Ensuring Required Tags, Handles, and Hashtags Are Detected

When posting for a campaign, it’s important to make sure all required brand tags, handles, and hashtags are added correctly so that the Hummingbirds system can detect them.

🚫 Common Mistake

Sometimes creators tag the brand or retailer directly on the Reel/video itself instead of in the caption.

While this shows up visually on Instagram, the Hummingbirds system cannot detect tags from the media overlay — only from the caption.

✅ Correct Way to Add Tags

• Place all required brand and/or retailer tags (@handle) and hashtags (#hashtag) directly in the caption of your post.

• Do not rely on tagging the brand in the Reel or static image itself.

• Double-check the campaign requirements in your confirmation email or campaign page to ensure you’ve included everything exactly as listed.

🔎 Why This Matters

If required tags and hashtags are missing from the caption (or are misspelled), the platform will not detect them. This can prevent you from uploading your post successfully and may cause delays in completing your campaign.

📋 Quick Checklist Before Uploading

• ✅ All required handles are in the caption

• ✅ All required hashtags are in the caption

• ✅ Spelling is exact (no typos or missing underscores)

• ✅ Any additional tags are fine, but all required ones must be there

🌎 Using a Non-English Phone Language?

If your phone’s default language is set to a language other than English, Instagram may automatically translate or alter hashtags, tags, or text as you’re creating your post.

Because Hummingbirds detects required hashtags and tags exactly as they are listed in your campaign instructions, all required handles (@tags) and hashtags (#hashtags) must appear in English and be spelled exactly as provided.

If your phone changes the spelling or formatting, you may receive a message during upload indicating that a required hashtag or tag is missing. When this happens, the upload screen will show you the correct English spelling that needs to be used.

✅ If you see a missing hashtag or tag warning:

• Review the required tags shown in the upload message

• Replace any translated or altered versions with the English version provided

• Double-check that all required handles and hashtags match the campaign instructions exactly

This is most common for creators whose device language is set to something other than English, but it can be fixed quickly by updating the caption before submitting.

💡 Tip: Copy and paste the tags and hashtags directly from the campaign instructions into your caption before posting. This ensures accuracy and avoids typos!