Have you heard? Facebook has jumped on the hashtag bandwagon, and it’s about time! Sure, I’ve always been adamant against using hashtags on Facebook, because up until now it was pointless. But now that Facebook has optimized hashtags for actual functionality, it’s not so bad. In fact, I have a feeling that hashtags on Facebook are going to be great, especially for businesses. Here are the top three reasons why I’m excited about the little pound sign making its debut on Facebook:
Global conversation will be easier: Hashtags will make it a lot simpler for businesses to participate in conversations. Before, businesses were dependent on their own fans to generate conversation on a fan page. Now, businesses can jump right into the chatter if they form a conversation around a hashtag about something popular or relevant. For example, the KWSM team can make a post with a statistic about people using Twitter while watching basketball games, and then hashtag #NBAFinals. This post not only shows up to our Facebook fans, but the hashtag puts our post in a public search feed where everyone else is talking also about #NBAFinals.
One stone can kill two hashtagging birds: If you aren’t feeding your Facebook posts into your Twitter feed yet, do so now! Since businesses will be using a lot of more hashtags in Facebook posts, they can automatically sync these same posts and hashtags with their Twitter accounts. It’s convenient, and allows businesses to join in on the conversation on a different platform. And, since hashtags are allowed on Facebook now, businesses won’t look silly using them in their posts.
Marketing campaigns will have huge potential: Since Facebook posts can now be searchable by hashtags, businesses have the chance to start their own hashtag trends and create marketing campaigns out of them. If a hashtag spreads and garners publicity, anyone on Facebook can click on the hashtag and pull up every post that mentions the hashtag. This could be extremely useful when spreading the word about events or contests on Facebook.
Are you excited about hashtags on Facebook? Let us know on our Facebook page!
