If you thought the hashtag (#) was just for Twitter, think again. Facebook is rolling out a new marketing effort to make it easier for users to find information. As of today (June 2013), anyone can type a hashtag, but not everyone can click on it. Facebook is rolling out the feature across accounts but has not disclosed when it will be widely available.
Soon, users will be able to search for and click on hashtags to view images, posts and all links tagged with the same given phrase. But unlike its originator Twitter, Facebook hashtags will be limited by privacy settings.
Privacy
If you are concerned about your privacy there’s good news. While all users may view public posts only people you’ve shared your hashed post with may view it in the hashtag feed. This means that an update with hashtags shared only with friends is only visible to friends, while a post with hashtags that is public can be seen by everyone.
The Benefit
This changes will make posts imported from other services such as Twitter and Instagram less out of place. Prior, imported posts with hashtags simply displayed as plain text. Now, that content will link users to more content, images and features.
Uses for the Author
The feature is still too new to decide the benefits in full. I can see a help when posting my newsletters from MailChimp, and can now include the hashtags, as I do for Twitter.
I can also foresee a trend of a bagillion hashtags that essentially go nowhere. #mydogplaying #mykidsplaying #wishiwasplaying… I’ll evaluate this new feature over the next several months and share my findings in future posts…
The goal would be to find the best tags that would benefit you, your book and your brand. And the first place to look would be #Twitter.
