Facebook Hashtag 101 for Businesses: What to Do (and What Not to Do)

Over the summer, Facebook introduced their new hashtag feature. If you’re a Twitter or Instagram user, hashtags aren’t so foreign to you. If your main mode of business marketing is Facebook, though, you may not know where to begin. Don’t feel left out if you’re not up on the hashtag trend – it only launched in 2007, when Chris Messina needed a way to monitor user’s interests on Twitter. It wasn’t until 2009 that hashtags went international.

What Is a Hashtag?

A hashtag is a keyword or phrase with the pound sign (#) before it. That pound sign – or “hashtag” – turns the keyword or phrase into a link. When you click the link, other News Feed posts with the same hashtag will pop up. While the word hashtag technically refers to the sign before the word, people use the term “hashtag” to refer to the entire thing (the sign and the word together). For example, someone might say, “That’s a popular hashtag,” referring to “#NYCNightlife.” It’s also important to note that if you’re going to hashtag a phrase instead of just a single word, there can’t be spaces between the words.

Hashtag Feeds

Now, Facebook users can put a hashtag into the search box and see an entire hashtag feed. These feeds work as threads that can keep conversations going and can even resemble real-time chat conversations at times. In order for a business to maximize this feature, they have to monitor popular hashtags in order to get in on the conversation. There are various monitoring tools available, allowing you to keep track of any buzz about your brand or niche. You can also use the tools to find out how successful certain hashtags are, which in turns will help determine which ones to continue using in the future.

What Not to Hashtag

If you take a virtual stroll around Instagram or Twitter, you’ll probably notice a ton of hashtags that don’t really relate to anything specific – there are hashtags that are plays on words or inside jokes. These hashtags aren’t meant to guide a conversation, which makes them useless for most businesses. “Extreme” hashtags are great for social media users who want to showcase their creativity or get a laugh out of their friends, but most businesses won’t be able to make these types of hashtags work for their benefit. The exception is if a business is trying to get a new catchphrase to trend – over time, the public may catch on.

Privacy Settings

Unfortunately, many people on Facebook have their profile relatively private. Since only public hashtags will appear in a search, this can limit how many people a business is able to engage with and how accurate their hashtag monitoring will be. Many businesses find that while utilizing Facebook hashtags is an excellent addition to their marketing campaign, they still have to be active on Twitter. There are far fewer private profiles on Twitter than there are on Facebook, which makes it much easier to tap into hashtag trends and interact with users.

A Few Things to Keep In Mind

Many businesses have their Facebook page connected to Twitter so that every Tweet also ends up on the Facebook News Feed. Any hashtags on a Twitter post will become automatic links when posted on Facebook. The same thing goes for Instagram posts.

Most mobile Facebook users still have to live hashtag-free, as many mobile apps don’t yet support hashtag feeds. While it’s possible to post a hashtag via your mobile app, you won’t be able to click through it via your smartphone.

Don’t overwhelm your posts with hashtags. One or two carefully placed hashtags should benefit your post and page, not confuse consumers or distract from the point of the post.

About Author

Jason Bayless is a professional blogger that gives small business and entrepreneurs SEO advice. He writes for BestSEOCompanies.com, a nationally recognized comparison website of the best SEO services in the United States.