The Evolution of Hashtags
Hashtags began as a way to categorize content and help facilitate people discovering new posts on platforms like Instagram and Twitter. Over the years, the algorithms for these platforms have evolved (for the better), which means content discovery is different, and prioritized differently as well. Hashtags came to popularity around 2007, so in 2025 are hashtags still a tool to use for social media growth or are they dead?
The Changes to Hashtags
Platforms like TikTok, Twitter and Instagram are now prioritizing factors over hashtags like relevance to an industry, user engagement, or the quality of the content being posted. SEO is becoming a bigger than on social platforms like the ones listed above. Users are using keywords to search what they are interested in. Which makes the caption to the content more important than the hashtags themselves. With that being said, hashtags are not a total waste of time.
How Hashtags Still Matter
Using hashtags now can still help categorize the content that you are posting. Using 3-5 hashtags helps reach the audiences that tend to be more niche. If you are a brand with a specific slogan, or saying using that as a hashtag could be useful to build community around your brand. Another example of a brand using a specific hashtag is with UGC content. For Instagram, using 3-5 hashtags can boost discoverability and help your engagement. Linkedin is a bit different with 1-3 hashtags being useful for enhancing engagement and visibility with professional industries.
Practices to Avoid with Hashtags
Using hashtags seems super easy, but there definitely is a strategy to it. Overuse of hashtags can lead to your content looking on the spammy side which can reduce your reach. If you are using irrelevant or generic hashtags, the algorithm can get confused as well as the audience! That could diminish your content's effectiveness.
Ways to Use Hashtags in 2025
If you are trying to use hashtags, make sure that you are first of all prioritizing creating high quality content that will resonate with your target audience. Use keywords in your captions to help ensure people will see the content, and then use 2-5 hashtags that are relevant to the piece of content that you are posting.
Conclusion
While hashtags are not the same as they used to be, they still hold value when strategically used. When you focus on creating quality content that resonates with your audience, hashtags are an added bonus of support for discoverability and engagement from your community. Don't only use hashtags as a mechanism for reach, because it won't #work!
