Hashtags. They seem to be everywhere these days, don’t they? We see them plastered on marketing campaigns and coursing through our Twitter, Instagram & Tumblr feeds. You’re probably familiar with, #JustDoIt #NoDAPL #Foodie #NeverTrump #TacoTuesday #MondayMotivation, etc. Hashtags are there to start a conversation and for popular topics to be easily searchable. But there’s one place where they don’t necessarily belong in the conversation and that’s Facebook.
Facebook introduced the hashtag to the platform in June of 2013. They thought, “Hey, our users are adding hashtags into their posts anyway, let’s make these bad boys clickable.”
Before they were clickable on Facebook, tons of people often used hashtags on Facebook just to get a point across. “Guess I’m having Ramen again tonight. #Broke.” But as soon as the hashtag became a “searchable” tool on Facebook, businesses picked up on the trend too. Unfortunately, many started firing them off like loose cannons, which actually hinders the post’s searchability rather than helps.
Scott Ayers, co-author of Facebook All-in-One For Dummies and Post Planner contributor, found that the overuse of hashtags on Facebook actually decreases the amount of interactions on a post:
- Posts with 1 or 2 hashtags averaged 593 interactions
- Posts with 3 to 5 hashtags averaged 416 interactions
- Posts with 6 to 10 hashtags averaged 307 interactions
- Posts with more than 10 hashtags averaged 188 interactions
With that information, it goes to show that there are always exceptions to the rule.
Exceptions to the Rule
If you’re a big brand with a notable following, Nike for example, you can actually utilize the hashtag on Facebook to make an impact. If you opt to use this feature, keep it simple, narrow it down to one or two, and never overuse them in a post.
You want something like this:
NOT this:
Best Practices
Research says hashtags can be seriously beneficial to any business when used correctly. They bring you into a conversation you might never have been a part of without the use of something as simple as #LAFoodie or #SundayFunday. Or, if you have something brand specific you want to promote like #ChicoToyDrive2016, slap that in all the related posts and easily monitor what other people are saying about the hashtag and your event.
Hashtags can draw attention to your brand in ways that you couldn’t do on your own but this is dependent on how you use them, the platform you use them on and your audience. If you want to try using hashtags on Facebook; check your insights, see how your audience reacts to them and omit them if engagement begins to drop. Who knows, hashtags on Facebook might become more relevant in the future if they evolve with our search tendencies on the platform. But for now, stick to using them where you know they’ll have a greater impact on your audience.
Did you know?
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