Social Media 101: Using Hashtags on Facebook and Instagram
The inclusion of hashtags in social media posts has been available for years. Hashtags allow your posts to show up in specific streams/conversations related to topics you want to be a part of, or subjects you may just be interested in tracking. If you for example, wanted one of your posts to show up in the conversation about Social Media you might use #socialmedia. You can also use that combination in the search bar on Facebook and Instagram to see what people are talking about when it comes to the topic of Social Media. The use of hashtags cannot only help you build your following, but assist you in being a part of social media conversations that are important to you. Keep in mind there is a right and wrong way to use them depending on the platform. Using them improperly may not only result in the loss of friends/followers, but will most certainly reduce the reach of your posts. If you are operating a business page, the damage can be significant.
For example purposes let’s discuss the use of hashtags on Facebook and Instagram. Instagram allows you to use up to 30 different hashtags per post. For etiquette purposes that’s considered acceptable, and using multiple hashtags is encouraged. Facebook however, is another story. Since the use of hashtags on Facebook is fairly recent, there is much less tolerance when it comes to using them, and the use of multiple hashtags is a major annoyance for many Facebook users. With the integration of Facebook and Instagram this has become much more of a widespread issue, because most of the time when people share their Instagram posts to Facebook they do it simultaneously. While this is very convenient, you will substantially limit your posts visibility on Facebook if you share your post with multiple hashtags. Is there something you can do to fix this you ask, and still share your Instagram posts to Facebook? Absolutely. Once you’ve shared your post to Instagram ONLY, simply click on the three dots located at the top right of the photo you just posted to Instagram, and select “Share”. Before you share your photo to Facebook you will have the opportunity to edit the description of your photo, or include a NEW description of your photo before posting. Don’t worry, this won’t change the original text of your Instagram post, but by editing your photo and clearing out some of those hashtags it will definitely give you the opportunity to have your photo reach more people on Facebook. You may edit the text of your photo before sharing it to any of the available platforms. Good luck!
