SIGNAL
What the world tells you
A hashtag tells you when, not what.
Track the tags that matter in your category and watch them move, so you can see something rising before it peaks. A focused utility, and we will not pretend it is more than that.
What Tag Radar is
Tag Radar tracks sets of hashtags over time and shows you which are rising, which are flat and which are fading. It is deliberately small: you nominate the tags that matter in your category, run an analysis on a schedule, and read the movement. The useful output is timing rather than reach. A tag climbing steadily for three weeks is telling you a conversation is forming, and that is worth knowing before it peaks rather than afterwards.
The problem
Hashtag strategy as a reach metric.
Most hashtag work is a volume exercise: find the biggest tags, add them, hope for reach. That mostly buys you impressions from people with no interest in your category. The genuinely useful signal in a hashtag is not how big it is but which direction it is moving, and almost nobody tracks that because it requires watching the same set over weeks rather than looking it up once.
What you get
What it does
Movement over time
Which tags in your set are climbing and which are flattening, week over week.
Direction, not volume
Your own tag sets
Group tags by campaign, category or competitor, and track each group separately.
Grouped, not a flat list
Analysis runs
Run on a schedule and compare against previous runs, so a change is visible as a change.
Run over run
Summaries
What moved and by how much, without needing to read the chart yourself.
Per run
In practice
Direction, not volume
When a tag moves, Social Listening is where you go to find out what is actually being said. On its own this is a chart; connected to the rest it is an early warning.
Coverage
What you can track
| Set type | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Category tags | The standing conversation in your market |
| Campaign tags | Your own campaign hashtags, and whether anyone is using them |
| Competitor tags | Tags a competitor is pushing, and whether it is landing |
| Moment tags | Tags attached to a seasonal or cultural moment, in the run-up |
Where it connects
Where it fits
- Social Listening is where you go when a tag moves and you want to know what people are actually saying.
- Time & Event Intelligence pairs with it: a moment approaching and its tags rising is a stronger signal than either alone.
- Content Studio can use a rising tag as a brief input rather than an afterthought at publish time.
Questions
Tag Radar, answered
Is this included, or extra?
Included with Signal. It is a small part of a larger pillar rather than a separate product.
How many tags can we track?
Enough that the limit has not been a problem for anyone. Practically, useful sets are ten to thirty tags.
Does it work outside Instagram?
Tag movement is read across the platforms where tags carry meaning. Instagram and X are the most useful in practice.
Why is this separate from Social Listening?
Because the question is different. Listening asks what people said. This asks what is rising. Most people want them separately and then together.
See what is rising in your category.
Worth ten minutes of a demo rather than a call of its own. Ask to see it alongside Social Listening.