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Hi, I'm Bill Hibbler and welcome to my social media tip of the week. This week, we're going
to talk about the introduction of hashtags on Facebook.
Okay some people are losing their fricking minds because they think hashtags are going
to somehow destroy Facebook. I think they're great.
I'll give you an example. I was checking out my news feed the other day and one of my friends
puts up a post that just says, "Nooooooo!" Nothing else. I had no idea what he was talking
about. Was he watching the end of game 6 of the NBA finals? Did his house burn down? I
have NO idea. If he would have used a hashtag to put it
in context... it might have made a bit more sense.
Facebook began rolling out hashtags on June 12th to a limited number of users with a global
rollout expected in the coming weeks. Hashtags make it easier for users to see what
others think about trending topics. We've seen hashtags carry over from Twitter users
on Facebook for some time. The difference now is the they'll be both searchable and
clickable. The adoption of hashtags will probably decrease the need to abandon Facebook for
Twitter when there's a hot trending topic. Clicking on a hashtag will open a new page
displaying conversations containing that particular hashtag.
Now Facebook has always been a CLOSED network, meaning you can only see your friends' posts
and, depending on privacy settings, comments friends of friends make. However, the new
hashtag feature will allow you to find and connect with others using the hashtag you're
searching for. You will still be able to adjust your privacy
settings to CONTROL the audience for your posts, including those containing hashtags.
The first posts you'll see will be those from your friend network followed by public results
from individuals and pages. If you have a brand with a Facebook presence,
you don't have to worry about creating hashtag pages. Facebook will crawl the site to determine
the links and create them automatically. So how can use Facebook hashtags? Besides
getting instant access to those on the scene sharing about an important news event or connecting
with others watching a TV show or sporting event, you can use it in your business for
things like lead generation. You can use hashtags to find people that are
talking about the products or services you offer.
For example, I regularly see people mention they're looking for a virtual assistant.
A virtual assistant that knows how to use the hashtag search feature can find potential
clients by both using #virtual assistant in their posts as well as monitoring those mentions
on Facebook. That way, they can find new people seeking virtual assistants and people seeking
virtual assistants can also find them. If you're posting on Facebook from Twitter
or Instagram, your hashtag campaigns will work on Facebook. So no more having to create
separate posts for say Twitter and Facebook. Unfortunately, hashtags aren't yet available
on the mobile platform. So what do you think? Do you love hashtags?
Hate them? Will you use them on Facebook? Type your answers in the comments section
below. And I think it's time we designate a hashtage
for this show. We're going with SMTips. That's SMTips. Not
S&M Tips, that'll take you to the wrong conversation... "BRING OUT THE GIMP!!"
I'm Bill Hibbler and this is my social media tip of the week. For more tips like this,
visit BillHibbler.com. Thanks for watching!