Your Guide to Facebook #Hashtags

Facebook has officially launched #hashtags. While hashtags have been a staple of conversation on Twitter, these tools now make Facebook a much more robust platform for discovering shared trends and interests amongst your connections. Simply put, this feature makes the need to leave Facebook, far less appealing.

How Facebook #hashtags work:

Facebook #hashtags will appear as clickable links in posts showing on Timelines and Newsfeeds. Engaging with the #hashtag will open a separate feed that collates conversations from Pages and people who have used the same #hashtag. Additionally, users can find posts related to specific topics or interests by searching on Facebook for relevant #hashtags.

  • #Hashtags will now be hyperlinked to a “page” with a history, and a “status update” window to join the conversation.
  • #Hashtags when clicked in the newsfeed will create an “overlay”, but the URL generated can be used for direct linking.
  • #Hashtags do not impact the distribution of content on Facebook’s news feed algorithm, but have the potential to increase engagement and discovery.
  • You do not have to create #hashtag pages on Facebook; Facebook will automatically go through every page’s history to determine the links.
  • #Hashtag results include posts that are first related to your friend graph, but then show public results from pages and people.
  • #Hashtags currently are only clickable on desktop, not mobile.
  • #Hashtags do not change your current privacy settings so if your posts can only be seen by friends, then your posts with #hashtags would also only be seen by friends.

 

If you are currently using a #hashtag for a campaign, whether on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, that #hashtag campaign will work on Facebook. Any #hashtags that are posted through linked third party sites will automatically populate on Facebook.

Don’t go #hashtagging everything (yet): #Hashtags to this point have been primarily on Twitter and Facebook communities may not understand their usage right away when they appear on Facebook. With this feature only being rolled out to a small percentage of users at this time, we recommend waiting until there is more widespread adoption before implementing a Facebook #hashtag strategy in your content plan.

Just as it is on Twitter, being part of a relevant and current #hashtag conversation on Facebook could have the potential to increase engagement. Brands can leverage #hashtags to create real-time content and stay relevant in conversation. Content can be adjusted based on what people are saying in reference to #hashtags for specific events, brands or announcements.

Currently, when a user searches a #hashtag for a brand, Twitter results will be the first ones shown. The inclusion of #hashtags on Facebook could lead to more traffic on a branded Facebook properties as well. This is especially important for entertainment brands or those with TV advertisement integration in their #hashtag campaigns.

This is a big content marketing opportunity; the ability to increase the reach of your posts by using trending #hashtags is brand new for Facebook marketers. Watch, measure and jump on the trend if it’s appropriate to your brand — the results have the potential to be big.