Overview Social Listen allows you to monitor Instagram content via public accounts, owned accounts, and hashtags — giving you a comprehensive view of how your brand is being perceived online.
Key Benefits
Monitor Instagram hashtags and public accounts that matter to your business.
See content from your owned Instagram accounts.
Understand brand perception using engagement metrics and sentiment.
Types of Instagram Content We Support
Owned Content: Posts, comments, and replies from your connected account.
Public Content: Posts from public accounts you’re monitoring.
Hashtags: Posts tagged with hashtags you’re tracking.
Engagement Metrics Available
Likes
Comments
Sentiment (positive, neutral, negative)
Metadata Displayed
For Posts (Owned/Public):
Author, followers, timestamp, caption, image/reel.
For Comments on Owned Posts:
Anonymous author, timestamp, comment/reply text.
For Hashtag Posts:
No author info, timestamp, caption, image/reel.
Historic Content Limits
Owned/Public Content: Past 90 days
Hashtag Content: Past 24 hours
How to Add or Remove Public Accounts and Hashtags
Adding public accounts and hashtags
In order to view content from public accounts and hashtags, they will have to be added to our platform first in order to start monitoring them. Once added to the system, data will start to come through in the social stream. Follow the steps below to associate public accounts and hashtags:
Ensure that an Instagram public account is integrated to our platform which is either managed by you or your organisation. You must have administrative rights for the account. Also, the Instagram account must be associated with a Facebook account for you to be able to integrate that Instagram account to our platform.
Ensure the Listen Analyse checkbox for the integration is enabled. This checkbox determines whether the integration is to be included in Social Listen.
On the Instagram integration card, click on the “Manage Connections” button to start associating public accounts and hashtags.
If there are multiple Instagram integrations, choose any one to associate with your public accounts and hashtags.
Click on the “Accounts” tab in the left panel and start adding public accounts that you want to monitor. Enter the Instagram handle of the public account that you want to monitor and then hit enter on your keyboard. If the handle is valid, the public account will be added and monitoring will begin. If the handle is not valid, an apt error will be displayed.
Similarly, click on the “Hashtags” tab in the left panel and start adding hashtags that you want to monitor. Enter the hashtag that you want to monitor and then hit enter on your keyboard. If the hashtag is valid, then it will be added and monitoring will begin. If it is not valid, an apt error will be displayed.
Once all required hashtags and public accounts are added, a social stream can be created as usual and all associated content will start to flow thorough in the social stream.
Removing Accounts & Hashtags
Both public accounts and hashtags can be removed if you no longer want to monitor their content.
Use the delete button available on the public account/hashtag or select multiple accounts/hashtags and delete at once.
Once a public account or hashtag is removed, no new content will be ingested for them from that point forward. However, all previously ingested content will be available in the social stream
Removing hashtags is a special case. Due to limitations enforced by the Instagram API, it will take 7 days for hashtags to be removed. However, note that the data will stop coming through from the day that it was removed.
Understanding Syndication and Duplication
Sometimes the same post matches multiple sources (e.g., a hashtag and a public account). To avoid inflating mention counts:
We syndicate duplicate posts so they appear only once in the stream.
Click the author name to see all sources (hashtags/accounts).
Posts with collaborative authors are attributed to the main poster only.
Using Existing Social Features with Instagram
All platform features work seamlessly with Instagram content.
Actions: Instagram mentions can be pushed internally to a team, tagged and removed from the social stream if deemed irrelevant.
Reports: Instagram data appears in PDF & CSV exports.
Analyse: Metrics and sentiment reflected in charts.
Notifications: Trigger alerts using Instagram mentions.
FAQs
Who can manage integrations? Only super users can manage public accounts and hashtags.
How fast is content refreshed? Up to 2 hours, depending on Instagram rate limits.
Why is there no preview during stream creation? Content may take time to populate. Please wait or create the stream directly.
Why do some posts lack images? Copyright restrictions may prevent media visibility. For hashtag reels, thumbnails are unavailable, but clicking the placeholder reveals the reel.
Are there limits on what I can track?
Hashtags: Max 30 across all apps linked to your account.
Accounts: No hard limit, but fewer is better for speed.
Do deleted posts get removed? No. Once ingested, deleted posts remain in the stream.
Why select an integration when adding accounts/hashtags? This is required for Instagram API compliance.
What about posts with collaborators? Only the main author's name appears — collaborators are not shown.
Which languages are supported? Most languages are supported. Add your content and test.
How to filter hashtag posts? In the author filter, enter the hashtag name (e.g., "sydney" for #sydney).
Why can’t I see an integration in Manage Connections? You only see integrations available to your team. Contact your admin if something is missing.
Can I use an integration only for Engage? Yes. Just disable the "Listen Analyse" checkbox for that integration.