Facebook Finally Finds #Hashtags

To many of us hashtags are nothing new. According to Richard Holt of The Telegraph in October 2012 there were 500 million Twitter users. By now that number has surely grown as Twitter continues to rise as the predominate social media tool. Twitter for many is where we were introduced to hashtags.

There are various ways to utilize hashtags, in recognizing that, Facebook, has started to accept them as a way to bring back the social aspect of social media. Personally I know that I have neglected Facebook, because Twitter allowed for a more instant gratification and conversation. With the introduction of hashtags on Facebook, there will be more people seeing the posts that users make. By using hashtags posts done by users who have linked other media such as Instagram will now appear when the hashtag is clicked on. The hashtags allow for a faster and more concise way to search for a specific topic, event, or product.

While Facebook's average daily post numbers may have decline, many school/community groups, as well as businesses rely on it as a way to connect with and inform their members and customers. Using the hashtags for that purpose I think will act as a better way to keep the group up to date. It also could further community interest as more people see the hashtag and click on it to find out what its about. To extend this idea products with hashtag campaigns will now have a double audience. Hopefully the use of hashtags in multiple places will help to generate buzz, which in turn should initiate social conversations across the Web.

Personally I feel that hashtags are the property of Twitter. I can see where Facebook would want to be involved in what some may consider a social media trend, but to me they feel out of place. Twitter seems to be moving at a faster pace than Facebook and I think that hashtags are a good way to track information. Facebook on the other hand has a search bar option that is open to more than just people like Twitter it is useful for finding events, groups, and goods.


I'm sure some of us will see a hashtag appear on our Facebook newsfeed from time to time and I'm curious how you feel
about them being used. For now I am happy using hashtags for Twitter! Don't forget the most important one #c295f13!

For more information about Holt's article check out the link below
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9945505/Twitter-in-numbers.html