How To Run A Hashtag Campaign To Boost Engagement

You've got a product people like and you want them posting about it, with a hashtag that ties every post back to you. The idea is the easy part. The hard part is knowing who posted, picking a winner and reusing the best posts afterwards, because Instagram and X now limit what tools can see.

So this guide starts with how to collect the entries in 2026, then covers how to design a hashtag campaign people join.

This is the part that changed. Posting with a hashtag is public, but platforms don't hand every detail of those posts to outside tools.

Gleam's Instagram Hashtags import (Business Plan and above) pulls in photos, videos and Reels posted with your hashtag. Instagram doesn't share usernames, profile pictures or timestamps for hashtag posts, so those entries come in anonymous. That's fine for spotting good content. It's no use for contacting a winner.

So ask entrants to @mention your account and use the hashtag. The Instagram Mentions import (also Business Plan) brings in posts that mention your Business account, with the entrant's @username, and you can filter it to posts that also carry your hashtag.

Gleam's X hashtag import is temporarily unavailable. For an X hashtag campaign, collect the entry in the Gleam widget (an Upload action for photos, or the Answer a Question action for text) and add a Post on X action so entrants share it publicly with your hashtag.

You can use the widget route on every platform. Entrants upload their photo, you get their details and their consent in one place, and the hashtag post becomes the public side of the campaign. It also means your winner draw doesn't depend on what a platform shares that week.

Each platform has its own promotion rules, and two matter most for your hashtag campaign.

Instagram's promotion guidelines (checked 30 October 2026) require a complete release of Instagram by each entrant and an acknowledgement that Instagram doesn't sponsor, endorse or run the promotion. They also ban encouraging inaccurate tagging, so don't ask people to tag themselves or friends in photos they're not in. Our Instagram giveaway rules guide has the rest.

X's Guidelines for Promotions ask that hashtags stay relevant to the post and that you don't reward duplicate posts.

Gleam generates Terms & Conditions for every Competition, and custom terms are on the Hobby Plan and above. If you plan to reuse entrants' photos, say so in the terms.

The campaigns that work ask for one specific thing. Pick the job before you pick the tag:

• Answers and stories: A question your customers enjoy answering, like their best win with your product
• Proof the product works: Before-and-after photos
• Ideas: "Name our next roast" or "design our next tee". Lay's Do Us a Flavor is the big-budget version, with nearly 3.8 million flavour ideas in 2013 and a public vote on three finalists
• Giveaway entries: A quick public answer in exchange for a chance to win
• Photos and videos: The most useful thing a hashtag can bring you, and the hardest to get

Deliveroo's #FridayNightDeliveroo giveaway is the giveaway job done well. People shared a favourite film and takeaway combo for £20 of credit, so the answer took seconds and every entry was a public post about Friday night food.

GoPro's #GoProSnow shows the photo job. It asks for footage the brand can feature, from people who were filming anyway.

Expect fewer photo entries than comments. The median comment Action on a Gleam giveaway collected 34 comments, so half collected fewer. The median upload Action collected 9 submissions. That's across 7,800+ competitions with a comment Action and 5,900+ with an upload, all with 100 or more Entrants, May 2020 to August 2026. Our UGC benchmarks break that down by widget length.

A good hashtag tells people what you want them to post, says who it's for and reads at a glance. Apple's #ShotoniPhone names the product and the kind of post in three words.

Keep it short and capitalise each word (#ThisIsLiving, not #thisisliving), which helps people read it and screen readers say it properly.

Put your brand in it, or ask people to @mention you as well. A generic tag like #SummerVibes gets lost in everyone else's posts.

Before launch, search the tag on every platform you'll use. If it's already busy, or it means something you'd rather not be linked to, change it now.

Nobody wants to be first under your empty hashtag. Post three to five examples yourself on day one (staff, friends, a few loyal customers), then reshare every good entry as it comes in, so people can see others joining. If the tag runs every week, post to it every week yourself.

Here's how that looks for a small business:

Your entrants' posts keep working after the campaign ends, if people can find them. A Gleam Gallery displays approved entries on your site, so a product page can show real customers using the product. Reuse a photo in ads or emails only when your terms cover it, and credit the person who took it.

For more on reuse, read how to use user-generated content in your marketing.