Hashtags are a form of metadata. They allow you to add context to your content, which helps people find it on social media platforms. It also allows you to connect with others who have similar interests and can help drive traffic back to your site or blog.
But hashtags aren't just for Twitter or Instagram; they're used across nearly every social media platform.
Hashtags can be used to add context to your content
Hashtags are used to add context to your content. They're clickable and will take you to a page with all posts that use that hashtag. You can follow hashtags in the same way as you follow people, so if you see one being used often on Instagram or Twitter, it's worth adding to your own posts!
The advantages of using hashtags are obvious: they help users find what they're looking for, which means that more people will be exposed to your content—and more likely to engage with it as well.
Hashtags are clickable and will take you to a page with all posts that use that hashtag
Hashtags are clickable and will take you to a page with all posts that use that hashtag. They're used in the same way as people, so if someone uses #cats, you can click on it and see all the posts that use that hashtag. In this way, hashtags act as tags for content like photos or videos—they bring together conversations about a particular topic into one place. You'll notice they're also used in comments sections on Facebook and Twitter as well as Instagrams!
You can follow hashtags in the same way as you follow people
It’s important to note that you can follow hashtags in the same way as you follow people. Following hashtags is an effective way to find relevant content, and unfollowing them is easy too.
You can hide or report hashtags that you don't want to see
If you see a hashtag that is offensive or spamming, you can report it to Instagram. You can also report hashtags that are unrelated to your content, which we'll explain below.
Reporting hashtags goes directly to Instagram's moderators and will help them identify the problem and block inappropriate content in the future. To report a hashtag, open up its page by searching for it or clicking on it in someone else's post. Then click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the post and select "Report."
You can also hide hashtags from your feed that aren't relevant to what you want to see—this feature is available with both free or premium accounts (more features = more money). To do so:
Hashtags should be relevant to your content
A hashtag should be select, succinct and relevant. This means you don't want to use hashtags that are too generic or broad, as they may not get the attention you want them to get. Similarly, using hashtags too specific means they're more likely to be irrelevant and won't gain traction like they could if you were less specific.
Finally, it's also important that your hashtag doesn't take up too much space—and this goes for how long it is and how many characters it uses up (think: Twitter). This will make your content harder to read and absorb while scrolling through tweets in a feed or search results on Twitter.
Use hashtags wisely. Only use them when they add value.
In order to understand what hashtags are, you first need to understand what they do. Hashtags act as clickable links that lead users back to the original post on a social media platform. When you include a hashtag in your social media post, anyone who clicks on it will be taken to a page where all posts with that same hashtag are aggregated together.
Because of this functionality, hashtags are often used by marketers and brands in order to increase engagement with their audience. In fact, one study found that posts containing at least one hashtag have an average engagement rate of 7%.
That's all there is to it. The key takeaway here is that hashtags are a simple way to organize your content, but they aren't for every post. Make sure your hashtags are relevant and don't overuse them!