What is a Hashtag?

Jessica Zoo
Dec 2, 2013
2 min read

It’s very likely that at the sound of this news you very well may be pulling a very similar face. Hashtags have been dominating Twitter and Instagram for years, allowing tweets and pictures to be grouped together by tagging them with hashtags.

This was never the case for facebook, having used the ‘tagging’ system for years, allowing you to tag people, places, pages and whatnot. Now with its latest announcement, Facebook joins the hashtag revolution.

What does this mean? And how will our facebook experience change?

Firstly, let’s explain what a hashtag actually is, and how it is used. A hashtag is created when the # symbol is added before a word creating a tag that can be searched on some social networks. For instance, if I used the hashtags #funny #dog when I post the picture above on twitter, facebook and Instagram people would be able to click on the hashtags to see other photos of #dogs or #funny pictures. However if I wanted specifically to tag my photo with the #funnydog hashtags, it would only be classed in that category and not in the wider #funny / #dog category.

ALL THIS IS GREAT, BUT HOW DO I ACTUALLY USE IT?

The arrival of hashtags on facebook can be slightly confusing to start off with, but can be hugely beneficial. Here is a list of top benefits, hashtag etiquette and ‘how to’ so you can jump on the bandwagon

Posting about something interesting? Get more people to find out about you / your business / what you by placing a few relevant hashtags in your post. This way people looking on facebook for a particular topic will find you even if they are not already your fan / friend.
You can post from Instagram directly and your #photo #comment won’t look as #awkward as it did – the hashtags actually mean something now.
If your facebook posts go directly to twitter the hashtags will be usable on both.
You can search for conversations and posts relevant to your industry so that you can engage with new groups of people.
You can keep an eye on what people say about your brand! Not everyone uses the @tagging option when mentioning your brand on facebook – but now they are more likely to hashtag the post with your name and you can easily search what people are saying about you.
#Don’t #use #hashtags #for #every #word – never use more than 3 at once. It gets VERY annoying.
#Don’tUseHashtagsThatNoOneUses – completely pointless. Instead, try to use popular hashtags or use sites like hashtagify.me for inspiration.
Create your own fun buzzword tag – use it enough and it will catch on! At Cheerobics® for example we have been using the tag line #ShakeYourPompoms so we are implementing it with our new facebook strategy and encouraging all of our instructors to do the same