[Air-L] Search Tool for Hashtags within Specific Instagram User Accounts?

[Craig Hamilton]

Hi Megan

It looks like this information is available via Instagram’s API - https://www.instagram.com/developer/endpoints/likes/

You could relatively easily collect data on every post related to a particular hashtag (the content of the post, the username, the data/time etc), and alongside that it seems you will need to collect the following additional elements: Likes Count, Likes Data Full Name, Likes Data Username. I’ve created a post on my research project site that walks through a process similar to this - http://harkive.org/datcolzap/ - the particular focus of which is the collection of data from multiple social media channels (Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc) into a single database. The principle should be the same for your purposes, however.

The only problem I can see with this method is that likes change over time. If you collect data on a post using an automated method similar to the one I describe above, it will collect that data close to the point in time it was made, but you need data on the amount of likes that post achieves. Depending on the timescale of your project, then, it may be useful to collect data in more than one batch, into more than one destination. This will collect the same posts but the Likes Count data will be different. Given that, you may need look into how long back the API allows you to search.

Not a perfect solution, but it should get you started.

All the best
Craig

Craig Hamilton
Rm364, The School of Media
3rd Floor, The Parkside Building
Birmingham City University
Birmingham, B5

t: @craigfots
e: craig.hamilton at bcu.ac.uk<mailto:craig.hamilton at bcu.ac.uk>


On 4 Aug 2017, at 23:09, Megan Wahl <megan.m.meyer at gmail.com<mailto:megan.m.meyer at gmail.com>> wrote:

Dear All,

I am a current PhD candidate conducting Instagram research and was referred
to this list serve by my professor. I am hoping you can assist in a quick
question I have as I develop the methods section of my dissertation.

For a portion of my study, I am requesting access to (if not already
public) participant Instagram accounts of those enrolled. From participant
Instagram feeds, I would like to search for and identify the number of
images with a particular hashtag as well as the top 10 images with that
hashtag based on number of likes.

Is there a tool you are aware of that I could use to extract this sort of
data for specific user accounts vs the entire Instagram platform?

I'm familiar with the hashtag searching functions on platforms such as
Netlytic but would like to narrow the search functionality to only the
Instagram accounts of those participants in my sample.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions/insights you may have!

Sincerely,
Megan


Megan M. Wahl, MDT

PhD Candidate - Public Health
Community and Behavioral Health Promotion
Research Assistant

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Zilber School of Public Health
1240 N 10th St  Milwaukee, WI 53205
Ph: (414) 227-3001
Fax: 414-227-3002
E-Mail: Meyer276 at uwm.edu<mailto:Meyer276 at uwm.edu>

Pronouns in use: she/her/hers
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