Infographic: How many hashtags are too many?

Some would say one hashtag is one too many.

We can probably agree that hashtag overuse is irritating. (See Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake.) And it's one way to lose followers and friends.

This is doubly true for brands, say the social media analysts at Socialbakers. They looked at hashtags in branded Facebook posts for one month and found that as the number of hashtags went up, interactions with consumers took a dive. Statista illustrates those stats in graphic form below.

You will find more statistics at Statista.

Hashtags, however, can work for brands, experts say. When they're relevant -- or clever. For example, in 2012, Domino's in the United Kingdom paired #letsdolunch with an offer to drop the price of its pepperoni pizza. The more tweets using that hashtag, the more the price would drop. The result was half-price pizza and a lot of social media love. The company called it a roaring success, despite any quibbles on the numbers.

Charmin has seen some pop with its humorous hashtag #tweetfromtheseat.

If Twitter really does retire the hashtag and the @ symbol, as the L.A. Times' Sal Rodriguez reports, wonder what brands will do then?

Follow me at @AmyTheHub