Facebook is turning around the hashtags within your platform. It is not that they are going to reinvent them by changing their behavior, but they will try to get users to use it more. As? Well, first of all, adding the number of times a hashtag is used to give it more value.
Quantifying the hashtag
El use of labels or hashtags It is something that currently does not involve great mysteries. Virtually any user of social networks knows how they work and what their main purpose is: allowing content to be grouped by topic, helping to discover other publications as well as improving their reach.
However, although Facebook has already commented on the importance of its use to improve the reach of publications (something that the vast majority of users look for when sharing on networks), it still does not have the pull and impact that they do enjoy on other platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and even TikTok.
New? Facebook shows a hashtag count preview when creating a new post pic.twitter.com/3Agg33iD6W
- Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) September 4, 2020
The reasons for the little use could be several, although everything seems to indicate that it is a simple matter of perception. We usually go to Facebook to see what new content our family and friends have published, not so much to discover new content or see the current trend as is the case with other networks.
Therefore, to change this behavior it seems that Facebook is introducing small but important changes. The first is display the number of times a hashtag has been used. Something that for now does not appear to everyone. For example, in the following screenshot you can see that when we use a hashtag we only see possible suggestions, but not numerical data.
However, it will help users who do see it to choose which could be the best in order to try to reach the greatest number of new users interested in said subject or who access it directly through said label. Also, as some users point out, this could also affect and enhance various aspects within the platform. For example:
- It could be useful to improve the scope of the brand publications to which they made reference through a greater ability to choose the ideal hashtag
- Help with a future deeper integration with platforms like Instagram. Remember that you can now chat from Facebook Messenger with your Instagram contacts. And from the Facebook app see the stories
- Better ability to create challenges or challengers in the TikTok style and that users can find them. In this way they would promote the use of the platform, growing in users and traffic
Hashtags in the middle of 2020
As you can see, the use of hashtags in the middle of 2020 is not going to bring great news to any social platform, but in the case of Facebook, a boost in terms of use and improvements in terms of the user experience may be interesting.
Logically it will be necessary to see the own assimilation on the part of the user. Because we already know that there are things that are hard to change even if they seem obvious and easy. Anyway, Facebook needs to apply changes to recover some relevance lost during the last times. And it is that, despite continuing to be a giant of social networks, there are many users who ended up tired.