How to Leverage the Instagram Algorithm and Hashtags for Your Social Media

<p><strong>Digital Marketing Hotseat Podcast</strong></p> <p><strong>Episode 009</strong></p> <p><strong>How to Leverage the Instagram Algorithm and Hashtags for Your Social Media</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check in to the Digital Marketing Hotseat Podcast this week as Lynn and Mark explain the ever-confusing Instagram algorithm. Listen in to find out how the algorithm works and how you can better use hashtags and reels to grow your small business.</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /> <br /></span></p> <p><strong>Meet Heather Zeitzwolfe</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This week’s guest is Heather Zeitzwolfe. Heather is a CPA, profitability coach, and podcaster; she helps entrepreneurs make sense of their financials, empowering them to make strategic decisions within their business. Her weekly business podcast, Get the Balance Right, serves to highlight her no-shame approach to money. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Instagram for Small Business</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Instagram can be an excellent tool for small business owners to get their products in front of a larger audience. Instagram provides various ways to do this, and two such ways are through reels and hashtags. But, Instagram’s ever-changing algorithm makes it very difficult for entrepreneurs to figure out how to use it to their advantage.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When determining the content the user will see, Instagram uses an algorithm, a set of rules that ensures the content is relevant instead of chronological order. Relevance is determined by how likely a user is to engage with said content.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One type of content published on Instagram is reels, 15-second clips used to better engage your followers and grow your audience. One way that you can ensure your reels reach a wide enough audience is through hashtags. Hashtags are words used to categorize your content and make it