Using hashtags in Facebook posts. I remember when # used to mean tic-tac-toe or a pound sign. Do you remember when it seemed like all of a sudden everyone forgot about tic-tac-toe and started calling it a hashtag! In this article, we will discuss what hashtags are, some guidelines on how to create effective hashtags, and how to use them on Facebook.
What are Hashtags?
If you are familiar at all with hashtags, it is probably from Twitter. Twitter was the first to start hashtags. Hashtags made it easy for people to find more information on a topic in which they were interested. Now hashtags are used on all social media platforms, including Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Hashtags are just a way to get all of your content organized and easy to find for your visitors. A hashtag is simply a # sign, followed by a keyword or phrase. This keyword or phrase is like a label on a file folder. Each folder contains similar material. This is exactly what hashtags do. Hashtags organize similar content in the same location. If I am reading a Facebook post about digital marketing and want to read more on the same topic, I would click on the hashtag on the posting, or type in the hashtag into the Facebook search bar. When I do this, everything labeled with that hashtag on Facebook would show up. Hashtags are a great way to organize your content, and they make it much easier to find similar content.
If you use hashtags in your posts, they can increase your post engagement and get more exposure to the relevant material on your Facebook page. They can make visitors stay on your feed longer as they read more of the content they are interested in. It is very easy to create and use hashtags. Let’s find out how!
How Do You Create Hashtags?
Simplicity is the key when creating hashtags. They should be easy to remember to make it easy for your visitors to find the information for which they are looking. I think of what words or phrases I would use to look up information. Something organic like that usually works well.
Keep the hashtags short, keep them simple. This is a great way to tap in the power of Search Engine Optimization as well. Remember, you also want it to help your own business, so the hashtag can’t be too general or broad, like #web development. Use specific hashtags unique to your brand, your brand name or the names of your products and services into the hashtag.
Here is a list of the hashtags we use on our business FaceBook page for our creative agency 212 Creative:
#212creative
#212creativeprojects
#212creativewebdevelopment
#212creativeisfunny
#212creativeisinspirational
#212creativeisthoughtful
#212creativebranding
#212creativeseo
#212creativecontentcreation
#212creativebranding
#212creativeeducationandtraining
#212creativecopywriting
#212creativecreativity
#212creativygraphicdesign
#uncleURL
As you can see, we have a hashtag for each of our services, plus one just for our company in general. If you visit our Facebook page and type in any of those hashtags into the search bar, like #212creativeseo, you will get all of the posts that had anything to do with SEO. How does Facebook know which posts go with each hashtag? #readthenextsection!
How to use hashtags
Honestly, I didn’t get this at first. I was making it way too complicated. All you do is type in a hashtag and a phrase in the post description anytime you post. The hashtag should reflect the content of the post. For example, if you are posting about website development, a good hashtag would be #websitedevelopment. A great hashtag would be #yourbusinessnamewebsitedevelopment! So I might write in the post description “In this post you will get several ideas for social media marketing!” Underneath that sentence, I would type #212creativesocialmediamarketing. That’s it! That is all Facebook needs to make the connect and file this post under that hashtag!
That’s all there is to using hashtags in Facebook posts! Just make sure you keep a list of the hashtags you use and be consistent with matching the hashtag with the content of the post. If you want to post an article that doesn’t quite fit any of the hashtags you have created, make a new one! If you want to get some great ideas for creating Facebook posts for your business, or to learn more about social media like the difference between keywords and anchor text, check out our website blog or our company Facebook page!
