Facebook has introduced hashtags. DBS Internet Marketing recommends that businesses should take advantage of using hashtags when posting on their Facebook page. A hashtag is the symbol #. Putting a hashtag in front of a word in your post turns that word into a clickable link which will display a list of other posts that have used the same hashtag. This allows Facebook users to easily find posts by other people that are interested in the same topic as you and therefore allows other people who are interested in what you are posting about to find your posts. Hashtags are therefore a great way of getting your post (not to mention your brand and business) in front of people who probably wouldn’t find you otherwise. It can also be a great way to get a brand or product introduced, or to promote competitions, events, or offers. The hashtag is already well established on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and other social media platforms. For those already using these social media platforms it will be entirely natural to start using hashtags on Facebook. Facebook hashtags must be all one word, eg. #InternetMarketing not #Internet Marketing because the clickable link ends when there is a space. It doesn’t matter if you use capitals or not – it will produce the same results, capitals just make it easier to read the separate words. It is important to remember that you don’t have to use hashtags in every post you make, and you don’t have to stuff your posts with them as this can become annoying. Make sure you use them carefully and that there is a point in using them. It is also important to remember that your privacy settings will effect who can see your posts. So, if only your friends are allowed to see a post, the hashtag will still only make it visible to your friends and not to anyone else. There is no right or wrong hashtag – a hashtag can be whatever you want it to be. However, they should be quite short and easy to understand. To see what hashtags are already being used for different subjects just requires a quick search on Facebook, or on other social media sites. Just enter # followed by the word into the Facebook search box.  
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