How to Use Hashtags in 2024 [All Social Media Platforms]

Twitter may have invented hashtags, but nowadays you need them for every platform. Using hashtags is the best way to categorize content on social media and improve discoverability. You just add a simple word or phrase after a pound sign (#), and your content is instantly more discoverable. 

Why are hashtags helpful? Because they’re the easiest way for users interested in a topic to find more content about it. The purpose of hashtags is to connect people with the content they want. 

Take advantage of this fact as a business and strategically use hashtags to gain attention from your target audience. 

Keep reading to learn how hashtags work, why are hashtags used, and how to use hashtags for your business.

Why Use Hashtags?

What is the purpose of hashtags? It’s to make content easier to find for the right audience. 

Hashtags are a game changer in marketing when used correctly. They have incredible power to boost brand visibility and engagement by guiding users to relevant content. 

When you strategically use hashtags in your strategy, you get the right audience for your content. 

Effective hashtags make your brand part of trending conversations and increase interactions with interested audience members. You can think of hashtags like a glue that holds users with similar interests together. 

The best-case scenario is that you’re able to form your own online communities by cleverly using the right hashtags to increase online engagement. 

How to use hashtags effectively? The first step is to identify the right ones for you.

Choosing Relevant Hashtags

Hashtags range between too general and too complicated on the extreme ends. You need to find the right hashtags for you. They shouldn’t be too vague which will attract irrelevant attention. And they shouldn’t be so specific that no one uses them. 

The right hashtags for you are commonly used enough that you attract your desired audience. 

How do you find the right social media tags for you? 

The best place to start is to learn which hashtag influencers in your niche are using. Niche influencers are trusted online and considered authorities by their communities. These influencers could be celebrities, YouTubers, bloggers, etc. 

These guys start or at least direct the flow of most conversations about your niche online. So they’re the best source to learn about what’s trending and what isn’t. 

Alongside taking advantage of existing hashtags, you can also create your own branded ones. You can use branded hashtags to promote specific products and campaigns, or even to just generally boost your brand. 

For example, Target uses #TargetFinds to encourage users to share their target purchases and experiences. Users post their shopping experiences online with #TargetFinds to interact with the brand and other Target shoppers. 

Doing so creates conversations around the Target brand. This is an excellent example of how to use hashtags to build your own community. 

Best Practices for Hashtags

These are the 5 best practices you should use for your hashtags. 

Short and Sweet

You want to use short, simple, and relevant hashtags only. Longer hashtags are difficult to read and interrupt visual flow. For example, use #MarketingAI instead of #AIuseindigitalmarketing. You can feel how difficult that was to read. 

Ideally, use two words for a hashtag. For longer hashtags never use more than four words. A short and simple hashtag is the best way to maximize readability and encourage engagement with your brand. 

Another advantage of using short hashtags is that many social media platforms like Twitter have character constraints. 

Consistency and Avoiding Stuffing

You can and should strategically use multiple hashtags for a single post. But don’t overdo it. Generally speaking, you shouldn’t use more than three hashtags for a single post. And all three of them should be strictly relevant too. 

Do also take platform-specific norms into account. 

You also want to consistently use the same hashtags repeatedly in different posts to maintain continuity. Else you’ll create fragmented conversations that may confuse or discourage your audience from engaging. 

Aim for Trending Topics

Not all hashtags are equal. You want to prioritize trending topics to captivate your audience the most and gain their attention. 

Choose hashtags that perfectly align with your posts and brand message. 

This is especially important for platforms like Twitter where you’re constrained on the number of characters you can post in a tweet. 

You also want to be timely. Research hashtags on Facebook 2024 instead of hashtags on Facebook 2020. 

Keep Your Posts Directed

Don’t use too many different hashtags for your campaign. That will make your content confusing and unclear. An overabundance of different hashtags dilutes their individual significance. 

Instead, create a small list of trending topics to talk about and focus your attention on them. 

The best way to achieve this is to research popular hashtags to identify the best ones for you.

Cross Channel Integration

Promoting your chosen hashtags across different channels is one of the best ways to ensure success. Promoting a distinct and relatable hashtag across multiple channels enhances your hashtag’s recognition and use. 

Keep in mind your hashtags should adhere to platform-specific norms, like character constraints.

Platform-Specific Tips

X (formerly Twitter)

• Never use more than three hashtags per tweet to avoid overwhelming your audience. 
• Use shorter words when possible to stay in Twitter’s character limit. 
• Use specific hashtags that accurately describe your content. 
• Use original hashtags as much as possible to distinguish your brand. 

Tiktok

• Follow the latest trends to only use relevant hashtags, which ensures maximum visibility for your content. 
• Use both popular and niche hashtags to reach both broad and specific audiences. Doing so maximizes your content’s visibility. 
• Use branded hashtags like Nike’s #Justdoit to increase brand recognition and encourage user-generated content. 

Instagram

• Use the Insights feature to gauge your hashtag’s effectiveness. Use this data to understand your hashtags’ performance and discover how to improve it. 
• Avoid irrelevant hashtags and repeating hashtags in the same order on multiple posts because Instagram penalizes it. 
• Never use more than 11 hashtags on an Instagram post. You’re allowed to use up to 30 hashtags, but more than 11 can be excessive. In fact, most posts should have only between 3 and 5 hashtags. 

Researching Trending Hashtags

Like we mentioned above, you have to identify the right hashtags for your field. And the best way to identify the right hashtags is to research influencers in your field. But how should you go about this? 

We recommend using BuzzSumo. It’s a great tool for identifying top content, writers, and influencers in your niche. You can use BuzzSumo to research the top content creators in your niche and learn what hashtags they’re using. 

You can also use these three research tools to discover hashtag-related information. 

• RiteTag provides hashtag suggestions based on real-time engagement. 

• Hashtagify.me lets you search for trendy hashtags in your field. 

• Keyhole gives you real-time data on popular hashtags.

Creating Branded Hashtags

Branded hashtags are an excellent way to create a distinct brand identity for yourself and increase engagement. Just remember Nike’s iconic #Justdoit or Coca-Cola’s #ShareACoke. 

These hashtags create distinct and memorable brand identities for your company. 

Good branded hashtags connect your business with your global audience and leave an impact on them. So create your own branded hashtags to build relatability with your audience and craft a compelling brand narrative.

Measuring Hashtag Performance

It’s not enough to create great hashtags. You also have to continually measure their performance. How do you do that? You need in-depth analytics. 

Data gives you invaluable information on your hashtags’ performance. Specifically, you want to track your hashtags’ impressions and engagements to evaluate their performance. 

Use this data to understand your marketing performance and identify areas of improvement. Ideally, you want to fine-tune your hashtag approach over time by continually using your data to discover how you can do things better.  

For example, use data to identify which hashtags create the most engagement and discover new trends you can take advantage of.

Avoiding Common Mistakes

These are the 7 most common hashtag use mistakes that you want to avoid.

#1 Don’t be generic 

Generic hashtags like #food or #fashion are too broad to attract the right audience for you. For example, you could want consumers who like Chinese food for your restaurant, but generic #food tags may attract consumers with different tastes.

Also, generic hashtags like #food are highly competitive. So even if you want a broader audience, you’re unlikely to effectively connect with your audience. 

#2 Don’t use too many hashtags

Using too many hashtags in a single post dilutes your message and may attract irrelevant audiences. Even worse, your post will look spammy and insincere.

So even relevant users may not want to read your content if it appears insincere and spammy. 

#3 Don’t Misspell hashtags 

Misspelled hashtags reduce your brand’s authority and authenticity in the eyes of readers. Using correct spelling is a basic expectation for most readers. So they’re very unlikely to respect your brand if you don’t spell right.

Misspelled text in general creates a very negative impression. Readers may even doubt your brand’s legitimacy if you misspell hashtags. This is particularly so because misspelled words are associated with scams or fake accounts. 

#4 Don’t use ambiguous hashtags 

Some hashtags may have different meanings to different audiences. Ensure your hashtags don’t contain any ambiguous words. They should have a clear meaning for your audience.

Otherwise, you could confuse your audience or even potentially enter controversy without clarity. 

#5 Don’t copy your competitors 

It’s okay to research the competition and draw inspiration from them, but don’t copy them. Copying your competitors ruins your brand image and destroys your credibility in the eyes of viewers.

Copying your competitors also destroys your brand’s credibility because it destroys your unique identity. You want to use hashtags to emphasize your brand’s unique identity, not undermine it by copying others.

#6 Don’t ignore platform norms

Every social media platform has its own hashtag norms. For example, Twitter has a character limit so you should use fewer hashtags. Instagram lets you use up to 30 hashtags so you should use more, etc. 

You don’t want to ignore these norms. Otherwise, at best you’ll miss opportunities for improving your content. At worst, you could get yourself penalized on a platform for ignoring its norms. 

An example would be repeating hashtags on different posts in the same order on Instagram. 

#7 Carefully use slang or jargon 

In this context, slang is audience-specific casual language and jargon is audience-specific technical language. Using either can be effective in your posts when done right. 

But when not done carefully you can confuse, bore, or outright offend your audience. Consumers don’t like it when brands try to be either overly friendly or overly technical. 

You need to find the right balance by using slang and jargon only where it makes sense.

#Wrapping Up

Now that you’ve learned what a hashtag is, use them to direct relevant audiences to your content. A good hashtag strategy builds reliability and authenticity with your brand and improves your image. 

That said, these benefits only materialize when you use the right hashtags. You want to use a small number of relevant, meaningful, and impactful hashtags that attract the right audience for your content.