If 200 million active users using hashtagging wasn’t enough to make the phenomenon mainstream, then Facebook’s move to introduce its 1 billion user base to hashtagging on its social media will surely make it part of everyone’s daily life.  Maybe next, Google will adopt hashtags, meaning that companies providing content writing services in the UK will have to make use of hashtags to rank highly on the search engine.

What is a hashtag?

Due to the popularity of the hashtag on Twitter, people were using hashtags before they actually served any purpose on Facebook.  The hashtags social media purpose on Twitter was to allow users to categorize their tweets with a catchy phrase, for instance a cool and dangerous activity could be categorised as #livingontheedge.

Using these types of cool and catchy slogans has caught on to the extent that these phrases have become a part of our everyday culture.  “You Only Live Once” spread like wildfire due to social media users abbreviating it to YOLO, and using it to justify every maybe “not so good” decision they may make, and now your average facebook status will include a hashtag.

Witty

Often the categorisation of statuses into hashtags can prove quite funny.  For instance someone posting a “stupid” status that elicits the response #facepalm, will know that they have messed up and it will emphasize the “dumb” thing they said, and categorise it for others to see.

Will it work on Facebook?

The major difference between Facebook and Twitter is the closed social networks built by Facebook and the privacy settings most users have.  A status with a hashtag will only be seen by users in their network, not by the whole world, like Twitter or articles produced by content writing services.  Hashtags on Twitter work because the whole world can follow who they want and view tweets from anyone.  Therefore a hashtag will categorise all relevant posts and not omit certain ones due to privacy settings.

The average user who has been with Facebook since 2007 now has over 500 friends

Facebook is however in an age of maturity.  The average user who has been with Facebook since 2007 now has over 500 friends, more than enough to start a conversation on a topic, even if some of the responses will be missed due to not being friends.  Furthermore, it is likely Hashtags will be a trend on Facebook since they are already, despite previously having no purpose whatsoever.

Would it work for your content writing services in the UK?

If indexing articles by simply hash tagging them for their keywords was adopted by Google it may make SEO practices much easier, however it would also mean that the internet was covered in hashtags and traditionalists who despise them would not be able to get away from them.  If content writing in the UK decide to adopt hash tags in their articles then the Oxford Dictionary may well follow suit.  While some may not mind this change, just imagine if the dictionary had adopted text speak, and you will understand why people may have a problem with their language being riddled with hashtags.