Hashtags have evolved from a simple way to categorize tweets into a powerful tool for digital marketing. They are essential for increasing visibility, tracking conversations, and engaging with communities across social media.
But the rules of the game are always changing.
What worked last year might not deliver the same results today. This guide provides the latest 2025 hashtag strategies to help you connect with your audience and grow your brand.
We will cover the best hashtags for social media, exploring what makes a hashtag effective and how to find the right ones for your content. You’ll also get platform-specific hashtag tips for all major networks, from TikTok to LinkedIn, ensuring your strategy is optimized for success.
What Are Hashtags and Why Do They Matter?
A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the hash symbol (#) used on social media to identify messages on a specific topic. When you use a hashtag, your post becomes part of a searchable conversation, making it discoverable to users interested in that topic, even if they don't follow you.
In 2025, hashtags are more than just labels; they are foundational to content discovery. Social media algorithms use them to understand your content and show it to relevant audiences. A well-executed hashtag strategy can:
- Increase Reach and Visibility: Your content appears in hashtag feeds and search results, exposing it to a wider audience.
- Boost Engagement: Posts with relevant hashtags often receive more likes, comments, and shares.
- Build Community: Branded or campaign-specific hashtags can unite your audience and encourage user-generated content.
- Identify Your Niche: Using niche-specific hashtags helps you connect with a targeted, more engaged audience.
Finding the Best Hashtags for Social Media
Choosing the right hashtags is a mix of art and science. The goal is to use a combination of popular, niche, and branded hashtags to maximize your reach and relevance.
Types of Hashtags
- Broad/Popular Hashtags: These are high-volume tags like #marketing or #socialmedia. They have massive reach but are also highly competitive, meaning your content can get lost quickly.
- Niche/Community Hashtags: These are more specific, like #contentmarketingtips or #smallbusinessownerlife. They have lower volume but attract a highly relevant and engaged audience.
- Branded Hashtags: These are unique to your business, such as #YourBrandName or #YourCampaignSlogan. They are great for building brand identity and tracking user-generated content.
- Location-Based Hashtags: For brick-and-mortar businesses, tags like #nycfoodie or #londoncoffee can attract local customers.
- Event Hashtags: Use these for conferences, webinars, or special promotions, like #SocialMediaConf2025.
How to Research Hashtags
Avoid just guessing which hashtags to use. Instead, use a data-driven approach. Look at what hashtags your competitors, industry leaders, and target audience are using. Built-in search functions on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn can show you related hashtags and their post volume. Several third-party tools can also provide detailed analytics to inform your 2025 hashtag strategies.
Platform-Specific Hashtag Tips for 2025
Each social media platform has its own culture and algorithm. A one-size-fits-all approach to hashtags simply doesn't work. Here are the updated best practices for each major network.
Instagram remains a visual-first platform where hashtags are critical for discovery. The algorithm increasingly favors relevance over quantity.
- How many: Aim for 5-10 highly relevant hashtags. While you can use up to 30, studies show that engagement can drop when you use too many, as it can appear spammy.
- Where to place them: You can place hashtags in the caption or the first comment. Placing them in the first comment keeps your caption clean, but putting key hashtags in the caption can give the algorithm immediate context. Experiment to see what works best for your account.
- Best practices: Mix popular and niche hashtags. Use the "Related Hashtags" feature to find new ideas. Create a branded hashtag for your community to use. Instagram now allows users to follow hashtags, making them even more powerful for reaching interested audiences.
TikTok
TikTok’s algorithm is incredibly sophisticated, and hashtags play a major role in its content distribution system. They help the platform categorize your video and show it on the "For You" page (FYP).
- How many: Use 3-5 targeted hashtags.
- Where to place them: Directly in the video caption.
- Best practices: Focus on a mix of broad, trending, and niche hashtags. Participating in trending hashtag challenges can give your content a massive visibility boost. Don't neglect niche hashtags, as they connect you with specific subcultures on the platform.
X (Formerly Twitter)
Hashtags were born on X, and they remain a core part of the platform for joining real-time conversations.
- How many: 1-2 relevant hashtags per post is optimal. Posts with more than two hashtags can see a drop in engagement.
- Where to place them: Incorporate them naturally within the post's text or add
them at the end. - Best practices: Use hashtags for events, trending topics, and weekly chats (e.g., #MarketingMonday). Capitalize each word in a multi-word hashtag (e.g., #SocialMediaMarketing) for better readability and accessibility.
On LinkedIn, hashtags help professionals discover relevant content and discussions. The tone is professional, and your hashtags should reflect that.
- How many: 3-5 relevant hashtags are recommended.
- Where to place them: Add them at the end of your post.
- Best practices: Use a mix of broad industry tags (#fintech), niche topics (#AIinFinance), and community tags (#personaldevelopment). LinkedIn will suggest hashtags as you write a post; use these as a starting point. Following relevant hashtags can also help you stay on top of industry trends.
Hashtags on Facebook have had a complicated history, but they are now more functional for content discovery, especially within groups.
- How many: 1-3 specific hashtags. Overloading your posts with hashtags is not effective on Facebook.
- Where to place them: Either within the sentence or at the end of the post.
- Best practices: Use hashtags to categorize your content, especially for campaigns or specific topics. Branded and niche hashtags work better than generic ones. Public posts with hashtags are searchable, which can help new users find your brand page or group.
YouTube
Hashtags on YouTube help viewers find your videos through search. The platform uses them to understand the video's topic and recommend it alongside similar content.
- How many: Use 3-5 hashtags in the description. You can add more (up to 15), but over-tagging can lead YouTube to ignore all of them.
- Where to place them: Place them in the video description. The first three hashtags will also appear above your video title, so put your most important ones first.
- Best practices: Use a primary keyword hashtag and a few related ones. Don't use misleading hashtags—they must be relevant to your video content, or YouTube may penalize your video.
Pinterest acts as a visual search engine, and hashtags are another way to make your Pins discoverable.
- How many: 2-5 specific and relevant hashtags.
- Where to place them: In your Pin description.
- Best practices: Be descriptive and specific. Think about what users are searching for. Use a mix of evergreen and trending topics. Because Pins have a long lifespan, evergreen hashtags like #homedecorideas can drive traffic for months or even years.
Take Your Social Media to the Next Level
Mastering hashtags is a key step toward a successful social media presence in 2025. By understanding how to find the right hashtags and applying platform-specific strategies, you can significantly expand your reach, boost engagement, and build a thriving community around your brand.
Remember that the social media landscape is always changing. Continuously monitor your performance, adapt your strategy, and stay curious.
If you're ready to transform your social media strategy but don't have the time to manage it all yourself, we can help. Our team of experts stays on top of the latest trends to create data-driven strategies that deliver real results. Contact us today to learn how our social media management services can help you achieve your business goals.
