It has been known since yesterday evening that hashtags are being rolled out bit by bit on Facebook. So far, only a few users have been able to use the new feature. In addition, the small keywords will only be available via the web browser . Even if the hashtag feature looks like a little gimmick at first glance, it has many great advantages for the user, not least for companies and thus for Facebook itself.

Facebook hashtags as a community tool

First and foremost, you can use hashtags to set certain topics and trends and make them available in compressed form. Many site operators have already made use of this on Twitter and Google+, showing those interested in a brand campaign the way to specific content. For example , if you wanted to be forwarded to articles, spots or opinions on the real beauty campaign from the cosmetics brand Dove, you could search under #realbeauty and found what you were looking for. Nike created the hashtag #makeitcount for its FuelBand and, last but not least, sent the wonderfully beautiful web video about Max Joseph’s product on Twitter and Google+. Entire communities often crowd around such campaign hashtags – similar to company pages on social networks.

In this respect, Jens Wiese has not exaggerated when he writes on allfacebook.de : “The introduction of hashtags is as important for Facebook as the introduction of the Facebook pages recently.” -Pages so far a great idea. However, if you only found one campaign interesting, you had to choose either the complete program of the fan page or nothing at all. Some companies have occasionally set up their own pages for campaigns, but there is often the risk that the respective pages will simply be orphaned at some point as soon as the marketing campaign is over. An example here is the “Giro sucht Hero”-Fanpage of the Sparkasse referred: 164,000 fans were acquired in a few months and then dropped at the end of the campaign by not communicating anything about it. Unfortunately a bit disadvantageous for the brand and, last but not least, for those interested.

Hashtags can be used to generate feedback even after a campaign has ended. For example, when the community that has gathered around the product takes care of the content itself. Fans can still read tweets on Twitter about the FuelBand or Real Beauty campaign every day. Funnily enough, you are also confronted with updates on the Sparkasse campaign. Brands can finally use this potential on Facebook – where there are potentially over a billion users.

Facebook hashtags for targeted advertising

Hashtags are also particularly exciting when it comes to advertising for companies. The principle in the context of advertisements is not that new here either. Topic targeting has been relevant in ad tools since August 2011. Here it is possible to assign the advertising to a higher-level topic with the help of a hashtag. With the hashtag feature for users, you can now guarantee even more specific spending and maybe even run real-time campaigns like on Twitter in the near future. In other words, if someone uses a certain hashtag, they can be given a corresponding product at the edge of the page at the same time – theoretically even in the news feed itself, if the principle is extended to sponsored posts. Advertisements on trending topics could also be placed. In addition, Facebook is working on a hashtag insights tool,