How To Write Accessible Hashtags That Are Easy to Read

Celine’s colleague stopped her before she could publish her post on their academic department’s Instagram page. Something wasn’t quite right.

“The post was aimed at international students,” said Celine. “We wanted more applicants for our forestry internship program. I posted some great images from last summer’s program. The necessary information was all there. I hadn’t made any typos or grammar mistakes.”

So what was the problem? These hashtags!

#forestryinternshipprogram #summerinternshipprogram #internshipforinternationalstudents

Celina had written others which included the name of the school. They were even longer.

“Imagine that English isn’t your first language,” said Celine’s colleague, Rosie. “How would those hashtags look to you?”

Celine realized that Rosie was right. The hashtags were too hard to read. She needed to change them to make them more accessible.

Hashtag Formatting Matters

Let’s take a closer look at one of Celine’s hashtags:

#forestryinternshipprogram

Confusing, isn’t it? Without any visual breaks, your brain has to work harder to make sense of it.

Hashtags like this can create problems for:

• Non-native English speakers
• Native English speakers with reading or language disabilities
• Screen reader users
• Anyone who quickly scans social media content

Formatting isn’t just a style choice. Attention spans on social media tend to be short. Instead of taking the time to figure out a confusing hashtag, most users will move on to something else.

Capitalization Is Key

Now we will look at Celine’s hashtag again. But this time, we’ll make a few small changes:

#ForestryInternshipProgram

Much better! Capitalizing the first letter of each word really makes a huge difference! Here’s why:

It helps people read faster. When each word in a hashtag is capitalized, our brains don’t have to slow down to make sense of them. We also don’t have to guess where one word ends and the next one begins.

It supports screen readers. Screen readers are used by people with visual impairments. They convert text into speech or braille. When you capitalize each word in a hashtag, it helps these tools “see” where each word starts.

It prevents misunderstandings. Without capitalization, some hashtags can be read in different ways. For example, #notableauthors can be read as “not able authors” or “no table authors”. Meanwhile, #NotableAuthors makes it clear that the post is about famous writers.

It helps you connect with a wider audience. Clear capitalization makes your content easier for everyone to understand without extra effort. It’s a big part of making your writing more inclusive.

Before Celine made any changes, she had a question for Rosie. “What about search results? If I capitalize some letters, will the algorithms treat my hashtags differently?”

“No,” said Rosie. “The search results will be the same.”

“Okay,” said Celine. “I’ll make some changes.”

 

Best Practices for Writing Hashtags

In addition to capitalizing the first letter of each word, here are some other tips for writing hashtags:

1. Keep hashtags short

Even with capitalization, Celine’s hashtags were too long. So she shortened them.

❌ #ForestryInternshipProgram
✅ #ForestryInternship

❌ #SummerInternshipProgram
✅ #SummerInternship

❌ #InternshipForInternationalStudents
✅ #InternationalStudents

2. Avoid unnecessary words

Articles and prepositions can usually be removed.

❌ #BestNovelsOf2025
✅ #BestNovels2025

3. Check for unintended meanings

Always scan your hashtag quickly to see if it could be misread.

4. Be consistent

All hashtags in a post should be formatted the same way.

5. Capitalize all letters in an acronym

Does your hashtag include an acronym like UK, FIFA, NYC, or IELTS? If so, capitalize every letter in the acronym, not just the first letter.

6. You can use lower-case letters for one-word hashtags

Many hashtags consist of just one word. You don’t need to capitalize it if it’s a common noun like #coffee, #kittens, or #tennis. Hashtags like #dancing or #funny are also okay.

However, if the word in your hashtag is a proper noun, then it should be capitalized. For example, #English and #Harvard are clearer and look more professional than #english and #harvard. They are also grammatically correct!

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It’s easy to think of hashtags as just tools for social media algorithms. But keep in mind that real people are reading them. They’re the ones who will give you clicks, likes, shares, and comments.

If your hashtag is easy to read, easy to understand, and accessible, you’re already ahead of most social media users.

And if you’re not sure whether your hashtags look and sound natural, you can always have them checked by an English expert at TextRanch. We can check your whole social media post as well!