Facebook is a tough platform to crack—there’s no doubting that.Whether you’re an in-house marketer trying to promote content organically, or simply looking to boost dwindling engagement on your posts, Facebook’s ever changing algorithm is making it trickier for Pages to make their content visible to their fans if they’re not paying for it.Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a huge change in how much branded content a user will see in their Feed
But, if you’ve noticed an abundance of hashtags in your News Feed recently, you might be questioning whether using them could be the solution to your organic reach problem—and if they’ve got the power to trigger an improvement in your contents’ engagement rate.
Spoiler alert: They do.
Here’s everything you need to know about using hashtags on Facebook, including why you need to sprinkle them into your existing content, and how to make the most out of them.
“Do hashtags work on Facebook?” is a question on everyone’s lips.
If it’s on yours too, here are three reasons that prove they might be worth the added effort:
1. Posts with hashtags can be found in Facebook search
Not convinced? Let’s do a mini-experiment. How many times have you used Facebook search to find your work colleague, what your 2001 high school crush looks like now, or a hashtag you’ve seen in a marketing campaign?
Even if your answer is “once”, your target customer does the same—so making your Facebook content visible to them is only going to help with your organic reach.
Using hashtags is a fantastic way to do that.
2. It makes your multi-channel campaigns consistent
Are you using other channels—like Twitter, email marketing or billboards—to make your business seen? Hashtags might naturally work their way into your content.
But, don’t just limit your hashtag usage to one communication attempt with your potential customer; use them in your Facebook posts to make them multi-channel consistent.
3. Create a community on Facebook
If you’re branding your Facebook posts with a hashtag, why not encourage your audience to do the same? Not only would that help to spread the word, but it helps with building a community of loyal customers around your brand, too.
Let’s put that theory into practice.
If a healthcare company wanted to build a community through Facebook hashtags, they could tag a video on house buying tips with #HEALTHiswealth—and ask their customers to share their best tip using the same hashtag.
What happens then? Well, that initial post would be found in Facebook search for the #HEALTHiswealth hashtag. Then, you’ll build an engaged group of people who’ve responded to your Facebook hashtag campaign, and have enough content to dominate the #HEALTHiswealth hashtag feed.