In terms of marketing your brand on social media, hashtags have been an excellent means of boosting engagement and promoting brand awareness.
Hashtags first became popular on X (formerly Twitter) and later spread to other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The newer platform, Threads, uses hashtags differently by allowing only one tag per post.
The purpose of the hashtag is to enable users to search for information and pose questions by keyword or phrase. But are hashtags as effective as they used to be?
Used judiciously and strategically, you can still leverage well-placed hashtags to supplement your content and increase its visibility. The secret is to use hashtags to augment your content instead of using them as your sole content amplification strategy.
When used correctly, hashtags help explain your posts, make it easier for people interested in your topic to find your brand, and connect you with communities.
What is a hashtag?
What happens with hashtags?
Why have we seen a drop in the use of hashtags?
Social media tips for using hashtags
How to find useful hashtags: Begin with influencers
Alternative research tools to find hashtags
How to use hashtags on X
How to use hashtags on Facebook
How to use hashtags on Instagram
How to use hashtags on Pinterest
How to use hashtags on TikTok
How to use hashtags on LinkedIn
How to use hashtags on Threads
How to use hashtags on Bluesky
What are the most used hashtags in digital marketing?
How to create a hashtag strategy
What is a Hashtag?
What is a hashtag, anyway? A hashtag is a word or phrase with a “#” in front of it. It’s used in social media posts to help people find your content when they search for that topic.. It gets people’s attention and prompts interaction.
Hashtags function by putting like pieces of content in a category and making them more visible. For example, if you’ve posted about your newest (and tastiest ever) deli sandwich deal, you incorporate #sandwich into your content.
If someone who loves food searches for #sandwich or scrolls through their feed, they’re more likely to see your post.
What do you do with hashtags?
If you are using a phrase as a hashtag, you spell it out without spaces, like #UsingHashtags. It may include numbers but not symbols or punctuation.
The hashtag may be found at the start, center or end of your social media update or comment, and it makes what you have written indexable by the social media network. With this tactic, individuals who are not your fans and followers may still locate your content.
If you’re in need of some tips on how to research keywords to input into your hashtags, look at our infographic for five simple steps.
” 15% of consumers would rather search on social media than search engines, and 31% use them to discover answers to their questions “
– HubSpot
Why has the use of hashtags decreased?
Hashtags were invented to enable individuals on social media to discover content which is relevant to them. But spammers over the last few years have employed hashtags to enable their content to be discovered which have filled individuals’ timelines creating a poor user experience.
And also the development of social media algorithms means that content is now no longer ordered based on hashtags but rather based on user interactions.
For instance, Instagram revealed towards the end of 2024 that it was taking away the feature to follow hashtags from the platform. And besides, any subject that individuals currently follow will now no longer show posts and Reels in the primary feed. And on X, Elon Musk posted a piece requesting individuals not to use hashtags on the site since they made it ‘ugly’.
Elon Musk X post on hashtag decline
Elon Musk X hashtag post on decline
On LinkedIn, there has been a move to fewer, more specific hashtags that fit industry-related topics, as opposed to a random approach.
Everything suggests that hashtags are less effective but most experts feel there’s still a role for them in your social media strategy. It’s about being more specific and applying branded hashtags.
Social media hashtag tips
Though it seems easy to put a hashtag before your keyword, there is some other simple information that is useful to understand when you are looking to be found through hashtags.
Placing hashtags only works for your social media strategy when done correctly.
Tips for using hashtags:
Don’t overdo it by using a hashtag every two words. The amount of hashtags you can use is based on what platform you are on. But generally, one to three hashtags will have more effect than lots of them.
Make hashtags short and easy to remember and not attempt to cram lots of words into one tag. Remember #BlackOutTuesday getting used effectively as part of the Black Lives Matter campaign in America in 2020?
Don’t attempt to be too clever or quirky with your choice of hashtags. If you pick a tag no one will ever look for, it won’t do your marketing any good because it will never be discovered!
Use specific and detailed hashtags because this will yield more effective results than general or broad ones. Broad terms won’t be searched, and if you do use them, your content will likely be lost in a sea of irrelevant content.
Target hashtags with low- or medium-volume search to reach the right people. High-volume hashtags risk drawing spambots.
Don’t force hashtags onto all your posts. Instead, use them when they have value and will likely trigger discussion and engagement.
Hashtags are not only good for drawing members of your target market but also for spying on your competition. Search with hashtags, and you will find content that is pertinent to your subject.
Keep in mind that you will always use hashtags to support and enhance your content, not making them the central part of your social media approach.
Hashtags and accessibility
Be mindful of accessibility and clarity when creating your hashtags. It’s worth keeping the camel case in mind: this means capitalizing the first letter of each word when writing compound words or phrases such as #ValentinesDay (rather than #valentinesday). Read our blog to find out more about digital accessibility for marketers.
How to find effective hashtags: start with influencers
There is a thin line between hashtags that are too broad and hashtags that are too complex or not available. One of the best ways to know what hashtags work is by observing what hashtags influencers use in your niche.
The odds are that you know a good idea of who the influencers are that are getting the notice of your audience, but if you are just starting out in a niche, how do you discover them?
For a given niche, influencers are individuals whose voices are most trusted and followed, like famous bloggers, YouTube users, and celebrities. You also have an excellent pool of B2B influencers you can leverage to create marketing effect as long as you ensure they apply to your company.
One of the best tools to utilize to spot influencers is BuzzSumo. With this tool, you will be able to discover the leading content, bloggers, publications, and authors within your niche. Track the top influencers, and observe the hashtags they consistently utilize to access targeted keywords and trends.
Once you have identified key influencers, you should employ an influencer tracker tool to maintain a list of key factors like social channels employed, specialty and applicability to your brand.
Screenshot of BuzzSumo tool
Other research tools for hashtag identification
Other research tools are particularly designed to filtering information regarding hashtags. Investigate the following tools for assistance in identifying useful hashtags in your niche:
RiteTag provides real-time hashtag suggestions in real-time engagement.
Keyhole offers you a free search feature and provides you with real-time information on a variety of factors.
Copyai hashtag generator employs AI to generate hashtags for your social updates.
Inflact is an especially Instagram generator that creates appropriate hashtags for particular audiences.
All Hashtag generates hashtags for a variety of social platforms
Hashtag Generator Tool is no-frills and was developed by Influencer Marketing Hub for Instagram and TikTok
Keyword Tool allows you to find Instagram hashtags using a keyword
Postly.ai is an artificial intelligence-driven tool that will suggest you the right hashtags for your social media post and let you specify a preferred tone to customize its suggestions according to your precise requirements.
Don’t forget to look up keywords for your content on social media to find out what hashtags appear. Also, make sure to utilize social listening tools so that you know what people are discussing and any trends that you might associate with your brand.
How to use hashtags on X
Use related hashtags on X to boost your engagement, as long as you do not exaggerate. Just one or two hashtags per tweet is sufficient. If you make use of two hashtags and tell your followers to retweet, then this could lead to further engagement.
Following is a nice usage of the relevant hashtags by Adidas.
Adidas post on X
The application of hashtags on X will make your post visible when users search for your tag. It can also assist you in discovering conversations to engage in. For even greater effect on this platform, study trending hashtags.
How to use hashtags on Facebook
When you’re looking to get more visibility for your Facebook posts, hashtags might be helpful since they can increase organic reach. But they’re not as well-liked on Facebook as they are on other platforms.
On Facebook, don’t overdo the hashtags. Typically, it’s best to use one or two. Any more than that will make you look amateurish and might irritate the people reading your posts.
You can look for applicable hashtags to use by simply entering a keyword into the search bar.
Facebook hashtag in search toolbar
Facebook hashtag in search toolbar
You might also want to revisit your most successful Facebook posts and reshare them using applicable hashtags. Not only is this recycling older content that performed well with your audience, but it might attract new ones that have an interest in your product or service.
How to utilize hashtags on Instagram
Hashtags on Instagram can be used to enhance reach and boost engagement. Therefore, do not hesitate to use up to ten or eleven relevant and popular hashtags for Instagram Stories or Reels to get to the maximum number of people.
A mix works great on Instagram like popular hashtags, location hashtags, niche hashtags, content-related hashtags, and branded hashtags.
You can apply up to 30 hashtags in an ordinary Instagram post. Chances are that you don’t have to put as many in it, but here at least it’s permitted, so do test it and see what results come of more usage.
Here is the example to refer to and give a sense of the kind of hashtag that may suit.
Utilize the search box to identify what hashtags competitors or influencers use in order to converse on Instagram. Because this is the optimal platform for several hashtags, test a large diversity and utilize them on posts, images and comments.
Instagram hashtag example
How to employ hashtags on Pinterest
Hashtags are effective at making individuals discover your content using keywords on Pinterest and categorize them.
In recent years, Pinterest has made hashtags less important. This happened because spammers were using hashtags the wrong way to make their posts appear at the top of feeds. Posts with hashtags used to appear with the newest ones showing up first.
In addition, hashtags do not appear to be clickable anymore.
But hashtags do have a use on the platform. The trick is to use targeted and relevant hashtags that explain the content in the pin. This will help more people find your content, especially if you’re using Pinterest for Business.
The photo below is an example of the Pins that appeared for the hashtag #digitalmarketing.
Screenshot of #digitalmarketing on Pinterest
How to use hashtags on TikTok
TikTokers use hashtags on their videos to categorize content. These hashtags are also clickable, meaning that your content will feature alongside other relevant videos. Like the other social platforms, using hashtags on TikTok helps to increase reach and helps the TikTok algorithm decide which users see your content on the all-important ‘For You’ page.
The current limit for captions on TikTok is 4,000 characters, so you have space to play with hashtags and experiment what works. Try to vary it by combining popular and specialized hashtags to get the most exposure.
Pay attention to the fact that hashtags on TikTok change regularly so you have to keep an eye on the ‘Discover’ page to identify what’s trending.
How to use hashtags on LinkedIn
On LinkedIn, individuals have not always utilized hashtags, but they function on this site in the same manner as any other. Not only can they assist you in increasing your organic reach but you can create a community around your brand.
One to three hashtags are typically suggested for LinkedIn. These can simply be inserted into the body of your post like on any other site.
The application of hashtags on LinkedIn has the potential to expose your posts to individuals beyond your network. Assuming you have 500 LinkedIn connections, posting without a hashtag restricts your content to that network. However, if you apply a hashtag like #PPCMarketing, you can triple the number of people who view it increasing your post engagement and credibility.
How to use tags on Threads
A new entrant to the social media market, Threads is already gaining momentum among users. To harness the power of hashtags, the network has introduced tags to facilitate the sorting of posts and assist in discovery.
The tag functions differently from that of hashtags on other networks since rather than appearing as a hashtagged term, it gets changed to a blue-inked link.
Typing a “#” into a post brings up a card with the topic you’re tagging or similar ones. Beneath that, each topic comes with a count of related posts like Instagram.
The feature has been introduced in conjunction with a combination of new functions. These new additions include one that enables users to add favorite topics to their profile and tap on them to find relevant or trending content whenever they feel like it.
Threads tags
How to use hashtags on Bluesky
Bluesky is a decentralized social media platform that provides users with greater control over the content they view and the data they share.
Being a speedy microblogging site, Bluesky is similar to X in both platform functionality and design. Hashtags are also very much a part of Bluesky’s world and the site utilizes them to sort its content for very niche audiences.
To use hashtags effectively on Bluesky, avoid ‘hashtag stuffing.’ Instead, produce your post for a specific audience in mind first and use one or two relevant hashtags to enhance your content.
Think about the niche you’re looking to tap into and use hashtags that are focused and descriptive rather than broad or general.
What are the most popular hashtags in digital marketing?
Based on statistics from Top-Hashtags, the top 10 most used hashtags for digital marketing articles are:
#digitalmarketingtips
#marketingstrategy
#socialmediamarketing
#contentmarketing
#seoexpert
#digitalmarketingagency
#onlinemarketing
#marketingtechnology
#brandstrategy
#digitaladvertising
How to create a hashtag strategy
Select specific hashtags whenever you can, because the more specific you can make it, the more likely you are to draw in a targeted crowd. Use capital letters at the beginning of each word, to assist with accessibility and to provide context to your post and indicate what you are attempting to convey.
Your competition is likely already using hashtags as a part of their social media strategy. How effective are they in interacting with your shared audience? Notice how many or how few hashtags they use and how the audience responds.
There are no absolute answers when it comes to what hashtags you will be using or how you will be going about your strategy.
An effective hashtag plan begins with understanding your audience and taking time to become well-versed in what does well on each of the platforms. After that, you will simply continue to find out what does work (and what doesn’t) through employing hashtags as a part of your social media approach and tracking your results.
Becoming a social media superstar using hashtags
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