How many hashtags should be used in Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin posts?
Do you ever question how many hashtags to use when you’re posting to social media? Our digital experts reveal hashtag best practices on the major social platforms so you can feel confident when implementing hashtags in your social media content.
Hashtags on Instagram
We view hashtags as most useful on Instagram. Currently, that’s the platform on which most users browse with hashtags to find relevant content. We often recommend adding up to 25-30 hashtags on each Instagram post, as long as they're all relevant to your content.
Hashtags on Twitter
Twitter is a similar, but we recommend being very selective with hashtags because of the limited character count they have in place. Fewer users utilize hashtags to browse content on Twitter because Twitter's algorithm already provides customized content based on who they follow and interact with. Hashtags on Twitter won't hurt your engagement, but they won't necessarily help as much as they do on Instagram. We recommend only using 1 or 2 hashtags within a tweet. We've not always seen great benefits from using hashtags on Twitter - however, we have seen them be very effective when used during events, conferences or live moments.
Hashtags on Facebook & LinkedIn
Facebook and LinkedIn both support hashtag use, but the hashtag functionality isn't optimized for users or brands. Currently, hashtags are virtually useless on Facebook. Very few people utilize them and even fewer people click on them. You'll see hashtags on some LinkedIn posts, but they're not very useful for spreading your content to new audiences. The LinkedIn algorithm itself is more useful for that — LinkedIn does a great job of showing posts to users who aren't directly connected to the original poster even when the posts do not contain hashtags.
Remember, if you do use a hashtag in your social content, don’t throw trending hashtags into your post just because the "cool kids" are using them - make sure each hashtag would make sense as a keyword that should lead someone to your content.
Have other questions about hashtags? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
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Drew Harden
CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Compass, Drew Harden has grown and guided the company from a two-person startup in 2007 to one of the Midwest's leading digital marketing companies today. He's a published author, has been cited by PR News and USA Today, and has led web projects that have been honored by organizations like Adobe and American Design Awards.