Latest / Social Media Marketing with Fexingo: Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Platform Strategy / Why Brands Are Ditching the Hashtag Feed Strategy
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this assumption that still haunts most social media strategies — that if you're not loading every caption with thirty hashtags, the algorithm just won't see you. Luna: Right — and honestly, a lot of brands still treat their captions like metadata dumps. Hashtag salad, no real sentences. Lucas: Exactly. But the data from the last eighteen months tells a very different story. Meta itself disclosed that 43 percent of Reels views on Instagram now come from keyword search — not from the hashtag feed, not from the 'For You' page — from people literally typing what they want to see. Luna: Forty-three percent — that's huge. And I think a lot of brands haven't internalised that shift yet. Lucas: They haven't. And it's not just Instagram. TikTok's search volume has been growing at something like 50 percent year-over-year for the past two years. The platform is essentially becoming a search engine — especially for Gen Z, who are more likely to search 'best affordable moisturiser' on TikTok than on Google. Luna: So the winning play becomes — write your captions like you're writing a blog post for SEO, not like you're trying to game an algorithm. Lucas: Exactly. And we're seeing real brands pivot hard in that direction. A DTC wellness brand called Necessary — maybe you've seen their ads — they did a case study recently. They completely dropped hashtag strategies and rewrote every caption to be search-optimised. Their organic reach from search went up 340 percent in two months. Luna: And what did that look like practically? Like, they're just describing the video in plain language? Lucas: Pretty much. Instead of '#skincare #wellness #selfcare #glowup', their caption starts with a sentence like 'If you're looking for a vitamin C serum that doesn't pill under makeup, here's why this one works.' Then the rest of the caption is just a natural explanation. Keywords are embedded naturally — vitamin C serum, doesn't pill, under makeup — all searchable phrases. Luna: It's basically on-page SEO applied to social. The same principle that made blogs rank on Google. Lucas: Right. And the results are measurable. Another brand I looked at — a small fitness apparel company — they started doing keyword research for their TikTok captions. They'd look at what people were actually typing into TikTok search, like 'best leggings for hot yoga' or 'workout tops that don't show sweat.' Then they'd structure their entire video around that phrase — the hook, the caption, even the audio. Luna: That's smart because TikTok's algorithm now indexes the transcript of the audio as well. So if you say the keyword in the video, it counts for search. Lucas: Exactly. And this fitness brand saw a 200 percent increase in profile visits over three months, almost entirely from search. Their hashtag reach was actually flat during that same period. Luna: So the hashtag is losing its function as the primary discovery mechanism. What's replacing it is basically a metadata layer — a combination of caption text, audio transcription, and even the on-screen text you overlay. Lucas: And that's the layer most brands are still ignoring. They'll spend hours on the visual production of a Reel, but then the caption is just a few emojis and a generic CTA. That's like building a beautiful storefront and then forgetting to put a sign on the door. Luna: Speaking of storefronts — let's talk about Glossier for a second. They famously rebuilt their entire social strategy around search a couple of years ago. Have they talked publicly about the results? Lucas: They have, yeah. Glossier's head of social gave a talk last year where she said their hashtag-driven reach had dropped to below 5 percent of total impressions. So they essentially abandoned the hashtag feed as a distribution channel. Instead, they restructured their content around what they call 'utility-first' — every post has to answer a real question a customer might type into search. Luna: And it worked for them because their audience already trusts the brand. The shift wasn't about getting new eyes — it was about being findable when people were already looking. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the key nuance here — this isn't about going viral. It's about being discoverable in the moments when someone has intent. That's a totally different mindset from the old 'spray and pray' hashtag approach. Luna: Before we go deeper into the tactics — I want to acknowledge something. The reason we can have these conversations without any sponsor interruptions or paywalls is that a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's literally what funds these conversations. So if today was useful, that's the link. Lucas: Yeah, and we mean it — we don't run ads, that's a deliberate choice. And the support from listeners keeps it that way. So thank you to everyone who's already contributed. Luna: Alright — back to the tactics. One thing I find interesting is how Pinterest has quietly become a major player in this search-driven social landscape. Lucas: Oh, absolutely. Pinterest is basically a visual search engine. It's always been that way, but now TikTok and Instagram are moving into that territory. And Pinterest's ad business is growing faster than most people realise — their revenue was up 23 percent last year, and a lot of that is coming from brands using it as a product discovery tool. Luna: So the lines between social media and search engines are blurring. What does that mean for a brand that's just starting out and doesn't have a big budget? Lucas: It's actually good news for smaller brands, because search favours relevance over follower count. If you optimise your captions and your video content for what people are actually searching, you can outrank a massive brand that's still just throwing up five hashtags and hoping for the best. Luna: So the barrier to entry is lower, but the skill requirement is different. You need to think like an SEO specialist, not a viral content creator. Lucas: Right. And that's a shift that a lot of social media managers are still resisting. A survey from last quarter found that 62 percent of social marketers still prioritise hashtag volume over keyword research in their caption strategy. So there's a real gap between what the platforms are rewarding and what most practitioners are doing. Luna: That gap is an opportunity for the brands that figure it out first. What's the single most actionable piece of advice you'd give someone listening? Lucas: Start by spending fifteen minutes in the search bar of whatever platform you're trying to grow on. Type in the core terms related to your product or service — just start typing and see what autocomplete suggests. Those suggestions are literally the most searched queries on that platform. Then build your next five pieces of content around those phrases. Luna: Simple but effective. And that's something anyone can do today, no special tools required. Lucas: Exactly. And then measure — look at your search impressions in the platform analytics. Most platforms now have a metric for how many people found you through search. If that number is zero, you have a clear signal that your content isn't optimised for discovery. Luna: I want to test this myself on our own social channels. Let's try it for a month and report back. Lucas: I love that. We'll do a follow-up episode on the results. For now, the takeaway is — stop thinking of your caption as an afterthought. It's the most important SEO asset you have on social media right now. Luna: And if you want to support more experiments like that one, you know the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. See you next time. Lucas: See you then.