Now you can #hashtag away on Facebook. Following in the footsteps of Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Pinterest, Facebook will soon allow all users to incorporate clickable hashtags into their posts on the social networking site. Now Facebook users, too, will be able to click on hashtags to follow real-time conversations about topics that interest them. In a blog post yesterday Facebook hinted at the potential for huge user adoption:
“During primetime television alone, there are between 88 and 100 million Americans engaged on Facebook – roughly a Super Bowl-sized audience every single night. The recent “Red Wedding” episode of Game of Thrones, received over 1.5 million mentions on Facebook, representing a significant portion of the 5.2 million people who watched the show. And this year’s Oscars buzz reached an all-time high on Facebook with over 66.5 million interactions, including likes, comments, and posts.”
Introducing Hashtags on Facebook
- Search for a specific hashtag from your search bar. For example, #NBAFinals
- Click on hashtags that originate on other services, such as Instagram
- Compose posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results
Users will still be able to control the audience for individual posts, even those posts that incorporate hashtags. The New York Times’ Bits blog suggests that Facebook’s hashtag service is already available to about 20% of Facebook users, while other users will gain access gradually. Facebook also mentioned that additional features, such as trending hashtags and improved insights, are coming soon.
Though marketers can’t purchase hashtags just yet, Mashable suggests Facebook is likely to use hashtags as an added advertising revenue stream in the future. This could be a tricky endeavor given that most Facebook posts are private, not public. For now, though, Facebook is encouraging brands to use hashtags to promote their posts in an organic, not a paid, way.
What do you think about Facebook incorporating #hashtags? Are hashtags an appropriate addition to the social network or do you think they’ll just be a nuisance?
A step in the right direction.
Just a nuisance for me. I already know how to get to quality commentators and content. Hashtags put an army of noise at my fingertip.
its definitely a good step. for me, hashtags should be incorporated in all social media aspects…
nice post
Definitely a smart move. One that I’m happy to see. Great for branding.
Nice Idea, still not working for me as yet – wish they’d give more detail on roll out timing.
Really #ugly and the typical #fbuser has no clue what a #hashtag is or why; so why? #facebook still doesn’t know who is their #customer.
I think it will be effective and an additional tool that can be used to find and/or follow specific info.
I think it is going to annoy facebook users and if it gets out of control it may even cost facebook some users.
Agreed with Harold Gardner!
I’ve been using hashtags on FB for over a year – I’ll have some of the oldest tagged posts 🙂 It’s about time they did it.
Sounds good, but there’s no denying Twitter beat Facebook to the punch, and, I’m not sure how well Facebook has even implemented hashtags.
Facebook is trying to be #allthings to #allpeople and is headed for the fate of #myspace. See you on #Gplus!
Well, it’s peer pressure; with Twitter setting the trend and anybody else chiming in FB can’t wall itself off. People use hashtags for everything (a librarian and archivist nightmare I would assume ;)) and if FB wants to stay relevant they have to do it…
I hate posts consisting more of hashtags than content. FB and all other services should implement a “max hashtags” limit so you can cut off overusing this nice idea…
Thank you for finding such great words for my thoughts. Already I couldn’t help but think of posts containing more hashtags than words as a little retarded. To me this just screamed “I want attention so badly” in a shrieking, even though imagined, voice.
Just Facebook being fashionably #latetotheparty.
That’s odd, I’ve been using them all along because my FB posts automatically become tweets thus I use the hashtags…
MrEnergyCzar
I think it will be a curse and a blessing. Finding content that is of interest to you will be easier, yet many will abuse the system, making facebook a bit spammy,
They are used on so many social channels these days – may as well make them universal.
#Like
we’ll see how it pans out.
Seems to implement a kind of search function in a round about way. Maybe it will be helpful.
The thing is, people already were using hashtags on FB, and now they’re actually going to be catalogued and searchable. It’s a great thing.