Are Hashtags Really Dead? -
Why Substack writers are reclaiming a symbol everyone else gave up on
HASHTAG IS OURS NOW
In August 2007, Chris Messina asked Twitter a simple question.
“How do you feel about using the pound sign for groups. As in #barcamp.”
Nobody knew it yet, but he had just invented something that would define social media for nearly two decades.
Twitter’s own founders didn’t want it. Co-founder Evan Williams told Messina straight up that hashtags were too nerdy to go mainstream. But users built the culture anyway. By 2009, Twitter made hashtags searchable. By 2010, trending topics were front and center on the platform. The hashtag became the connective tissue of the internet.
Instagram copied the model. Same grouping concept. Same discovery function. For years, creators stuffed 30 hashtags into every caption, hoping the algorithm would reward them. Then the algorithms changed. Platforms quietly deprioritized hashtags. And just like that, the consensus shifted.
Hashtags are dead. Move on. Stop using them.
You’ve heard it. Every self-appointed guru and social media thought leader online has something to say about it. They write the think pieces. They post the carousels. They declare what’s relevant and what’s outdated as if they were handed a certificate of authority. With the confidence of someone who has never been wrong about anything.
So in 2026…
We’re not asking for their opinion.
And we’re not waiting on their permission.
Here’s what actually matters:
Substack writers don’t live inside the same ecosystem as Instagram, TikTok, or X. The hashtag as a discovery tool was never our game to begin with. So when someone tells us hashtags are dead, they’re describing a problem that was never ours to solve.
What we’re doing is something totally different.
We’re redefining the hashtag.
Not as a grouping mechanism.
Not as a search function.
Not as a reach strategy.
We’re using it as a branding tool. A movement marker. A way of planting a flag on an idea and saying this belongs to us. When you build a community around a specific topic, a specific voice, a specific vision, the hashtag becomes the shorthand for everything you stand for.
It’s not about the algorithm finding you.
It’s about your community recognizing you.
Think about what that means in practice. You can attach a hashtag to a methodology you’re teaching. You can build one around an annual event. You can create a hashtag for a community challenge and watch it travel across Substack Notes and beyond.
Not because a platform told you to.
Because you decided it meant something.
Chris Messina said hashtags were born of the internet and should be owned by no one.
Things just changed.
Now?
They’re owned by whoever claims them with intention.
Whoever puts meaning behind them.
Whoever builds something around them that improves lives…
The thought leaders can keep the old definition. We’re not in that conversation.
The hashtag is ours now.
If you want it back... come and get it.
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Robin Nathaniel AKA Robbin Marx
TEDx Speaker | Award Winning Author & Social Media Strategist | Gold Telly Award Winner | Davey Award Winner | Two-Time W3 Award Winner
Experience: NBC Sports - Rotoworld, Hashtag Basketball, vidIQ, Fantasy Sports Writers Association
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