Remember when hashtags were everywhere on social media? They helped people find trends and boosted post visibility. Now, the phrase on everyone's lips is… "To hashtag or not to hashtag, that is the question?" And it is frustrating social media marketers everywhere. 

The looming 'death of the hashtag' has been a reality since early 2025, driven by platforms looking to clean up their feeds and rely on smarter algorithms.  

For example, TikTok signalled the change in February 2024 by removing view counts from hashtags, making it impossible to see a trend's popularity. They changed this again in the summer by limiting every post to a maximum of five hashtags. Simultaneously, X banned hashtags on advertisements and actively punishes posts that use too many. As Elon Musk puts it, hashtags are "ugly" and an "aesthetic nightmare."  

The running theme is that they clutter the feed, and algorithms have evolved past needing them. 

Why we used Hashtags in the first place 

Hashtags were originally created to help categorise content and make posts easier to discover. When someone searched or followed a hashtag, your post had the chance to appear in other users feeds which meant hashtags could increase reach (the number of unique people who see your content). More visibility often led to more impressions (the total number of times your content is viewed, including repeat views). Overall, hashtags helped posts be discovered by new audiences, expanding how far your content could go beyond your existing followers.

The end of speculation: Mosseri confirms the true role of hashtags

For years, marketers have relied on hashtags as a staple in their social media strategy. Hashtags were once seen as the key to visibility and discovery. You could even follow a hashtag on Instagram until late 2024.  

But recently, the conversation has shifted. Instagram's, Adam Mosseri, made waves when he claimed that "hashtags are not a way to get more reach." The story sparked plenty of speculation online. Thankfully, someone managed to capture a screen recording of the story, which you can see here.

If Mosseri, the head of Instagram himself, is saying that hashtags don't increase reach, then it might be time to rethink how we use them. This statement has challenged years of best practice and prompted many marketers, including us, to question whether hashtags still serve a real purpose beyond content categorisation.  

SEO Is the New Hashtag

Given Mosseri's statement, content creators and businesses should start rethinking how they use hashtags, and more importantly, where they should now focus their efforts to reach new audiences. Instead of relying on hashtags, it's time to build a stronger Instagram SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy.

Using more descriptive and searchable words in your captions, on-screen text, and post descriptions can work in your favour. The algorithm is now prioritising this kind of context, meaning the words you use on your Reels or in your posts play a bigger role in how your content is discovered.

To test this theory, we ran our own experiment across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Interestingly, the absence of hashtags had little to no effect on a post's audience reach. This suggests platform algorithms are now prioritising content relevance, quality, and engagements, such as saves, shares, and watch time, over hashtag usage.

So, instead of spending time on hashtags, we now prioritise using strategic keywords to maximise visibility. This approach not only aligns with current algorithm behaviour but also encourages more search-friendly content that resonates better with audiences.

Use hashtags with purpose, not out of habit

As Mosseri advised, hashtags can still play a role, just not in the way they used to. They're most effective for campaigns or national days, where they help to group related content.

Hashtags work best for campaigns, events, or national days, where their main purpose is to group related content under one searchable theme. For example, branded hashtags like #ShareACoke or national days like #CopperAwarenessDay make it easier for audiences to follow the conversation and connect with a wider community around a shared topic.

They can also encourage user generated content (UGC) and community building by encouraging people to create their own content. In this case, hashtags act more like an organisational tool than to boost audience reach and impressions.

To Hashtag or Not to Hashtag?

Hashtags have had their era. They've taught us a lot. But social media has moved on. Algorithms are smarter and we don't need thirty hashtags to prove our point anymore.

Now it's about shifting the focus on writing intentionally, using specific keywords, and crafting hooks that holds users' attention. It's about creating quality content and letting the algorithm do the rest. Allow the algorithm to read your image, audio, and text, and serve it to an engaged and receptive audience.

The death of the hashtag isn't a limitation; it's an opportunity. Rather than relying on hashtags to reach new audiences and gain more impressions, we can now use them strategically for campaigns, awareness days and user generated content.

#EndOfAnEra