Hashtags: Motivational drivers, their use, and differences between influencers and followers

Hashtags have become a ubiquitous and seminal feature of social media; however, a comprehensive understanding of what motivates and predicts their use is yet to be addressed. To fill this gap, this research investigates motives of hashtag use and their effect on behavioral outcomes based on the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) approach. Through a two-phase mixed method data collection, we distill six motives of hashtag use in the context of...