Facebook hashtags have become a reality today. In its blog post Facebook announced that hashtags are one of their first steps in an effort to encourage and simplify public conversations.
“Every day, hundreds of millions of people use Facebook to share their thoughts on big moments happening all around them. Whether it’s talking about a favorite television show, cheering on a hometown sports team or engaging with friends during a breaking news event — people on Facebook connect with their friends about what’s taking place all over the world,” Greg Lindley, a Facebook product manager, wrote in the blog post. “To bring these conversations more to the forefront, we will be rolling out a series of features that surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people and topics.”
If you use Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr or Google+, you are probably already familiar with hashtags; by adding the # symbol before a word you mark it as a topic, which is then easily searchable by other users of the social network. When you click on a hashtag in Facebook, you’ll see a feed of what other people and Pages are saying about that event or topic.
Facebook hashtags allow you to:
• Search for a specific hashtag from your search bar. For example, #NBAFinals, #travel #Mexico #socialmedia, #weddings.
• Click on hashtags that originate on other services, such as Instagram.
• Compose posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results.
As always, you control the audience for your posts, including those with hashtags. Hashtags will not automatically be public, as people maintain the ability to make posts private.
Facebook said that it will continue to roll out more features in the coming weeks and months, including trending hashtags and deeper insights, that help people discover more of the world’s conversations. This is good news for brands, who may have even greater opportunities to connect with all users — not just fans — on subjects that interest them through means other than advertising.
The new hashtag service is immediately available to about 20 percent of Facebook users, with the rest getting it gradually over the coming weeks.
