{"id":121701,"date":"2023-01-03T13:50:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T12:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brand24.com\/blog\/?p=121701"},"modified":"2025-08-28T16:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T14:45:09","slug":"hashtag-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brand24.com\/blog\/hashtag-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"How do Hashtags Work? Guide for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hashtags were born on Twitter. How did that happen? In its early days, Twitter did not support the hashtag feature. Users complained that it was a bit hard to see relevant content. Chris Messina started to look for a solution. In August 2007, he wrote the very first (and famous) Twitter hashtag. He simply asked other users what they felt about using # (pound) to classify groups. They enjoyed it a lot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that, we had to wait till 2009, when Twitter presented a search tool that allowed users to check who else was using a particular hashtag. The following year Twitter introduced the Trending Topic<\/em> feature that displays the most popular hashtags in real-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since that day, many social media platforms have noticed the hashtags’ potential and implemented them. So today, we can use them on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter the context, hashtags have always served one purpose \u2014 to connect, build a network of connections, and spread the message. Hashtags have quickly caught on and have been used by presidents, artists, celebrities, average Internet users, and what’s more important here \u2014 by marketers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the hashtag has become so ubiquitous that it’s hard to imagine that there was a time before the hashtag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a hashtag?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded with the hash sign (#), used to categorize the accompanying text in social media posts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. At the same time, hashtags enable a search within by clicking them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brand24 is a tool that tracks and analyzes hashtags. Try it during a 14-day free trial!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Try free!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hashtag history<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s impossible to provide an exact moment in history where the hash sign came into being. However, we can easily tell when the pound sign became a hashtag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hashtag\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pound symbol<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another story says that typewriter keyboards shared the \u201cnumber three\u201d key with the monetary symbol of the pound, which later became the hashtag symbol. If you look at your keyboard, you’ll notice that the number three shares one key with the hash sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The octothorpe<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some say it all started in Bell Laboratories in the 1960s when Bell worked on the Touch Tone technology that introduced two new buttons. Research conducted on the public revealed that people would see there the asterisk and the hash sign. What\u2019s interesting, the \u201chash sign\u201d key in the Bell days was known as \u201coctothorpe\u201d \u2013 named after an athlete, Thorpe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

IRC<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As the hash sign made it to computer keyboards, the Internet Relay Chat was created. IRC was one of the first online communicators and used the hash sign to group conversations about certain topics \u2013 it\u2019s just like Slack channels these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hashtag<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Chris Messina, a heavy user of the IRC chat and Twitter employee, came up with this idea of gathering all relevant tweets in one place, under one\u2026 #hashtag. That is how hashtags came into being and later spread to other social media platforms \u2013 Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How do hashtags work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  1. First of all, hashtags work primarily on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. They group, tag, and connect a social media post to a topic expressed by the hashtag, for example, #cycling.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. At the same time, hashtags are clickable and enable a search within them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. By using relevant hashtags, you can join conversations, browse content and let your content be found on social media.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Here\u2019s one funny explanation of how hashtags work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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