Why Facebook Wants You to Start Using Hashtags on Your Posts
Among the social platforms we know and love, Facebook is a bit of an outlier when it comes to hashtags. While Twitter’s trending hashtags are news in and of themselves, and Instagram’s hashtags make content more discoverable, they haven’t been as helpful to Facebook users hoping to elevate their organic reach. But it looks like that might be changing.
It’s been a busy summer for Facebook as it unveiled multiple initiatives, including a $25M fund to support Black creators and Instagram Reels on its sister platform. If you have a Facebook Business account, you may have noticed another recent change – a prompt to add hashtags to your post when in the “Create” window. Some believe this is yet another way Facebook hopes to help brands expand their reach in the midst of a challenging year.
When you use a hashtag, you’re essentially helping whatever you’re posting — be it a blog post, a tweet, or a fire Insta-pic — become more discoverable to people who are interested in what you’re posting. For example, if you’re a budding food influencer looking to grow your following, you can get foodie eyes on your content using hashtags that they might search, such as #food, #goodeats, or #vegancooking.
Is this a play by the social media giant to generate more organic traffic for its users? All signs point to yes. But is it worth your time and will posts actually see more engagement? Only time will tell.
Generally speaking, hashtags have done very little to drive traffic in the past — the most glaring evidence being that, um, basically no one uses them. Instead, Facebook operates on an algorithm system (not unlike Tiktok or Instagram) that pushes content it thinks you’ll like to the top of your feed, based on other content you’ve liked in the past. That’s why your best friend’s posts will populate your timeline before the childhood friend you don’t engage with as often.
My take on Facebook hashtags? It couldn’t hurt to try. It may be worth experimenting with relevant tags, and keeping an eye on your traffic and reach. If you decide to test the #waters, let us know! We want to hear about your experience — and if it helps your traffic, we want our community to start hashtagging too.
How Many Hashtags Should You Use on Instagram? Watch Below!
About sophia pelosi
Sophia Pelosi is the Associate Marketing Manager at BlogHer, as well as a contributing author to BlogHer.com. She lives in New York City, and is passionate about pasta from scratch, daily meditation, 70s disco fashion and her beagle Lucy. She graduated from Colby College in 2019. Follow her on Instagram.