Why do people use hashtags to mark their posts on Facebook, Twitter etc?
While hashtags were intended to help people talk about different topics and help people join or follow along, in practice, people have taken to the form to intimate a kind of aside, or whispered comment that tweaks their meaning slightly. It's like shrugging your shoulders and grimacing while saying "I'm sorry I puked on your cat." Your body language tells the listener "well, I am sorry, but not that sorry because I hate your cat." But how do you express that in a text-only medium (without relying on emoji)? How about I'm sorry I puked on your cat. #sorryNotSorrySee how the meaning changes? You can still read the original message, but the hashtag (in this case) is used to fill in for the missing body language.Or at least that's what I think it does.
What are good ways to use Facebook hashtags?
Hashtag turns your post into clickable links and makes your post more searchable on the platform.However, the Facebook search isn’t all that great and hence hashtags aren’t as useful here as they are on other platforms.Why?Reason being the users on Facebook have already chosen what pages, people they want to see, they wish to see only what they have chosen and things similar to it. Users of other platforms like Instagram and twitter are more exploratory by nature because is built that way.When you click on a hashtag you will be able to see all the post mentioning that hashtag on one page.The hashtag in facebook doesn't behave the same way as other platforms. Like on Instagram if you use a lot of hashtags you will get increased reach. In Facebook, if you use too many hashtags your reach will decrease. One or two is just fine.For example, I am working on launching my husband’s book launch “START LYING. STOP MOVING” and for the same, I wanted to make a hashtag, that solves below purpose:It has high recallIt resonates with my audienceIt is already trendingMy hashtag comes from the other half of the title #StartMoving . The first half stand alone leaves a negative impact.I made a quick search on the keywords and found it is trending. In ideal case someone reading the post feels curious about the post then should click on #StartMoving(click to see how it works) to see what other people are saying. This often happens in Instagram and twitter and rarely on Facebook.Tips:Use your existing Instagram and twitter hashtags on Facebook to have an integrated communication.Create your own hashtag to have more relevance to your audience. If you do not have the capacity to trend it use relevant, already trending hashtag.
How will Facebook's use of #hashtags affect social media marketing?
Actually it hasn't affected it that much. Or I’d say, I guess that before introducing hashtags to the platform everyone expected that they will have much more significant impact and usage.The reality is that brands are actually not using hashtags much. Just take a look at this chart:Of almost 10k posts we analyzed, only approx. 15% contained at least one hashtag.On the other hand, our further research shows that once we use hashtags on Facebook, they do have impact on the performance of our posts.Interactivity Index is a aggregated engagement metric.Using from 1 up to 3 hashtags can significantly improve the engagement our posts get!So I’d rather sum it up that way - hashtags on Facebook could have an impact on social media reality but we are simply not taking advantage of this possibility.Hope it clears your mind!
Why do people use hashtags on Facebook? What do they want to convey?
Hashtags are often used as a quick way to convey emotions or specify the theme or topic of status update on Facebook.They became an easy way to construct catchphrases on Facebook and to provide a comedic turn on a sentence that otherwise would be taken seriously or for face value.As other answerers pointed out, some also got used to traditions on other networks where hashtags work, such as Instagram's #throwbackthursday-s.
Should I add hashtags on my Facebook posts?
Ooh don't do it! Please don't do it….except of course... If not for anything else, hash tags are ugly as (insert demeaning description). They just mess up the readers flow.Seriously speaking though, why do we need hashtags?to improve searchability,to improve performance of posts (that's all I can think about on the bounce)Facebook is setup in such a way that hash tags DO NOT particularly influence the performance of your posts. @Serene Yeung puts this clearly with the stats. This is the same with LinkedIn. With Instagram and Twitter, it's a necessity. However, as I said they're so ugly, they are hidden way below the discerning eyes of the readers (cue the barrage of hashtags hiding in the comment section of instagram posts)Except you are running a targeted campaign. A campaign that promotes a particular line brand product (#FirstNeverFollows), or one that promotes a cause (#BringBackOurGirls)... You get the idea!
Should you use hashtags in your Facebook page posts? Is the benefit of it proven in any way?
I think the benefit of hashtags across social media in general has been proven particularly well on platforms such as Twitter & Instagram mainly. Pinterest is new to the hashtag game. For Facebook it’s early days in regards to “proving” the benefit, but my opinion is that if there is something on Facebook that could potentially increase your organic reach, then grab it & run with it.People are generally lazy in nature while scrolling social feeds. If they can click a hashtag and see posts related to their interests, they’ll do it… I do!So let’s also quickly talk SEO, because this can help. I just put my business hashtag #IntellMarketingAU into Google and it came back with my Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook profiles plus showing off a random selection of about 6 images that I’ve shared. That’s not a bad turn out!Aesthetically speaking, FB users are not conditioned to the sight of a dozen hashtags on a post, so to limit the number of them to one or two well-researched & well-targeted hashtags would be wise (use Find and Analyse Top Twitter and Instagram Hashtags | Hashtagify )So, should you? I say yes.To your success, GrahamIntell Marketing: Social Media Management - Intell Marketing
What's the best way to implement #hashtags in social media marketing?
Hashtags mean networking, discovering, community building opportunities, popularity. Knowing how to use them and when will bring you higher advantages.For maximum performance, it is best to apply different hashtag strategy for each channel.Focus on engagement on Twitter. They say that "Tweets you are likely to care about most will show up first in your timeline based on accounts you interact with most, Tweets you engage with, and much more."Use less competitive hashtags on Instagram. If you want to extend the lifespan of your post and appear in the "Most recent" section try and use less competitive hashtags.Use fewer hashtags in a single post on Facebook. A research by Trackmaven studies showed that the more hashtags a post has the weaker the engagement. Facebook algorithms point exactly what types of posts receive higher importance and value.Following the audience and your competition on the matter you’ll get great insights to correctly set up your hashtags. Using hashtags on your posts will be like a helping hand to users in their quest of finding your brand as a response to their interests and needs.
Hashtags on Facebook: Does it help with any additional exposure for brands? How does Facebook intend to monetize hashtags?
Hashtags are a pretty new feature on facebook. You dismiss them at your own risk. And 'forced' is an inaccurate description. Once their intentions are clear, you'll be able to decide for yourself if it assistes with brand exposure, but you need to consider the faint possibility that the feature is aimed at improving the user experience, not necessarily just an aid to milking users.