Creating and Managing an Instagram Hashtag Feed

Overview

A hashtag campaign is a great way to harness the engagement of Instagram. Set a designated hashtag and display a feed of posts (images and videos) using that hashtag. Participants will be able to vote on and share these entries.

Account Setup Steps (Before Creating the Feed)

To set up your Instagram account, follow these steps:

1. Create an Instagram Business Account

Convert an existing Instagram account to a Business Profile if needed. Instructions can be found in our blog: How to Set Up an Instagram Business Profile.

2. Link Instagram to Facebook

When setting up your Business Account, connect it to your Facebook Page.

Important Notes:

• Posts must come from a public Instagram profile and include the required hashtag(s) in the original caption.
• If an @mention is required, ensure it’s included in the post. This increases brand visibility by tagging your business directly.

Creating a Feed

Before creating your Instagram feed, double-check the prerequisites:

1. The Instagram account must be a Business Account linked to a Facebook Page.
2. You must be logged into a Facebook account with appropriate permissions to the Facebook Page, or have permissions granted through Facebook Business Manager.

Learn more about Granting Page Permissions Using Facebook Business Manager.

Setting Up the Feed

Step 1. Connect Your Instagram Account

1. From the Dashboard, click the Get Social button at the top, then select Collect Posts. Alternatively, use the navigation panel to access the Hashtag Feeds Manager.
2. Log into the Facebook account with admin access to the Facebook Page connected to your Instagram.
3. Select the Facebook Page associated with the Instagram account you want to use. If the Page you're looking for isn't listed, click Refresh Pages to reload your available Pages.
4. Click Continue.

Note: Your Instagram account must be a Business account tied to a Facebook Page you can access. We connect through Facebook to read hashtag posts.

Step 2. Add Hashtags

1. Enter the required hashtag(s) in the Required hashtags field. No # is needed. If using multiple hashtags, separate them with commas.
2. (Optional) Check the box to require your account's @mention in the caption.

Without requiring an @mention, some restrictions apply:

• You cannot limit the maximum number of entries per user.
• The Rights Management tool won't be available for entries that don't include the @mention in the caption.

Note: If you require an @mention, it must be included in the original caption, along with the hashtag.

Step 3. Timing & Filtering

1. Set the Start collecting on and Stop collecting on dates and times.
2. Select the appropriate Timezone.
3. Choose which entries to collect:
   • All entries
   • Only entries with images
   • Only entries with videos
4. (Optional) Check the box to automatically approve entries as they come in.

Step 4. Review & Launch

A Feed name is automatically suggested based on your hashtag, Instagram account, and today's date (for example, #testing - @youraccount - 2026-07-27). Edit this field if you'd like a different name.

Under Where will you store your entries?, choose to automatically create a new list or select an existing one from the drop-down.

Review the summary of your feed settings. Click any setting shown in blue to jump back to that step and make changes.

Once everything looks correct, click Save & Exit.

Your new feed will appear in the Feeds Manager.

Note: Due to Instagram's API limitations, feeds will only pull media from public posts—not Stories.

Using Multiple @Mentions

Hashtag contests are a great tool for collaborations, so you might be wondering how you can require more than one @mention. 

Meta only allows the tracking of one @mention per feed. There are two options for tracking multiple @mentions in entries: 

1. Create multiple Feeds. There will be duplicate entries between the feeds, but you can easily see if the entry counts match. 

   Make sure you have the correct Facebook Permissions for all additional @mention accounts. Learn more about Granting Page Permissions Using Meta Business Suite. 

2. Manually check when winners are chosen. This option is the easiest of the two. When it comes time to select the winner(s), review the entry details and ensure that all contest requirements were met. If not, select different winners. 

FAQs