All You Need to Know About TBT Hashtag

We are living in a technology age and the most popular technological thing of the last 20 years or so is social media. It is really hard to find someone who hasn’t heard of social media. On these platforms, one of the most popular things is hashtags, and if you have never heard of it, it is a word or phrase written together and there is a “#” in front of it. You can see hashtags on any digital written content and probably the most popular hashtag is TBT hashtag.

Did you ever wonder about the story behind this hashtag, or how can it be used? In this article we will dive into the details of TBT together. Let’s begin!

What is a TBT Hashtag?

First of all, TBT means Throwback Thursday, which can be used as “#ThrowbackThursday” or “#TBT” on social media. It is an internet trend and generally used on the posts of a photo because it tells people something about it. When you see a photo on a social media app with the TBT hashtag, it means that today is Thursday, and you a throwback to a past day, generally. So, it is used to give a feeling of nostalgia.

How It Started to Be Used?

As we said, it is a trend, and every trend has its own starting point. However, the starting point of TBT on a social media app is unknown. However, according to an American sports magazine named Sports Illustrated, the origin of the TBT is attributed to a blog about sneakers named Nice Kicks. On a Thursday, the admin of this blog posted something, and this began to be a routine. So, on every Thursday old basketball shoes are shared on a regular basis which was titled “Throwback Thursday”. This is how this hashtag started to be used, and the earliest use found on social media was by an Instagram user named “@bobbysander22”.

How Did It Become Popular?

Of course, it did not become popular by the moment it first started to be used. With the help of Google Trends, it started to be popular in February 2012 but started to be used in 2011. The reason it became popular was the social media apps, and thus their users. In February 2012, Kim Kardashian and her family started to use the Throwback Thursday hashtag on a regular basis, in this way, the hashtag began to be popular. It has become so popular that today TBT has been used over 500 million times, only on Instagram.

What Kind of Content Can Your TBT

After this background information, we can now take a look at the things you need to know about the #TBT itself. First of all, the very important thing is the content of it because if you go on a social media app and search the hashtag, you can even find some irrelevant content, now. Of course, this is because you have complete freedom in choosing which photo to share, and what you want to write below. But this does not mean that you don’t need to use this hashtag properly. Here are some posts you can use with this hashtag:

You may have some retro or old-school photos of yourself or your loved ones. This can be the type of photo that will give a nostalgic feeling. You can also share some old photos just to make fun of if some awkward or hilarious moments were captured. Thirdly, you can use #TBT to show your Instagram followers a location that you have visited before and loved. Lastly, you can use this hashtag to mark a milestone like the date of a popular music group’s debut album.

How to Properly Use #ThrowbackThursday Hashtag?

Of course, the content of your post is important to use this hashtag with, but there are a few more things to use it properly. For example, you need to find the proper social media app to share. Because if you want to share a photo from your childhood and your friends are all in your Instagram account, it will be better to share it on Instagram. Also, with the hashtag, it is better if you add a short caption so that your post will be more expressive.

There are of course some reasons to use this hashtag properly because you can benefit from it. By sharing content with #TBT, you can have a stronger engagement with your followers. Also, if you use it as an influencer, it is better for you to properly use it because of the algorithm. Because of the strong engagement of this hashtag’s popularity, the algorithm tends to suggest your posts more. This hashtag can be used on a specific day of the week, so you can use it every week, thus you can get interaction every week.

Similar Hashtags like TBT

Did you like the TBT hashtag? And you wish that there were some more similar hashtags? Your wish was already accepted. For example, there is #flashbackfriday, which was popular several months before the use of TBT. There is also #waybackwednesday, similar to throwback Thursday and flashback Friday. You can even find a hashtag for every day of the week: There is #caturday for cat lovers to use on Saturdays, #selfcaresunday to share self-care routines, #transformationtuesday to share before-after photos of a process, or growth and a lot more!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is TBT still popular?

Yes. There are still lots of social media users using this hashtag every day, in 2024. Some of these posts are relevant to the hashtag, and some of them are not.

On which platforms can you use TBT?

You can use this hashtag on all social media platforms where you can share something with an audience, not on direct sharing. There are Instagram, X, and Facebook to use while sharing content. These apps are some of the most popular ones, but there are more.