The Future of Social Media Noise: Keep or Banish Hashtags?

The Buzz 1: "#Hashtags aren't as cool as they once were…A Next Web study found that more than half of consumers don't search for hashtags or use hashtags on their own content.… Spammers and bots are targeting popular hashtags at high rates, even if the hashtag isn't relevant to the content. This adds "noise" to the social sphere." (sellerschoice.digital) The Buzz 2: "It's been 13 years since the founding of the hashtag and marketers are now questioning if hashtags are still relevant…When we asked our community on our Instagram about hashtags, 66% said they're a key part of their social strategies but 34% said they're "over them." (sproutsocial.com) The Buzz 3: "Everyone's like sheep on social media; like, one person starts making noise, and everyone's like, 'Hey, yeah!' and then you got a whole bunch of people making noise at you." (Earl Sweatshirt, American rapper, songwriter, record producer) We'll ask Mike Grehan, Crispin Sheridan, Isabella Wang and Janet E. Johnson for their take on The Future of Social Media Noise: Time to Banish Hashtags?