These days marketers are being questioned as to whether they have started using hashtags or not? Or do they have a hashtag strategy in place for Facebook? But before we discuss the importance of hashtags, it is important to understand what hashtags are and how should they be used? Hashtags are keywords found within the body of text or added to the end of a status update with the symbol ‘#’ before the word. Hashtags serve the same purpose in social that keywords serve in search. They can be added to text, video or image updates. They are a form of metadata tag.

Hashtags are usable on Facebook. Using a hashtag before a word or phrase turns the word into a clickable link. When you click on the link, you can see posts visible to you due to friend relationship on Facebook that include the hashtag. But how does using hashtags on Facebook help?

Why Should Facebook Hashtags Be Used?

Broaden Your Reach

The use of Hashtags has been successful on various social platforms such as Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram. They help to reach out to people who are interested  or are looking at posts in niche topics which can eventually help build conversations around those topics. Hashtags help give visibility in a scenario where it is very easy to go unnoticed. Hence, including a hashtag in your post can get you to the front of people who may have not seen your post. Tools such as Facebook Insights can help monitor the reach and engagement numbers and can help quantify the difference in posts after the use of hashtags.

Use Across Various Social Platforms

If you’ve already been using hashtags on platforms such as Twitter, Pinterest etc then the progression into Facebook is only natural. It is even possible to post same content across platforms.

Events Can Be Promoted

Hashtags can be used in posts to promote something special, especially events. By having hashtags in your Facebook posts, people can find your content across platforms. Hashtags can be made to fit your marketing goals such as offering coupons, deals, discounts and these can be included in your posts also. However, it is important to ensure that the posts are not hashtag stuffed. Only relevant hashtags should be used and they should be fewer in number.

Build Your Brand

A special hashtag can be used to brand the Facebook page and can be used to promote a new idea or product. By branding the posts about the new product, a separate stream of information can be created and people can easily share information about that product  or idea.

How to Use Facebook Hashtags?

Hashtags Have To Be All One Word

There should not be any spaces when a hashtag is to be used with a word. For example, if you want to use Social marketing in hashtag, it would be #socialmarketing.

Search Results Remain Same Irrespective Of Capitalisation

Whether upper case or lower case is used in hashtags, the results will not change. #socialmarketing or #SocialMarketing will show the same search results.

No Approvals Are Needed For Hashtags

Hashtags do not need approvals and you can make whatever hashtags you want. Ideally there are no rules governing hashtags, however it is best to make them short and easy to understand. Complex, hard to read or overly abbreviated hashtags should be avoided.

Align Your Hashtags With The Company Message

It is important to research the hashtags before using them. It is important to ensure that the you do not end up using the same hashtag which is being used by someone else. Hashtags used should align with what your company’s message is.

Check Your Privacy Settings

A hashtag does not make a post public. A hashtag added to a post that you share with friends only will be visible only to that group of your friends. You can control the privacy on your profile.