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 Feed)

Here's what you need to do before setting up your contest, if you're using Instagram:

Before setting up your contest with Instagram, follow these steps:

1. Connect Instagram to Facebook:

   • Ensure your Instagram account is linked to the correct Facebook Page. Learn more by reading our Facebook Page Primer.
     
     

2. 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.
     
     

3. Link Instagram to Facebook:

   • While 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 also required, ensure it’s included in the post. This helps increase brand visibility by tagging your business directly.

• The Instagram account must be a Business Account linked to a Facebook Page.
• You must be logged into a Facebook Account that has appropriate permissions to the Facebook Page or be granted permissions through Facebook Business Manager.

For help with Facebook permissions, refer to our guide, Granting Page Permissions Using Facebook Business Manager.

Note: Further help with adding permissions via Facebook Business Manager can be found in our Granting Page Permissions Using Facebook Business Manager help doc.

Setting up the Feed:

1. From your Home, click Manage at the top, then in the drop-down menu, select Hashtag Feeds.

2. Click the blue New Feed button.

3. If prompted, log into the Facebook account with admin access to the Facebook Page connected to your Instagram.

4. Choose the Facebook Page that is connected to the Instagram account you want to use.

5. Name your feed and select either:

   • Automatically create new list (for a new list)
   
   
   • • Or select an existing list from the drop-down menu.

6. Choose whether to require an @mention in the post. By default, your @mention will not be required. Without using @mention, some restrictions apply:

   
   
   • You cannot limit the number of entries per user.
   
   
   • Rights Management tool won't be available.
   
   
   • Emojis won’t be supported in hashtags.
   
   Note:  If you require the @mention, it must be included in the original caption of the post, along with the hashtag.
   
   

7. Enter the hashtag(s) for your campaign, separated by commas if using more than one. Posts must include all specified hashtags to be pulled into the feed.

8. Adjust the feed settings by clicking all entries to import specific entries (entries with videos, entries with photos). 

   
   
   • Note: Due to limitations of Instagram's API, Feeds will not pull posted media from Stories - only Posts.
     
     
9. Click on manually to change entry approvals to automatically approve all entries. 
   
   
10. Click Continue. 
    
    

11. Set the start/stop dates and times, and select a timezone. 

Once you're finished, click Save & Exit. Your new feed will appear in the Feeds Manager.

Note: Due to limitations of Instagram's API, Feeds will not pull posted media from Stories - only Posts.

If you run into any problems with the setup of your Instagram Hashtag Feed, no worries - check out our help doc that covers Troubleshooting Issues with Feeds and Facebook/Instagram Importer Tools.

Using ShortStack's Rights Management Tool 

Learn more about requesting rights for entries pulled in using a feed in the Rights Management for Instagram help doc.