Consuming and Producing on Social Media: A Uses and Gratifications Perspective on Motives of Hashtag Use on Instagram

Hashtags are a central feature on Instagram and represent both modes of consumption and production: Users can click on hashtags to search for and view content, and they can create and add hashtags to their own pictures. Based on the Uses and Gratifications approach, this study is the first to investigate motives for hashtag use on Instagram. Through a two-phase mixed method approach, we first explore uses and gratifications and describe six factors in predicting hashtag use, namely Self-presentation, Chronicling, Inventiveness, Information Seeking, Venting, and Etiquette. Furthermore, testing specific relationships, we find that Etiquette, Chronicling and Self-presentation strongly predict hashtag adding frequency, while clicking is largely predicted by motives of Information Seeking. Exploring individual differences, ‘leaders’ who pool more followers than they follow are highly driven by motives of Self-presentation. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.