There has been a pretty strong contingent on Facebook trying to avoid hashtags. Unfortunately, for them, Facebook started supporting them yesterday. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
You can actually do some pretty cool things with Facebook hashtags. Such as:
- Click on hashtags, even if they originate on other services, such as Twitter.
- Search for a specific hashtag from your search bar.
- Compose posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results.
It’s not really a big surprise to those of us who keep an eye on social media developments. Google+ started supporting hashtags just last month.
Probably, the most powerful feature of Facebook hashtags is being able to click the hashtag and see what people on other social media services are saying with that hashtag. You’ll also be able to click through to those services as well as to personal blogs and other websites that mention the hashtags. This makes social media a cross-platform communication tool, which can be very powerful for your business.
One way to use hashtags is as a branding element. Start your own hashtag around your company brand or a product brand that your company owns. Get people to using it and you can follow that hashtag to track how people are using your hashtag. You can start the conversation, follow the conversation, and track the conversation. There’s nothing more powerful than that.