Facebook hashtags #fb-hashtagAs Facebook begins to roll out their use of Hashtags, we are pretty convinced that people will use them in all sorts of “creative” ways but what about business and brands?

For the past several years, Twitter, Google and Instagram have been using hashtags to tap into the dollars associated with hashtag focused campaigns and now Facebook has entered the game.

Like hashtags on the other social networking sites, the hashtags on Facebook will be clickable (hyperlinks) that allow you to add context to a post or let your audience know it is part of a larger discussion redirecting the reader to that conversation.

Anyone familiar with using hashtags on other platforms will easily understanding how to incorporate them into your Facebook status updates. You simply preface the word you want to incorporate as a hashtag with, yep you guessed it, a hashtag – (#).

When your post appears and other people see the hashtag word and click on it, a separate feed shows up letting them see all the conversations taking place around that particular hashtag.

They show up in search as well. The new Facebook Graph Search will allow you to search for hashtags.

For brands this can be an effective marketing tool to continue spreading the word about your product or service. For franchises, it will be a great tool for brand consistency across multiple social networking sites.

Facebook has stated they are working on enhancements to this feature including trending (what is “hot” and trending on Facebook), measurement features, and mobile (mobile users will not have hashtag support to start).

How will your brand use this new feature?

To learn more about how hashtags can help your social media marketing efforts, contact e-Merge Online Marketing to discuss your social media marketing needs.