Facebook hashtags have little effect on engagement

Back in April, I reported on how consumers are using hashtags on Twitter to explore new content. A survey by RadiumOne found that 41% click on hashtags to find out more about a product or brand.

Kamal Kaur, VP of mobile at RadiumOne said “hashtags implicitly reflect consumer sentiment and are one of the most powerful ways consumers have to vocalize their tastes and preferences at scale in a real-time fashion”.

However, it turns out the same can’t be said for the introduction of hashtags on Facebook.

Research from social media analytics firm Simply Measured has found that, while 20% of top brands’ Facebook posts now include hashtags, there is no evidence they are influencing engagement. In fact, according to the research, posts with hashtags perform just as well as those without.

Almost all of the Interbrand Top 100 brands have a Facebook presence, yet just 20% of posts from the group have incorporated hashtags on the social network.

Instead, visual content is by far the major driver of engagement on Facebook. Photos posted by top brands average more than 9,400 engagements (which include Likes, comments, and shares) per post, while video posts average more than 2,500 engagements.

“This latest research once again proves that knowing your audience, understanding your content assets and measuring your efforts are extremely important to develop the social strategies that will work best for you,” said Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Simply Measured.