Facebook Introduces Hashtags

Facebook now supports hashtags, allowing users to find and follow popular and topical conversations on the site.
Two of Facebook’s key rivals in the world of social media, Google+ and Twitter, have already incorporated hashtagging into their sites. Facebook affiliate Instagram, the photo sharing app, has also had hashtags for some time, so it is no surprise that Facebook has finally introduced them.

Microblogging site Twitter revolutionised the onsite search format by introducing hashtags early on in its development, allowing users to easily find and follow conversations, despite the amount of data published on the site every second.

Due to its early adoption of hashtagging, Twitter is now where users go to find out about the top stories and breaking news from around the web, and even around the world: Facebook have introduced hashtags in an attempt to compete with Twitter in this respect. According to the announcement post on the Facebook Newsroom page, people are already discussing popular television on the site:

During primetime television alone, there are between 88 and 100 million Americans engaged on Facebook - roughly a Super Bowl-sized audience every single night. The recent "Red Wedding" episode of Game of Thrones, received over 1.5 million mentions on Facebook, representing a significant portion of the 5.2 million people who watched the show. And this year's Oscars buzz reached an all-time high on Facebook with over 66.5 million interactions, including likes, comments, and posts. 

However, up until now there has been no “simple way to see the larger view of what's happening or what people are talking about”. Hashtags are only the first step in Facebook’s plan: the social media giants intend to roll “out a series of features that surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people, and topics”.

According to the announcement post, hashtags allow users to:

• Search for a specific hashtag from your search bar. For example, #NBAFinals.
• Click on hashtags that originate on other services, such as Instagram.
• Compose posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results.


Users can still control who sees their posts, even if they contain hashtags, which does limit the service slightly. However, hashtags may encourage users to post public content more frequently, increasing user interaction beyond their friendship group and liked pages.

Hashtags will also help increase brand interaction. Without hashtags, users were limited to seeing posts by their friends, the pages they had liked, and the pages their friends had liked – as well, of course, as any promoted posts. With hashtags, users are more likely to see posts from outside their immediate circle, but just as likely to see posts which interest them: it is the user, after all, who has to click on the hashtag to view the conversation, displaying a willingness to actively engage with the content.

Facebook has published a post on the Facebook Studio pages, advising marketers how they could and should be using hashtags to promote their brands. Here is what the company believes marketers need to know about the new feature:

• If you are already using hashtags in an advertising campaign through other channels, you can amplify these campaigns by including your hashtags in Facebook advertising. The same creative best practices on Facebook still apply – compelling copy and photography that is in the brand voice works best.
• Any hashtags that you use on other platforms that are connected to your Facebook Page will be automatically clickable and searchable on Facebook.
• Like other Facebook marketing tools, hashtags allow you to join and drive the conversations happening about your business. We recommend you search for and view real-time public conversations and test strategies to drive those conversations using hashtags. 
• Hashtags do not impact your distribution or engagement in News Feed on either desktop or mobile. We recommend you continue to focus on your existing campaigns to drive your most important business objectives.

In the post, Facebook has also gone into more detail about the features they intend to release over the next few months to help drive conversations on the site, revealing that trending hashtags are in the pipeline. There is as yet no word on whether hashtags will be monetized or not, but if they are, it will presumably be in a fashion similar to Twitter’s Promoted Trends.

Do you think hashtags will work on Facebook?       

Facebook Reportedly Planning On Incorporating Hashtags

Facebook is reportedly developing a way in which hashtags can be incorporated into the social media site.

Most people will be more familiar with hashtags on micro-messaging social site Twitter, where they are used to tag tweets for categorization into certain conversations and topics. For example, the hashtag #SocialMedia is used to denote tweets about, well, social media.

Now, Facebook is working on a similar system to the one on its rival Twitter’s servers, in which hashtags could be used on the site to collate comments and posts about a single topic or topical event, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Facebook’s affiliate Instagram already uses hashtags to sort photos by subject, so it would be no surprise if Facebook itself were to introduce a similar system now that images and videos make up around 50% of the content on the current news feed, hence becoming the focus of the proposed redesign.

Brands also use hashtags to advertise themselves on Twitter, often paying for services such as Promoted Trends. Promoted Trends, which cost around $200,000 a day, feature a certain company’s chosen hashtag or topic at the top of a region’s top trending list for 24 hours.

Presumably, Facebook is hoping that they can utilize hashtags in a similar fashion on the site, giving Facebook marketers a new way to advertise on Facebook and bringing in more advertising revenue.

There is also the possibility that, if Facebook incorporates hashtags into its new Open Graph search engine, they could feasibly nullify Twitter’s biggest advantage over the social media giant: Twitter’s content is all updated in real-time, with trending topics and the tweets of the followed appearing on a user’s page a fraction of the time after they are sent.

Journalists even use Twitter to research for news stories, as it is often the most current forum for knowledge. Facebook could imitate Twitter’s immediacy with hashtags, allowing people to follow conversations around the world in real-time.

According to The Wall Street Journal, those in the know are unsure as to when hashtags will be introduced to Facebook.

Do you think there is a place for hashtags on Facebook?

Hashtag Marketing: 9 Ways To Avoid Disaster

Marketers creating campaigns centered on hashtags need to be cautious. Hashtags can easily turn into flashing targets that scream, “Hijack this brand!” In the past few weeks, McDonald’s launched a hashtag campaign that was promptly hamburgled, and then Research In Motion’s #BeBold campaign was similarly brandjacked.

Fortunately, there’s a way to avoid these types of situations. Hashtag campaigns happen all the time without any press coverage, usually because there’s no horror story. Here are nine ways to prevent your brand from winding up in a story about social media mishaps.
1. Figure Out Why You’re Using Hashtag

Brands tend to use hashtags, predominantly on Twitter and sometimes other services like Instagram, either to create a centralized discussion around their campaign or event, or to jump into conversations that are already happening. Assess what you want to get out of the hashtag before diving in.
2. Be Upfront About the Risk

No matter how good your intentions are and how well you execute the campaign, hashtags can get hijacked in unexpected ways. Make sure any relevant brand managers, agency account executives, and other relevant parties are aware of what can happen, and share some real examples like those noted above. Also be clear that brands use hashtags in campaigns every day, and there are very few that generate any negative publicity.
3. Determine What Kind of Hashtag Makes Sense for Your Goals

Branded hashtags like #McDstories are very transparent and often descriptive, but they might turn off people who don’t want to include that brand in their messages. They also can give brand haters more motivation to upend the hashtag’s meaning.

Generic hashtags like RIM’s #BeBold have more creative potential both for the brand and for consumers, but the hashtags can be brand-jacked just as easily, especially if the brand isn’t perceived as a match for the tag. Either way, the hashtag should be informative and concise rather than conceptual. You only have a few characters; make them count, and don’t make consumers think too hard.
4. Be True to Your Brand

Jeff Bezos once said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” What do people really say about your brand? If you’re a fast food burger chain, having salad on the menu wouldn’t justify a #BeHealthy campaign. Airlines shouldn’t try using #ComfortingThoughts unless their coach seats are really more comfortable than a typical passenger’s living room sofa.
5. Think of the Worst-Case Hijacking Scenario

Then share it with some of your snarky and cynical colleagues. Does it hold up? Would more conservative brand managers be comfortable with it? If it’s too easy to hijack and the brand bashing is too harsh, this is a good time to come up with other ideas.
6. Avoid Piggybacking on Humorous or Risqué Hashtags

Very few brands can credibly contribute to conversations around tags like “#ThingsWomenWant” or “#WorstMondayEver.”
7. Have Your Crisis Plan Ready, With Key Members on Speed Dial

No matter how cautious you think you are, people can be pleasantly unpredictable, even if that can create the occasional unpleasant experience for brands. Make sure it’s absolutely clear what everyone’s roles are should an unfortunate event happen.
8. Monitor the Campaign Religiously
It should also be clear upfront when determining everyone’s roles and responsibilities. When creating an original hashtag that hasn’t been used before, hashtags can simplify reporting on buzz generated, as community managers and analysts can view all relevant tweets in one shot.

9. Spring Into Action
If you wind up in a snafu, be ready to do whatever you can to stop the bleeding, such as ceasing any media support, engaging consumers to steer the conversation back to the original idea, or perhaps taking it on the chin and acknowledging when consumers are right. McDonald’s realized, for instance, that by pulling its Twitter ad, negative comments using the hashtag stopped almost immediately.

Brands shouldn’t overreact to the potential downfall of using hashtags, but marketers need to accept that there will always be a risk when using them. Many more marketers will choose to accept that risk. Twitter’s only growing, and hashtags are a fundamental element of Instagram, Tumblr, and other services. Brands can learn from their peers who tried to #BeBold before them, some more successfully than others