Facebook Hashtags & Increased Impressions

Facebook launched hashtags a few weeks ago and I’ve noticed everyone from my friends to brands using them. I wrote about the benefits of using hashtags on Facebook for your business when they first launched.

The biggest benefit thus far seems to be the search capability. You can search a specific topic and find people and brands who are also using that same hashtag. This has really opened up Facebook’s search ability to a much wider scope.

It has allowed marketers to monitor different conversations happening on Facebook in an easier manner. It has also allowed more brands to use their own branded hashtags and search and monitor those as well. Overall, from a marketing standpoint, I’m a fan of this new feature.

Beyond that, I have noticed something very interesting and exciting. When using hashtags on Facebook, many of my clients’ posts are receiving up to 10x as many impressions as those without hashtags. While this is merely a preliminary observation, I am currently testing my theory in a few ways, by looking at the following variables:

-Hashtag with Photo

-Hashtag with Link

-Hashtag no link, no photo

-Hashtag with photo and link

So far, the general posts without a link or photo are performing the best.

While you want to send traffic to your site as often as possible, it is also important to include conversational pieces on Facebook. Not only does this increase your engagement (remember, it is all about the newsfeed), but it also allows you to build trust with your fans. No one likes a brand that is ME ME ME all the time.

Have you noticed increased impressions when you use Hashtags on Facebook? Let me know.