“Hashtags don’t work.” Those three words from Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri sent shockwaves through the marketing world. During a Daily Mail interview, he effectively killed a strategy that brands have relied on for years.
Most social media managers have spent hours researching trending tags, developing branded hashtags, and selecting relevant terms for each post. But when marketers tested Mosseri’s claim, many found he was right. Posts without hashtags sometimes reached more people than identical content loaded with carefully researched tags.
Hashtags haven’t completely disappeared from the ecosystem. They’ve been demoted from growth drivers to organizational tools. The algorithm has gotten smarter and now understands what your content is about without requiring those explicit content labels.
For marketers ready to ditch the hashtag obsession, this shift is your chance. Focus on what actually grows accounts in 2025.
Instagram’s New Engagement Currency
Forget like counts. They’re yesterday’s vanity metric.
Instagram now evaluates content based on much deeper engagement metrics:
Watch Time & Completion Rate
When someone stops scrolling to watch your entire Reel rather than flicking past after two seconds, that’s gold. The algorithm heavily weights content that holds attention.
Saves: The Ultimate Engagement Signal
When someone taps that bookmark icon, they’re saying, “This is so valuable I want to reference it later.” This sends a powerful signal to Instagram about your content quality.
Meaningful Conversation
Comments like “Nice” or “Love it” barely register anymore. What matters is actual dialogue, questions, detailed responses, and back-and-forth exchanges that show people genuinely care about what you’re posting.
Four Strategies That Actually Drive Growth
With these new signals in mind, successful brands have pivoted to strategies that generate these deeper forms of engagement:
Create Content Worth Saving
The best-performing posts solve actual problems. They provide information or insights valuable enough that someone would want to reference them later.
Before posting, ask: “Would someone find this valuable enough to come back to later? Would they send this to a friend who needs exactly this information?”
Master the Art of the Hook
You have approximately three seconds to convince someone not to scroll past your content.
The accounts seeing the most growth front-load their Reels with:
- Unexpected visuals that stop thumbs mid-scroll
- Provocative statements that challenge assumptions
- Clear value propositions (“Here’s how to solve X problem”)
Successful hooks create a curiosity gap – they present enough information to spark interest while requiring viewers to keep watching for the payoff.
Optimize for Search, Not Discovery
Instagram has transformed into a search-first platform. Users increasingly search for specific topics rather than endlessly browsing hashtag pages or even their own feeds.
Smart brands are treating Instagram more like Google:
- Using natural, conversational keywords in their captions
- Including searchable terms in their profile name (not just username)
- Writing descriptive alt text for images
- Creating content that answers common questions in their niche
Build Community, Not Just an Audience
The accounts seeing sustainable growth focus on fostering genuine connections rather than broadcasting to passive followers.
This means:
- Responding thoughtfully to comments
- Creating content that directly addresses audience questions
- Showing genuine interest in followers’ content
- Facilitating connections between community members
Instagram’s algorithm notices these relationship patterns. Accounts that regularly interact with each other are more likely to see each other’s content.
Three Frameworks That Actually Work
The Content Pillar Approach
The accounts that grow consistently organize everything around 3-5 core themes that match both what they’re good at and what their audience cares about.
A fitness brand might build their entire content strategy around just a handful of categories:
- Form tutorials (showing how to do exercises properly)
- Nutrition guidance (easy meal prep ideas)
- Recovery tips
- Client transformations
- Mindset boosters
This creates a coherent feed where followers know exactly what they’re getting. It also makes content planning easier.
The 70-20-10 Rule
The brands that maintain steady growth follow this simple ratio:
- 70% = content you KNOW works with your audience
- 20% = trendy stuff (jumping on whatever’s hot)
- 10% = experimental content that might totally bomb
That last 10% is crucial. Without it, you’ll eventually hit a wall as your audience gets bored seeing the same content repeatedly.
Strategic Collaborations
The native collaboration tool lets you essentially borrow another account’s audience. The trick is finding complementary partners, not competitors.
For example, a home organization account partnered with a cleaning brand on a series called “15-minute cleanup challenges.” Both accounts grew by tapping into each other’s followers.
Duolingo’s Success Formula
Duolingo has built 4.6 million followers for a language learning app with three key approaches:
- First, they’ve turned their green owl mascot into a character with a distinctive personality. He’s not just a logo – he’s a character people follow.
- Second, they’re extremely quick with trends. While most brands are getting approval from legal, Duolingo has already posted and moved on.
- Third, they understand that entertainment comes first. They rarely focus on product features, instead leading with content that people actually want to see in their feeds.
Are Hashtags Completely Worthless Now?
Not 100%. But close.
Hashtags have been demoted from “growth strategy” to “organizational tool.” They’re the file folders of Instagram, not the promotional flyers.
We’ve tested this extensively across dozens of accounts. Here’s what we found:
- Using 2-4 highly specific hashtags often outperforms using none
- Using more than 7 almost always hurts performance
- The more generic the hashtag, the less valuable it is
So when DO hashtags still matter? Three cases:
For Local Businesses
If you’re a Miami bakery, #MiamiBakery still works because people actually search that term when looking for bakeries in Miami.
Same for #ChicagoPhotographer or #SeattleWedding. Specific geographic tags continue to drive discovery for local businesses.
For Niche Hobby Communities
Specialized interest groups still rally around specific hashtags. If you’re into #AmigurumiBeginner or #SourdoughBread, you might browse these tags to find fellow enthusiasts.
The more obscure and passionate the interest, the more likely hashtags still function as community gathering spots.
For Campaign Tracking
Branded hashtags are still useful for collecting user-generated content. If you’re running a contest or campaign, a unique hashtag helps you track participation.
But this is about organization, not reach. The hashtag helps you find the content later – it doesn’t significantly amplify who sees it initially.
Your No-BS Action Plan for 2025
Fix Your Profile Today
Your profile is essentially your storefront.
- Add a keyword to your handle if possible (@miami.food.photographer vs. @mikesmith123)
- Put 2-3 searchable terms in your name field (the text under your profile pic)
- Rewrite your bio to clearly answer: What do you offer? Who is it for? Why follow?
- Link to something genuinely valuable, not just your homepage
Study Winners
Don’t just analyze huge accounts – they play by different rules.
Find 5 accounts in your niche that have grown from roughly your size to 2-3x your size in the past year.
Then:
- Screenshot their top-performing posts (sort by saves, not likes)
- Study their first 3 seconds of video content
- Note what questions actually get comment responses
- Look for content patterns you could adapt
Create a Realistic Content Rhythm
Be honest about what you can sustain.
For most brands, this is realistic:
- 2 Reels weekly (focus on your highest-performing topics)
- 1 carousel post that teaches something specific
- Daily story engagement (even just 2-3 slides)
- Monthly collaborations with complementary accounts
Track What Actually Matters
Stop obsessing over follower count.
Start tracking:
- Save rate (saves ÷ impressions)
- Profile visits from content
- Message/comment response percentage
- Video completion rate
These metrics predict growth. Follower count just measures past success.
Upgrade Your Calls-to-Action
Nobody responds to “like and follow!” anymore.
Try:
- “Save this for the next time you need to [solve specific problem]”
- “Send this to someone who struggles with [specific issue]”
- “What’s your biggest challenge with [topic]? I read every comment.”
- “Check my previous post for part 1 of this technique”
These get 5-10x the engagement of generic CTAs.
Instagram finally grew up.
The shift away from hashtags isn’t just a technical update, it’s the platform finally aligning with how humans actually behave instead of how marketers wish they would behave.
Now, Instagram rewards what should have mattered all along: creating content that people genuinely want to engage with, save, and share. Content that solves problems, starts conversations, or makes someone’s day better.
The most successful accounts in 2025 won’t be the ones with the most hashtags or even the biggest production budgets. They’ll be the ones that stay laser-focused on delivering value and building real connections.
