a few hours for hashtag views to really start building. Cheers 
I might have to set up a another account just to run tests like this.
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Also, sometimes, it takes a few times or weeks for instagram to get accustomed to your new way of hashtagging. Give it some time and proper testing.
One offs or judging too soon might be misleading
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Good shout. Test test test is the name of the game! I just need to avoid scaring myself every time it doesn’t go to plan 
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