Most people use hashtags. Very few use them correctly.
The difference between random hashtag stuffing and a strategic hashtag approach is the difference between your content reaching three people and reaching three thousand. Every platform has its own rules. Every algorithm responds differently.
This guide covers everything you need to know to use hashtags properly — across Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. Sourced from Gary Vaynerchuk, Digital Marketing Institute (Clodagh O’Brien), The Marketing GP, ARI Net, Synlighet, Hootsuite, Buffer Social, Sprout Social, and Smart Insights.
What Are Hashtags and Why Do They Matter?
A hashtag is the # symbol followed by a word or phrase — with no spaces, no punctuation, and no special characters. It turns any word into a clickable, searchable content tag that connects your post to every other post using that same tag.
The first hashtag was created by Chris Messina in 2007 on Twitter — he used #barcamp to group tweets from conference attendees. The idea caught on immediately. Today, hashtags are used across Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and beyond. The word ‘hashtag’ has even been officially added to the dictionary.
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Why Hashtags Matter for Your Business or Brand
Hashtags do three things simultaneously: they categorize your content, increase organic discoverability, and connect you to communities that already care about your topic.
Per Gary Vaynerchuk — serial entrepreneur and social media authority — Jordan, his former personal trainer, gained over 3,000 new highly engaged followers in fewer than 8 weeks using a targeted hashtag strategy. The key was not just the follower count — it was the quality of engagement. Of those 3,000 followers, approximately 2,000 were genuinely invested in his content.
Gary Vee’s Core Principle: Hashtags are a currency of cultural relevance. They are not about stuffing posts with trending tags — they are about joining the right conversations where your target audience already lives.
The One Rule That Kills All Hashtag Efforts
Your account must be public. If your profile is set to private, your hashtags are completely invisible to anyone who does not already follow you. The algorithm does not surface private account content in hashtag feeds. This is the most overlooked technical mistake in hashtag usage — confirmed by sources including The Marketing GP and Gary Vaynerchuk’s official guide.
How to Use Hashtags Properly on Every Platform
Every social media platform treats hashtags differently. Using the same hashtag count across all platforms is one of the most common mistakes marketers make.
| Platform | Recommended Count | Strategy | Key Stat |
| 3–5 (up to 10) | Mix trending + niche + branded | Smart Insights: max 10 for optimum; Hootsuite: 9–15 | |
| TikTok | 3–5 | Trending + niche + 1 branded | In the description, the first 3 appear above the title |
| Twitter/X | 1–2 maximum | Ride trending conversations | Buffer: 17% engagement DROP with 3+ hashtags |
| 1–3 | Professional niche topics only | Hootsuite: 1–2 for professional posts | |
| 1–3 | Less impactful — use sparingly | First 3 hashtags display above the video title | |
| YouTube | Up to 15 | In the description, the first 3 appear above title | In the description, the first 3 appear above the title |
Instagram — More Is Not Always More
Instagram hashtag advice is the most debated in digital marketing. Smart Insights recommends a maximum of 10. Hootsuite suggests between 9 and 15. The Marketing GP recommends 3–5 for a clean, non-spammy appearance.
The current consensus: 3–5 highly relevant hashtags outperform 20 generic ones. Instagram’s algorithm has become increasingly sophisticated at detecting hashtag stuffing — and penalizes accounts that use irrelevant or repetitive tag sets across multiple posts.
Twitter/X — The 17% Rule
Per Buffer Social research, engagement on Twitter/X drops by 17% when a post contains more than two hashtags. Twitter was the birthplace of the hashtag — but it is also text-heavy enough that natural language search works without hashtags. One or two well-chosen tags are sufficient. More than that signals spam.
YouTube — The Hidden Hashtag Location
This is a significant gap. YouTube allows up to 15 hashtags in the video description. The first three hashtags you include will appear directly above the video title in the search results — giving them prime visibility. Choose these three carefully: they should represent your content’s primary topic, subcategory, and target community.
Hashtag Dos and Don’ts
The Dos — Do These Every Time
- Use CamelCase formatting: #FlashbackFriday instead of #flashbackfriday. This makes hashtags easier to read and critically accessible to screen readers. Screen reader technology reads #FlashbackFriday as two words: ‘Flashback Friday.’ It reads #flashbackfriday as one unrecognizable string. This is the accessibility detail most competitors completely miss
- Mix three hashtag types per post: broad/popular (high volume), niche (medium volume), and branded (your own). This spreads your content across multiple discovery layers simultaneously
- Follow relevant hashtags yourself: per Hootsuite, browsing hashtags you already have success with can surface new trending variations, collaboration opportunities, and content gaps in your niche — a genuine competitive intelligence tool
- Time hashtags around events: if you are posting about a conference, product launch, or cultural moment, push the post during or immediately before/after the event. This is when hashtag searches for that topic peak, per The Marketing GP’s TMGP Team
- Place branded hashtags everywhere: your bio, email signature, business cards, website, and throughout your content — not just in post captions
The Don’ts — These Actively Hurt Your Reach
Never put spaces inside hashtags: #Newcastle Travel ✗ breaks into two non-functional fragments. #NewcastleTravel ✅ is the correct format. The moment a space appears, the platform stops reading it as a tag.
Never use punctuation or special characters: #Rest&Relaxation ✗ and #Rest_Relaxation ✗ both fail. Only letters, numbers, and the # sign work. #RestAndRelaxation ✅ is the correct form.
Never try to own a hashtag: No brand truly owns any hashtag. McDonald’s, Skittles, and Entenmann’s all experienced public hashtag hijacking campaigns that turned their branded tags against them. Per Gary Vaynerchuk: ride trending hashtags, do not try to manufacture your own trending moment.
Never use the same hashtag set on every post: Repeating identical hashtag blocks signals automated or spammy behavior to platform algorithms — particularly Instagram and TikTok. Rotate your hashtag combinations.
How to Find the Right Hashtags – Research Strategy
The right hashtags are not guessed — they are researched. Here is how to build a data-driven hashtag strategy
Gary Vaynerchuk’s $1.80 Strategy
This is one of the most practical hashtag growth frameworks ever documented. Gary Vee’s $1.80 strategy works like this:
- Find 10 relevant hashtag communities in your niche
- Within each hashtag, engage meaningfully with the top 9 posts — leave a thoughtful comment (your ‘two cents’)
- That is 9 posts × 10 hashtags = 90 genuine daily interactions
- Two cents × 90 interactions = $1.80 of value deposited daily into your community
Per garyvaynerchuk.com, this strategy consistently builds authentic community relationships — not just inflated follower numbers. It takes effort. That is precisely why it works.
Hashtag Research Tools
- Hashtagify — shows related hashtags, popularity trends, and top influencers using any tag
- Agorapulse — social media management with built-in hashtag tracking and performance reporting
- Keyhole — real-time hashtag analytics including reach, impressions, and top posts
- Sprout Social — monitors hashtag conversations and competitor hashtag performance
- Google Trends — shows search volume patterns for hashtag-related keywords over time
- Moz — keyword research tool useful for identifying high-value search terms to convert into hashtags
The Three-Tier Hashtag Mix
Per Digital Marketing Institute’s Clodagh O’Brien and Synlighet, every post should include a mix of:
- Broad/popular hashtags (1M+ posts) — e.g. #Marketing — high volume, competitive, wide reach
- Mid-range/niche hashtags (10K–500K posts) — e.g. #ContentMarketingTips — more targeted, better conversion
- Branded hashtags (your own) — e.g. #YourBrandName — build community, track user-generated content
Competitive Intelligence Tip: Search your competitors’ top-performing posts and note which hashtags they use consistently. Then test those same tags on your content. Per Hootsuite, browsing hashtags you have success with often surfaces better-performing adjacent hashtags you had not previously considered.
Branded Hashtags and Campaign Hashtags – Advanced Strategy
Once you understand the basics, branded and campaign hashtags are where real long-term audience building happens.
The Toronto Raptors Standard — #WeTheNorth
The Toronto Raptors’ #WeTheNorth campaign is the most cited example of a branded hashtag done correctly. It is not just a tag — it is a community identity. It expresses belonging, pride, and tribal loyalty. Anyone searching for it finds an entire world of Raptors content. That is the power of a well-crafted branded hashtag.
Per Gary Vaynerchuk, the Raptors did not try to force the tag into trending. They built a community around it organically — and the tag grew because the content behind it was genuinely compelling.
How Planters Used #CrunchTime Correctly
The Planters brand demonstrates a smarter branded hashtag approach. Rather than creating a new hashtag from scratch, they identified the already-popular #CrunchTime tag and inserted themselves contextually — tying it to Valentine’s Day and their product.
The lesson: ride the wave of existing hashtag momentum rather than trying to manufacture your own. Per Gary Vee: ‘Use three or four hashtags that are riding the wave of attention.’ This approach requires zero audience investment upfront — and delivers immediate reach.
Where to Place Your Branded Hashtags
Your branded hashtag should not live only in post captions. Per The Marketing GP (TMGP Team), place it:
- Social media bio and about sections — every platform you are active on
- Email signature — every outgoing email is a real opportunity
- Business cards and printed materials
- Website footer, blog posts, and landing pages
- Throughout captions — not just at the end
Community vs. Followers: Gary Vaynerchuk makes a critical distinction: followers are not the same as community. A brand with 10,000 followers and 187 engaged people is weaker than a brand with 3,000 followers, where 2,000 actively care. Branded hashtags build community — not just audience numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the 3 hashtag rule?
The 3 hashtag rule is a social media guideline suggesting that using 3 highly relevant hashtags per post produces better engagement than using many generic ones. It is particularly referenced for LinkedIn, where the platform’s professional algorithm responds best to 1–3 focused hashtags. The rule prioritizes quality and relevance over volume. A post with 3 perfectly targeted hashtags consistently outperforms one with 20 random tags — because the algorithm can accurately categorize the content and serve it to the right audience.
How to successfully use hashtags?
To successfully use hashtags: (1) Make your account public — private accounts’ hashtags are invisible. (2) Research your tags using tools like Hashtagify, Keyhole, or Sprout Social. (3) Use the three-tier mix: broad + niche + branded. (4) Use platform-appropriate counts — 1–2 for Twitter/X, 3–5 for Instagram and TikTok, 1–3 for LinkedIn. (5) Use CamelCase formatting for readability. (6) Rotate your hashtag sets — never repeat the same block across every post. (7) Engage with your hashtag communities via the $1.80 strategy.
What is the correct way to write a hashtag?
The correct way to write a hashtag: type the # symbol immediately followed by your word or phrase — no space between # and the first letter. Use CamelCase for multi-word hashtags (#SocialMediaMarketing). Never include spaces, punctuation, or special characters — they break the tag. Numbers are acceptable (#Top10Tips). Shorter hashtags are generally more discoverable and less prone to spelling errors. Per the Marketing GP, always capitalize each word for readability and screen reader accessibility
What is the 5 hashtag rule?
The 5 hashtag rule is a guideline used primarily for Instagram and TikTok, suggesting that 5 well-researched hashtags — typically a mix of 2 broad, 2 niche, and 1 branded — deliver optimal reach without triggering spam signals. The Marketing GP recommends 3–5 hashtags as the standard for most platforms. Smart Insights caps Instagram at 10 for best results. The 5-hashtag approach is a practical middle ground between maximum discoverability and maintaining a clean, professional appearance.
What are the top 3 trending hashtags?
Trending hashtags change hourly — no static list remains accurate. The best way to find the top trending hashtags right now is to check Twitter/X’s Trending tab (which updates continuously and personalizes by location and interests), Instagram’s Explore page, or TikTok’s Discover section. Per Gary Vaynerchuk, Twitter compiles a list of the 30 most popular hashtags updated in real time. Tools like Hashtagify, Google Trends, and Keyhole also provide live trending data with historical context.
How to read ‘#’ in English?
The # symbol has several names in English. In the modern social media context, it is universally called a hashtag. Before social media, it was called the pound sign (US) or the hash symbol (UK/Australia). In music, it represents a sharp note. In programming, it is called a number sign or octothorpe — the formal technical term. For everyday social media use, simply call it a hashtag. When reading aloud, you say the word represented — #Marketing is read as ‘hashtag marketing’ or simply ‘Marketing’ in context.
Conclusion:
Using hashtags properly is not complicated — but it does require intention.
Public account. Relevant hashtags. Platform-correct counts. CamelCase formatting. A mix of broad, niche, and branded. Rotate your sets. Engage via the $1.80 strategy. And never try to own a hashtag — ride the wave instead.
The right hashtag in the right community changes everything. Start with three. Make them count.
