Although not everyone is willing to admit it most of us are obsessed with hashtagging. Whether we use a trending hashtag or a silly one we made up we just love it. That is why when Facebook announced that they were introducing a Twitter-like hashtag program most people were extremely excited. The only thing that was confusing about Facebook hashtags was how marketers could take advantage of it.
Even though, Facebook said that there would be no hashtag-related advertising many marketers rushed to try out the hashtags. Immediately most company’s tried out these hashtags, but they soon found the issue with the program. Unlike Twitter, Facebook by default is private which means you have to take the extra step to make your status updates public for your hashtags to have an affect. Reports have shown that only 28% of Facebook users make all of their posts public, which means only a small amount of Facebook users hashtags actually work. During the BET Awards they had to specify on TV that when hashtagging on Facebook to make your posts public.
Having to make your posts public is a serious issue that renders the Facebook hashtag almost irrelevant. The whole point of having your Facebook private is so people cannot snoop on your stuff, and most people probably won’t remember to make their posts public in the long-run anyways. In reality, the only way that Facebook hashtags will be successful is if they change the normal setting to be like Twitter where every post is by default public.
