Using Hashtags on Facebook

Should you use hashtags on Facebook? This is an interesting question that we were recently asked by one of our learners. There are lots of different opinions out there that are for and against using them. Despite being introduced in 2015, Facebook hasn’t updated its own guidelines on using hashtags on its platform since 2016.

We thought it would be worth looking at some of the reasons for using hashtags on Facebook and share some simple guidelines:

Reasons to use hashtags on Facebook

• Using hashtags will increase your chances of your post being found when people search on Facebook thus growing your potential audience.
• You will show brand consistency if you use the same key hashtags across your social media channels (remembering you should use different numbers of hashtags on different channels).

Searching Hashtags on Facebook

To search for a hashtag on Facebook you type in ‘#’ followed by the term you wish to search for. For example, #greatbritishbakeoff

The search results will show you ‘All’ results by default. This will include Pages, posts, videos etc, which have used the hashtag you searched for. You can narrow the search down by utilising the options at the top and clicking on ‘Posts’, ‘Videos’ etc and also the filter options on the side.

Using hashtags on Facebook – Guidelines

1. Think about your audience – do they understand hashtags (probably not if they don’t use Instagram or Twitter).

2. Use hashtags sparingly on Facebook – only 1 or 2.

3. Don’t use them within the text as it makes the text difficult to read (create a blank line and then use).

4. Use hashtags you expect people to use to find your post.

5. Search for the hashtag you are going to use first to see what is displayed – you don’t want to be associated with something unsavoury!

6. If you are currently using a hashtag in a campaign on Twitter and / or Instagram, include it in your Facebook content.

7. Only use hashtags on a business page. If your personal profile is set to private in the security settings then your hashtags won’t appear in the search results.