@jon_oustaev: The belief in hashtags comes from the origin days of social media where they once upon a time had an impact. For Instagram specifically they should only be used as a discover tool or branding tool. In other words if you own a restaurant in NYC putting #nycrestaurant in case someone in nyc is looking for new places, your restaurant has a chance of getting discovered. Or putting your brand name as a hashtag so customers can easily find relatable posts or have other consumers use it when posting. From a reach perspective the algorithm does not factor it into reach/visibility when posting on Instagram. Hope this helps. #socialmedia #socialmediamarketing #instagramgrowth #instagramgrowthstrategy #socialmediamanager