Hashtags On Facebook: What It Is And How It Works

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word “Hashtag”? Of course, it’s nothing else but Twitter. There is no doubt that Twitter’s trademark is the # sign that almost automatically elicit a blue bird image in our mind. You can see it almost anywhere; in billboards, newspapers, TV, and other types of media. So will it be a surprise if Facebook will also take advantage of this famous # sign?

Recently, Facebook finally announced the arrival of hashtags in their neighborhood. The clickable hashtags can now be used the same way as it is being used in Twitter. It reaps many reactions from ordinary people to the rich and famous.

What are hashtags?

Aside from the obvious # sign, hashtags basically functions in three important ways. First, hashtags are used to find similar comments easily. Second, it is used to group trending topics and identify them. Third, hashtags are clickable that will lead you to a page where all tweets or posts about that hash-tagged word are mentioned.

Before Hashtag officially becomes part of Facebook

Previously, you might be seeing hashtags in Facebook and they are not clickable. Thus, these people might be dumb to put a hashtag that doesn’t even work and useless. But this is not the case most of the time.

First of all, Facebook and Twitter can now be linked together. So whatever you post in Facebook will be shown in your Twitter and the same thing goes if you post something in your Twitter. Because of this, Twitter users might unknowingly or unnecessarily made a post in Facebook with a hashtag which is supposed to be only meant for Twitter.

In addition to this, there are now social media management tools that link almost all your social media that gives marketing businesses to fully reach everyone across different platforms. One good example of this is the HootSuite which allows you to display one post in all your social media sites.

Aside from the people who use hashtags for no good reasons, the points mentioned above can simply explain why you are finding hashtags all over Facebook. For some people, this can be very annoying and frustrating. I can understand why this is the case.

The arrival of hashtags on Facebook

There is no doubt that all social networking sites aim to create individuality and uniqueness. Thus most websites are doing their best to be different from others. They strive to create a name for themselves. But Facebook has something else in mind. It is ready to evolve and keep changing to better their users’ experience, even if it means copying a trademark from its competitors.

You’ll find that most of the posts found in the hashtag page are made by people you don’t know. The hashtag page is actually a public page where all conversations will be displayed. See (screenshot below) how I posted a status with a “#productivity” hashtag and all users that posted public status on their profile with the same tag also showed up?

When you hashtagged a word, it means that you are giving the permission that your post will be displayed in the public domain (well it depends on your post’s privacy setting).

What the hashtag will mean to every Facebook user?

This new addition will definitely again affect our socializing skills! With the strength of Twitter fused now with Facebook, it’s not hard to see who is winning the battle over supremacy in social networking sites.

But what will this mean to you? Obviously, this will enhance your experience while using Facebook. It will help you find relevant topics in the easiest ways possible.

For those internet marketers out there, they have a new avenue to further increase the effectiveness of their social media strategies.

Hashtags on Facebook has opened up a floodgate of opportunities to make business-oriented Facebook users to be more visible and even more recognizable in the public eyes’ view.

The future of hashtag in Facebook

Some other benefits of hashtags in Facebook will remain to be seen in the following weeks, months, and even years. Though we might not know for sure what the future holds, it’s most certain that Facebook will remain dynamic and ever changing to accommodate the current demands in social networking site.

With the arrival of hashtags, there are many things that will affect the ordinary Facebook user. How will it affect you or me? Will it make any difference at all? Where will this lead us? Is our privacy still safe with hashtag revealing almost all our public conversations? Will it be more useful rather than being a cause of more problems? These are some of the questions that will be clearly answered when the right time comes.

How about you, do you have any idea or reaction about the recent addition of hashtag to Facebook? If yes, feel free to leave a comment below.