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  Article updated: December 10, 2024

Create an Instagram feed

You can create feeds to monitor specific activity on your connected Instagram accounts. If you have a Business profile that’s connected to a Facebook Page, you can also create hashtag search feeds to monitor hashtag activity on Instagram. These feeds are referred to as streams in Hootsuite. Learn more about stream feeds.

Some of these tasks can be completed in both the web version of Hootsuite and the Hootsuite mobile app. These tasks are indicated by Web and Mobile tabs.

Create a new Instagram stream board

In Hootsuite, you organize your social media feeds into boards and streams. Boards are categories, and streams are social feeds within those categories. Boards act as containers that you use to organize streams by topic or keyword, or to keep track of competitors. You can add up to 20 boards, and each board can hold up to 10 streams.

Important: Meta no longer allows third party tools like Hootsuite to integrate and manage Instagram Personal profiles. You can convert your Personal profile to a Business account at any time. For more information, see Instagram Personal profile deprecation - December 2024.

When you select New board for an Instagram stream, you have the following options:

  • Monitor my own content - Create streams specific to your own social accounts.
  • Discover new content - Create streams for following trends and competitors.
  • Follow personalized feeds - Get straight into building custom streams based on any theme or activity.

The options for creating a new board.

To browse all available streams, select Follow personalized feeds, select an Instagram account, and then select one of the available streams for that account.

The stream options available for Instagram.

Add a stream

Add a stream to a new or existing board (boards have a limit of 10 streams).

Web Mobile
  1. Go to More, and then select Streams.
  2. Create or select the board that will host the stream.
  3. Select Add stream.
  4. Select an Instagram account.
  5. Select the streams to add.

Create a Hashtag search stream

If your Business profile is fully authenticated with Facebook, you can search Instagram by hashtag. Here are a few important notes about Instagram hashtag search streams:

  • Hashtag search streams display posts and reels from the last 24 hours that use the hashtag you specify.
  • Choose Hashtag: Recent to see content with your hashtag with the most recent at the top. Choose Hashtag: Trending to see content with your hashtag with the most popular at the top.
  • Instagram limits each business profile to 30 unique hashtag searches in any rolling 7-day period.
  • Hashtag searches completed in third-party tools may appear in Hootsuite and count against your search limit. However, creating multiple streams in Hootsuite for the same hashtag search will not affect your hashtag limit.
  • Only the first search on each unique hashtag triggers the 7-day window; refreshing a stream will not affect that time until the 7 days have passed. After 7 days, a stream refresh will trigger another 7-day window for that hashtag; you can choose to perform a different hashtag search instead of refreshing the stream.

Set up an Instagram Hashtag search stream

  1. In Streams, create or select the board that will host the stream.
  2. Select Add stream.
  3. Select an Instagram Business account.
  4. Select one of the Hashtag streams, and then enter your search term.
  5. Select Add stream.

Note: Searches for hashtags that Instagram deems sensitive or offensive will return a generic error message in the stream. Try searching the hashtag on Instagram. Searches that are interrupted by a message from Instagram will not be supported in Hootsuite and will result in an error.

Available stream types and stream content

The types of streams available for Instagram, and what you can do with them, depend on the functionality made available by Instagram and Facebook to third parties like Hootsuite.

Notes:

  • My Posts is the only stream type available on the Hootsuite mobile app.
  • Due to Meta's data policies, Instagram streams do not display user profile pictures and media with copyrighted material. Hashtag streams do not display usernames.
  • Any location tags added to an Instagram post are not displayed in streams.
  • Only organic engagement is available to third parties like Hootsuite. Likes and comments that your Instagram posts received when promoted are not included in streams. Instagram displays both organic and paid data for Business profiles, so it’s expected that the metrics won’t match Hootsuite.

Tip: Select the timestamp on any post or reel in a stream to open it in Instagram and view it there.

Instagram stream types and what you can do with each
Stream type Stream content Engagement options
My Posts Your own posts and reels. View like and comment counts. View comments. Comment and reply to comments. Hide or delete comments.
Hashtag: Recent Posts and reels from the last 24 hours that contain your hashtag, ordered by most recent. View like and comment counts. Reshare to your own profile. Open in Instagram to get the author’s username and credit them in your reshare.
Hashtag: Trending Posts and reels from the last 24 hours that contain your hashtag, ordered by popularity. View like and comment counts. Reshare to your own profile. Open in Instagram to get the author’s username and credit them in your reshare.
Scheduled Your scheduled posts and reels, listed chronologically, with the next post or reel to publish at the top. Limit 100 posts. Edit scheduled posts and reels. Delete scheduled posts and reels.

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