Hashtagging Practices of Arab Influencers: An Exploratory Case Study of Language, Function, and Platformed Identity

This study examines hashtagging practices among six selected Arab influencers on Instagram and Twitter/X, focusing on hashtag function, placement, length, and language choice. Drawing on an exploratory content-analytic design, it analyses 3208 hashtag-level observations from 733 posts produced between 2016 and 2021. The study treats hashtags as platformed multilingual resources rather than as simple indexing devices. The findings show that functional hashtags dominate the dataset, but entertaining, inspirational, spiritual, and advertisement-related hashtags also reveal how influencers use hashtags to signal stance, create audience proximity, mark cultural and religious affiliation, and support commercial or lifestyle visibility. Platform differences are also evident: Instagram hashtags are mostly appended, short, and frequently in English, while Twitter/X hashtags are more often embedded, longer, and predominantly Arabic. Language choice further shows how Arabic, English, dialectal Arabic, and transliterated forms perform different identity and visibility functions. Overall, the study shows that Arab influencers’ hashtag usage is not merely a search tool but a reflection of digital identity and cultural discourse.