Facebook just announced it’s introducing hashtags. Following in the footsteps of Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Google+, the world’s largest social network aims to help users and brands provide better context for their social media content. This update might help marketers increase engagement on the network, which Brafton previously reported boasts 1.11 billion monthly active users and 665 million daily active users.
The Facebook Newsroom introduced the hashtag feature as “Public Conversations on Facebook,” explaining this is one of many upcoming features that will “bring these conversations more to the forefront,” and “surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people, and topics.”
Similar to Twitter’s hashtag feature, users will see a feed about the hashtagged event or topic to see what other people or places are saying. Users can also search posts about specific topics, such as #Bruinsplayoffs, click on hashtags that were generated by users on other social networks like Instagram and create new posts from hashtag search results and feeds.
It’s important that marketers take advantage of new features that can organize social media strategies and capitalize on trending topics to gain more traction with target audiences.
