Recently Facebook announced that it is implementing #hashtags to manage topics on the growing social network. #hashtags are not a new “trend” on the web, they appeared long ago on IRC to help manage chat groups. In 2007, Chris Messina suggesting that they used #hashtags on twitter to help trend topics. Now they are more commonly seen and used by twitter, facebook, instagrams and other social networks.
What is a #Hashtag?
A hashtag is a word or a phrase prefixed with the symbol #. It is a form of metadata tag. Short messages on microblogging social networking services such as Twitter, Tout, identi.ca, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, Google+ or Facebook may be tagged by putting “#” before important words, as in:
#Wikipedia is an #encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
Hashtags provide a means of grouping such messages, since one can search for the hashtag and get the set of messages that contain it.
Using #Hashtags on Facebook.
Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links in your posts on your personal timeline or Page. This helps people find posts about topics they’re interested in. To make a hashtag, write # (the number sign) along with a topic or phrase (written as one word) and add it to your post. For example:
I walked up so many hills today! #SanFrancisco
When you click a hashtag, you’ll see a feed of posts that include that hashtag. You’ll also see some related hashtags at the top. You can search for a hashtag using the search bar at the top of any page.
– Facebook Help Center
How are #Hashtags used?
Hashtags are mostly used as unmoderated ad-hoc discussion forums; any combination of characters led by a hash symbol is a hashtag, and any hashtag, if promoted by enough individuals, can “trend” and attract more individual users to discussion using the hashtag. On Twitter, when a hashtag becomes extremely popular, it will appear in the “Trending Topics” area of a user’s homepage.
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So why are #hashtags important? They help us find content faster, they add to trending topics, they help group snippets of information together and they help us manage our various conversations on social networks.