With the new year and all the new changes happening and coming to Instagram, you may be asking yourself are hashtags working and are they effective?

Well to go off track a bit, the answer is this...

Instead of focusing so much on Instagram hashtags, it's time to focus on optimizing and how it can help you.  Here are 3 steps you can take today:

1. Use keywords and hashtags in your bio. This will help you show up more on people's feed when they are looking for those specific words, but it will also help IG know how to categorize you.

2. Use keywords in your captions. You can also use hashtags but again, don't focus and worry so much about them. By using keywords Instagram will be able to know what your post is about and who they should be sharing it to. 

3. Optimize your content. Use WORDS in everything you make to help Instagram know what category to put you under.

So answer to your question is, no hashtags are not dead... yet. You can continue to use them but stop worrying...