How to Use Hashtags to Get Discovered (By Platform)

1. What hashtags actually do

A hashtag is a label. When you tag a public post, it gets added to that hashtag's page, where people browsing or following the tag can find it — even if they've never heard of you. That's the whole value: reach beyond your existing followers. Instagram's own guidance on using hashtags spells out one easy-to-miss requirement: your account has to be public. If it's private, your tagged posts never appear on the hashtag page at all.

Hashtags also signal topic to the platform's algorithm, helping it decide who else might want to see your post. So they do two jobs: direct discovery (people browsing the tag) and indirect distribution (the algorithm understanding your content).

2. How many hashtags to use per platform

More is not better — the old "stuff 30 hashtags in every post" advice is outdated. Each platform has a sweet spot. Hootsuite's testing, summarised in their guide to using hashtags on every network, lands roughly here:

• Instagram & TikTok: 3–5 relevant hashtags. Piling on 10–20 doesn't add distribution.
• LinkedIn & X (Twitter): 1–3. More than that looks spammy and hurts readability.
• Facebook: 2–3, and frankly hashtags matter least here.

The principle across all of them: a few precise, relevant tags beat a wall of generic ones.

3. Mix broad, niche, and branded tags

The biggest mistake is using only huge, generic hashtags like #marketing or #love. On a tag with tens of millions of posts, yours is buried in seconds. The fix is a mix:

• Broad tags (large): one or two for topical context, knowing you won't rank for long.
• Niche tags (medium/small): the workhorses. #emailmarketingtips beats #marketing because the audience is smaller, more relevant, and you can actually surface and stay visible.
• Branded tags: your own hashtag (e.g. your business name or campaign) to collect your content and any user posts in one place.

4. How to find the right hashtags

Don't guess. Build your sets from what's actually working:

• Look at what's used in your niche. Check the tags on popular posts from accounts like yours — not the giants, the ones a notch above you.
• Search the tag before using it. Tap it and see the top posts. Are they relevant to your audience? Is the volume reasonable, not astronomical?
• Group tags into reusable sets by topic, so you're not reinventing them each post.
• Rotate and review. Swap in new tags occasionally and keep the ones that bring reach.

Building relevant sets for each topic and platform is the tedious part — a generator gives you a starting set for any topic that you can then trim to the sweet spot above.

5. Hashtag mistakes that waste reach

• Irrelevant tags for reach. Tagging a trending-but-unrelated hashtag brings the wrong people, who scroll straight past — which can actually signal low relevance to the algorithm.
• Only mega-tags. All broad, no niche, means instant burial.
• The same set on every post forever. Some platforms may dampen repetitive identical tag blocks; vary them.
• Banned or spammy tags. Some tags are restricted and can suppress your post. Check before reusing.
• Private account. Worth repeating: tags do nothing for reach if your profile isn't public.

Hashtags get your post seen — the caption is what makes someone stay and act once they arrive. Pair good tags with a strong hook.

Next, make the post itself land: see how to write captions and hooks that stop the scroll, and post when your audience is online with our best time to post guide.