Do Hashtags Still Matter?
Why They’re No Longer the Growth Engine and What to Do Instead
For years, marketers treated hashtags as a growth hack for Instagram. Stuff enough of them into a caption and watch the impressions climb. But in 2025, that playbook is outdated. Even Instagram itself (or better saying, its CEO) states so:
“Hashtags are no longer a primary way to increase your reach on Instagram. They don’t significantly increase your reach.” – Adam Mosseri, Instagram CEO on Social Media Today
On other platforms, the shift is even sharper. For example, on X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk banned hashtags from ads entirely, calling them an “esthetic nightmare.”
Hashtags haven’t disappeared, but their role has changed. They’re now more about categorization and storytelling than distribution. Which raises the big question: if hashtags don’t matter the way they used to, what does?
Instagram’s New Growth Levers
In an April 2025 Business Insider interview, Mosseri outlined what actually moves the needle:
- Main Feed Posting
“The main feed is the most important place for creators to post,” Mosseri explained. That’s where you should invest your best content. - DMs & Shares
When people share your post in Stories or direct messages, the algorithm treats that as a signal of strong interest. Shares matter more than hashtags. - Social SEO
Instagram is prioritizing keywords in captions, profiles, and alt-text to improve search results. Think of it like optimizing for Google, but inside Instagram.
And the timing makes sense: younger generations are using social platforms as search engines. Research shows that 46% of Gen Z users prefer searching directly on platforms like TikTok and Instagram instead of Google. That means your captions, profile copy, and alt-text should reflect the queries your audience is typing into the search bar. Social SEO is about crafting content that resonates with those searches, and keeps people engaged once they find it.
What Marketers Should Do in 2025
- Focus on engagement signals: Craft content worth saving, sharing, and DM’ing.
- Invest in social SEO: Write captions and bios with discoverable keywords.
- Use hashtags sparingly: Treat them as labels, not levers.
The takeaway is simple: hashtags aren’t your growth engine anymore; content quality, shareability, and search optimization are.
Content is Still King
At the end of the day, content is still king. Every social platform shares the same objective: keep users engaged and spending more time on their app. That’s the essence of the attention economy. Anything that captures attention and feels relevant to the audience is valuable, not just for the user but also for the platform’s bottom line.
That’s why algorithms and features may change, but the winning formula doesn’t: focus on creating good, relevant content that sparks interest and keeps people coming back. Everything else is just tactics.
