You've been sticking thirty hashtags under every post because someone told you to, and your reach hasn't moved in a year. It's one of the most common things we see on local business accounts — a wall of #plumberbrisbane #plumbinglife #tradielife under a photo that seven people saw. Here's the blunt version: the head of Instagram has said plainly that hashtags are not a way to get more reach. They're a labelling tool, not a growth tool. This article covers what they still do, why the old habit stopped working, and the three things that actually reach new people for a local business.
1What Instagram actually said
This isn't a rumour from a marketing blog. It's from Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram.
"Contrary to popular belief, hashtags are not a way to get more reach." — Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram. At Bare Bayside Labs, we stopped scoring hashtag use as a growth signal on the strength of this and started measuring what the platform actually rewards instead.
His fuller point is that hashtags help Instagram understand what a post is about, and help it show up in search — but they don't expand distribution on their own. They're closer to a filing label than a megaphone.
Instagram has since moved to limit how many you can add per post. When a platform caps something, it's telling you how much it thinks that thing is worth.
2So why did hashtags ever work?
Because for a few years, they genuinely did. Instagram had far less understanding of image and video content, so hashtags were the main way it worked out what a post was about and who might want it. People also followed hashtags directly, so tagging a post could drop it into a feed.
Both of those changed. The platform can now read the content itself — the visuals, the audio, the on-screen text, the caption. It doesn't need you to tell it what a photo of a leaking pipe is.
The habit outlived the reason for it. That's usually what's going on when marketing advice stops working: it isn't wrong so much as expired.
3What hashtags are still worth using for
Not zero. Just small, and for a different job.
Search. People do search hashtags and keywords on Instagram. A few accurate tags help the right people find a post deliberately.
Local specificity. One suburb or city tag genuinely helps you turn up for someone looking locally — and local is the only audience that matters to you.
Categorising your own feed. A consistent tag for a recurring series makes your own back catalogue navigable.
The practical rule: three to five accurate, specific tags. One location, one trade, one or two about the actual job in the post. Skip anything generic — #love, #instagood, #tradielife — those put you in a feed of millions where nobody is looking for a local business.
4What actually reaches new people
If reach is the goal, three things do the work, and none of them is a tag.
1. Short video
This is the biggest single lever available to a local business right now.
Around 55% of Reel views come from people who don't follow the account. — Later, Instagram algorithm analysis 2026. At Bare Bayside Labs, this is why we score short video separately from photo posts: for a business with 200 followers, video is the only format that routinely reaches beyond them.
A 30-second clip of the actual job — the blockage clearing, the before-and-after, a quick "here's why this happens" — outperforms a still photo of the same work. No editing required. The phone in your pocket is enough.
2. Shares and saves, not likes
The signal that carries a post to new people is someone sending it to a friend, not someone tapping a heart. DM sends are the strongest discovery signal Instagram has.
That changes what you post. "Here's the thing everyone in a Queenslander gets wrong about their hot water system" gets sent to a mate who owns a Queenslander. A photo of your van doesn't.
3. Turning up consistently
Steady posting beats sporadic bursts, and weeks with no posts underperform an account's own baseline. The biggest lift comes from moving to 3-5 posts a week, after which reach-per-post declines. — Buffer, social media frequency research. At Bare Bayside Labs, we treat 3-5 posts a week as the target and anything past that as effort better spent elsewhere.
Three good posts a week beats twelve in one afternoon and then nothing for a month.
5One thing to keep in perspective
Before you pour a lot of hours into this: for a local service business, social media is not where most people find you.
Most people find a local service business through Google Search, Maps and reviews, then check social to confirm it looks real and active. — BrightLocal Consumer Search Behavior. At Bare Bayside Labs, we treat social as a trust checkpoint rather than a discovery channel, which changes how much it's worth investing in relative to your Google listing.
That's a useful reframe. Your feed's job is mostly to reassure someone who's already found you that you're real, active and do good work. It doesn't need to go viral. It needs to not look abandoned.
If your Google Business Profile is thin or your reviews have dried up, fix those first. They're where the customers actually are.
6Common mistakes to avoid
- Copy-pasting the same hashtag block onto every post. It tells the platform nothing about this specific post, which is the one job hashtags still have.
- Hiding thirty tags in the first comment. Same effect, same non-result, plus it looks like 2019.
- Chasing huge generic tags. #construction has millions of posts and nobody browsing it is looking for a plumber in your suburb.
- Treating social reach as the goal. For a local business, twenty of the right local people beats two thousand strangers in another country.
Key takeaways
- Instagram's head has said directly that hashtags are not a way to get more reach. They help search and labelling, not distribution.
- Use three to five accurate tags — one location, one trade, a couple about the actual job. Drop the generic ones.
- Short video is the real reach lever, with roughly 55% of Reel views coming from non-followers.
- Shares and DM sends carry posts further than likes — post things worth sending to a mate.
- 3-5 posts a week is the sweet spot; consistency beats volume, and gains taper after that.
- Social is a trust checkpoint, not your discovery channel. Google Search, Maps and reviews are where local customers actually find you.
Common questions
How many hashtags should I use?
Three to five, all specific and accurate. One location, one trade, one or two describing the job in the post.
Are hashtags worth using on Facebook?
Much less so. They've never worked the same way there. Your effort on Facebook is better spent on the post itself and on replying to comments.
Should I use a location hashtag and the location tag?
Use the location tag — it's the stronger of the two for local discovery. A suburb hashtag as well doesn't hurt.
If hashtags don't work, why does everyone still use them?
Habit, and advice written years ago that never got updated. It's a low-cost habit, which is exactly why nobody notices it stopped paying.
Is it worth being on Instagram at all for a trade business?
Yes, but as proof you exist and do good work rather than as a lead source. Keep it current and don't let it go quiet — an abandoned feed reads worse than no feed.
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