Facebook Hashtags – Friend or Foe for Your Business?

Will Facebook hashtags take your business’s social media success to a new level?  Or, are you looking at them as just another time-consuming feature from Facebook that delivers very little ROI for your business?  Simply put, will Facebook hashtags be a friend or foe to your brand?

#AlwaysEvolving

By now you are undoubtedly aware that social marketing is in a constant state of change.  If your business doesn’t have the support of a social media management team, new features and changes often end up providing no benefit and worse yet, become liabilities.  We don’t want that to be the case with Facebook hashtags.  So in this blog post, we’re going to help you understand them and share a few tips for using them with your business’s social media marketing strategy.

#TheBasics

When Facebook announced hashtags, users wondered exactly how they would function.  Every hashtag has its own url and you can search for a specific hashtag in the Facebook search bar.  Users click on hashtags – even ones from an outside service like Instagram – to get taken to its feed.  Finally, you can create Facebook posts directly in a hashtag search result or feed.

#PrivacyMatters

With any conversation discussing this social network, privacy is always a concern.  Many social media users worry that, because they are searchable, Fashbook hashtags will compromise privacy.  From what we have read, Facebook privacy settings prevail over hashtag search and content.

#WhatNotToDo

We’ve all seen those Twitter posts that have more hashtags than regular words.  Well, hashtag SPAM is not a good idea on Twitter and not a good idea on Facebook.  Continue to share valuable content and use your hashtags to add to that value and not distract from it.  Your Facebook for business fans might comment on your hashtag SPAM posts – in a very negative way – but they will not Like or Share that content with their networks.

#GreatTips

Take a look at how your business uses keywords in its seo strategy.  Use hashtags to capture Facebook Graph Search territory by utilising a keyword-specific strategy in your posts.  And with the growth in mobile social network users, don’t forget those location-specific keywords.  Also, create continuity in social marketing efforts by utilising Instagram hashtags that piggyback on your Facebook hashtags and content.

Take the time to experiment with hashtags for Facebook and follow the tips above to ensure they are more friend than foe.  How is your business using Facebook hashtags in its social media marketing plan?  Please share your successes in the comments below.