It’s not so secret that using the right hashtags in 2015-2018 could expose your posts to thousands of Facebook users. But do these tricks still work? If you’ve ever noticed an overabundance of hashtags in your News Feed, you may have wondered if using them could be the answer to your organic reach problem—and if they could improve the engagement rate of your content.
Here’s everything you need to know about Facebook hashtags. In this article, we explain how Facebook hashtags can indirectly grow your website and why you should add them to your existing content right now.
Why Facebook hashtags work again
Hashtags were first used on Facebook nearly a decade ago, but are they still valid today? Can you use hashtags on Facebook to increase your visibility or reach the right people?
When they first appeared in 2013, #tags were all the rage, but people stopped using them as time passed.
Fortunately, to bring hashtags back on our screens, Facebook began recommending hashtags to add to your posts via a drop-down menu in September 2020. Similar to how hashtag recommendations work on other platforms. Simultaneously, the platform began informing users that hashtags on Facebook can improve organic reach and Facebook SEO. Hashtags now make it easier for people to participate in public discussions that they are interested in.
Facebook hashtags work on all posts, including personal profiles, fan pages, groups, events, and comments. You can get to the hashtag’s feed by clicking on it in any Facebook post. In addition, in noting that each hashtag on Facebook has its URL.
To Contents ↑Benefits of using hashtags on Facebook
Hashtags can help categorize posts, increase engagement, attract followers to a certain niche, strengthen a brand image and help reach a target audience (and vice versa).
Make your posts visible
Of course, hashtags are used to organize content into themes and topics. When people search for a hashtag on Facebook, they’re usually very interested in a topic and want to learn more about it.
As a result, using a relevant hashtag can help you get your content in front of the right people. That means you can broaden your audience without spending money on ads and introduce new people to your content, as well as products or special offers.
Monitor trending topics
You can keep track of which Facebook hashtags topics are popular with your audience through social listening. You can use this data to create and curate the most relevant content for your target audience.
Boosts engagement
When you use hashtags, users are more likely to interact with your brand and your website. For example, you can use a popular hashtag to start a conversation about a specific topic or join conversations your followers already have on Facebook.
Branded hashtags also encourage people to talk about your content or campaigns. As more people use your branded hashtags, more people will essentially promote your brand for you.
How to find the right hashtag for your Facebook posts?
So, how do you feel about joining the new Facebook hashtag revolution and grow your organic traffic? First and foremost, you must master one skill: selecting the ideal hashtag for your posts.
It’s not as simple as sprinkling the first few hashtags that come to mind when you consider using one in your content. Before using a hashtag in your Facebook posts, make sure it’s relevant and popular.
You can easily discover what hashtags are in use on Facebook by typing in the search bar on either the desktop or mobile apps, just like on Instagram.
Plus, on the main Facebook mobile app, just start typing your desired hashtags, and Facebook will make additional suggestions:
1. Look for hashtags that your followers are already using.
Do you know the hashtags your followers use? If not, make it the first item on your to-do list for finding hashtags. Why? Because you can build relationships through social media by finding (and using) the hashtags that your marketing personas are already using—and popping up if they’re browsing the hashtag through Facebook’s search feature.
Follow your audience on all of the social media platforms where you’re active to accomplish this. Are you able to figure out which hashtags they’re using? How frequently do they make use of them?
For example, if you look at your Twitter followers’ posts, you might notice that many of them use the #crypto101 hashtag. That might be the starting point for your next Facebook post.
2. Use Hashtagify.me
Another option is to use Hashtagify.me, a handy paid tool that assists publishers in finding hashtags to use in their social media campaigns.
Simply type in one of the well-known hashtags used by people in your industry (or a well-known phrase you discovered in step one!) to get a list of similar suggestions to use in your Facebook posts:
What’s the best thing about this tool? Important details about each hashtag that makes your shortlist are visible, including:
- The hashtag’s popularity is determined by the number of people who use it.
- Monthly and weekly trends: Is the hashtag gaining or losing traction week by week and month by month?
As a general rule, choose hashtags growing in popularity, even if they aren’t yet well-known.
Although these phrases may not yield many results in the short term (due to low search volume), you may see better results in the long run if you can establish a strong link between the hashtag and your brand.
3. Analyze your competitors’ posts
There are always going to be competitors in business everywhere, even on Facebook.
Take a look at what competitors recently posted on their page. Are they using hashtags, and do they have a high engagement? You know what to do here: copy and paste.
It may appear that you are spying on them, but you must keep up or risk falling behind in the social media world.
To Contents ↑Best practices for using hashtags on Facebook
Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals, you’re probably curious about the best practices for using them on Facebook. Follow these quick tips to get the most out of your new hashtags:
Use industry-specific hashtags
Use industry-specific hashtags when sharing content on Facebook, or make your own if they’re relevant to your target audience. Three or four relevant hashtags might be all you need to get past Facebook’s EdgeRank and find your ideal audience.
Use unique branded hashtags
Using branded hashtags on Facebook can make a campaign stand out. PlayStation, for example, promotes indie games on the platform by using the hashtag #PlayStationIndies in their posts.
Users will know what the content is about every time you use a unique branded hashtag this way. It also distinguishes content from a specific campaign from other posts on your page.
Another way to make use of branded hashtags is to promote events. Microsoft uses #MSBuild to announce a virtual event. Users are expected to pick up the hashtag and use it before, during, and after the event. This will help people learn about your event and start talking about it.
Use the same hashtags from Twitter and Instagram
Start including hashtags in your Facebook content if you’re already using them in a Twitter or Instagram campaign.
Use Facebook hashtags for cross-platform branding
Cross-platform branding is critical for businesses. Because users may follow your brand on multiple social media platforms, it’s a good idea to use your “branding style hashtags” on all of them to keep them in the loop.
Include hashtags in your sentences
If there’s one thing that irritates users about hashtag usage on Facebook, it’s when people use the same word twice in the same post — one hashtagged, the other not.
Consider the following scenario:
Today’s Binance webinar provided a lot of useful information on KYC in crypto! #Binancewbinar #KYCincrypto.
versus
Today’s #Binancewebinar provided a lot of useful information on #KYCincrypto.
It’s more visually appealing when you use a hashtag more naturally in a sentence. If you’ve already explained the phrase, the second instance doesn’t need to be there.
Avoid using spaces
Another common mistake marketers make when using Facebook hashtags is to use spaces to separate the words in their hashtagged phrase, such as this: #SocialMedia is a term that refers to the use of social media.
Why? Because only the first hashtagged word counts as a hashtag, not the entire phrase.
Using the hashtag #SocialMedia as an example, you wouldn’t stand a chance of being discovered when your ideal customer searches for #SocialMedia on Facebook. Instead, your post will appear in the #Social search results, completely unrelated to the hashtag you intended to use.
Your hashtag will also be broken by full stops, exclamation points, or @ symbols, and only the first chunk of text will be linked.
To Contents ↑Limit yourself to a few hashtags per post
According to a study of over 200,000 brand posts on Facebook, content with one or two hashtags received an average of 593 interactions. Comparing that to the 416 engagements for posts with 3-5 hashtags and the 188 interactions for posts with 10+ hashtags makes it clear that posts with fewer hashtags perform better on Facebook.
Moreover, Facebook posts with fewer hashtags have a higher interaction rate and allow you to analyze what’s working. When you’ve crammed ten phrases into the same post, it’s difficult to figure out which hashtag gets the most engagement.
Why? Because using popular hashtags—especially if they have nothing to do with the post itself—isn’t going to win you any points with the people in that community.
Take the trending #ThrowbackThursday hashtag, for example. Promoting your website as the world’s best in your niche won’t go down well with those searching the hashtag for personal memories.
To Contents ↑How can you evaluate the impact of your hashtag usage?
You’ll need to determine whether your changes are paying off, just like any new social media strategy. The Insights feature on Facebook is a great way to do this. Go to your page’s Insights tab and select “Posts.” Your task is to sort through this information and determine whether your Facebook posts with hashtags outperform those without.
Last thoughts
Facebook hashtags may seem less effective compared to other methods of boosting engagement, but every measure counts if you’re a small business. For example, the #supportsmallbusinesses hashtag that rose to prominence after the pandemic exposed many small businesses to their local customers.
When people click on a trending hashtag, they scroll through posts that pop up on the hashtag’s feed. If you’ve made an exciting and engaging post with this hashtag, users would want to by liking, commenting, or sharing.
Facebook notices your post is getting a lot of engagement, and they push it upwards to expose it to more users. This means hundreds of thousands of views, and even if 1% converts to followers, that’s a lot of free organic traffic for just using a hashtag. So creating a good post is as important as using the right hashtags.
The same principle applies to most social media platforms like Tiktok, Twitter, and Instagram.
Tiktok is all the rave now, especially among millennials and GenZ. This social media platform, like Facebook, relies on hashtags a lot to curate content. If you’re good at Tiktok and you’re wondering how to earn from the thousands of views your videos receive, check out our guide on how to start making money on Tiktok.
