Organic reach on Facebook isn’t what it used to be. But the good news is there are still ways to increase your visibility and get your posts in front of your audience, including using Facebook hashtags.
Hashtags are a powerful tool for discovery on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn but marketers often overlook the power of Facebook hashtags. No problem – it can be our little secret!
If you want to build a strong audience and generate organic engagement on this platform, you’ll need a Facebook hashtag strategy.
Keep scrolling; we’ve got you covered with everything you need to get started, plus a list of popular Facebook hashtags and expert hashtag advice from the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Venture Smarter, Jon Morgan.
Key TakeawaysFacebook hashtags are clickable terms with the hashtag symbol (#) in front of them. Like other social platforms, Facebook uses hashtags to categorize your content and make your posts searchable. That means hashtags make it easier for Facebook’s algorithm (and your audience) to find your posts.
Think of Facebook hashtags as search keywords. Every time you include a hashtag, your post is added to that hashtag page whenever someone searches for it.
This means that your content can be discovered by a wider audience that reaches far beyond your existing followers, increasing your brand awareness. And in our opinion, anything that allows you to reach a new audience is worth trying.
How do hashtags work on Facebook?Hashtags work on Facebook like any other platform. Once you add them to your post caption, that post will be categorized with similar posts. Facebook users can also find your post when they search for that hashtag.
Let’s walk through an example.
Say you wanted to find new pumpkin spice-flavored products or recipes to try this fall. You could hashtag search for #PumpkinSpice on Facebook and you’ll see 1.7M posts that have used this hashtag. You can even follow the hashtag to see more of these posts in your feed.
Source: Loryn Powell
For brands, using relevant hashtags can help increase your posts’ reach and engagement, and get your Facebook page in front of a wider audience.
In those same search bar results for #PumpkinSpice, we can see this post from Sprouts Farmers Market which took advantage of the seasonal hashtag to promote its limited-time fall items.
The post also included other fall-related hashtags and ended up generating impressive engagement including 8,000 likes, over 300 comments, and nearly the same number of shares.
Source: Sprouts Farmers Market
How to use Facebook hashtagsAdding hashtags to your Facebook posts is pretty simple. All you have to do is type # followed by whatever term or phrase you want to include. And remember, no spaces — each hashtag must be written as a single word.
If you want to use a multi-word hashtag, use Pascal Case. This means capitalizing the first letter of each word (#JustLikeThis), which makes it easier for everyone, especially people using screen readers, to read your hashtag.
Hot tip: It’s usually best to add your hashtags to the end of your post, after the caption, so they don’t distract from the content.
We’ll share more about how to find or come up with hashtags for Facebook below.
How many hashtags should I use on Facebook?For Facebook, Hootsuite recommends using 2-3 hashtags per post. This is just enough to address a specific niche and let users discover your content.
Any more than that can look spammy or make it difficult for the algorithm to categorize it, especially if the hashtags aren’t all in the same niche.
Free Facebook hashtag generatorHashtags can increase organic engagement and improve visibility for your Facebook posts. But with everything else on your plate, who has time to build a set of hashtags from scratch?
Eliminate the time-consuming research process by using Hootsuite’s free hashtag generator.
Our free hashtag generator creates hashtag suggestions in five languages. When you’re ready to create hashtags for your next Facebook post, give it a try!
Please note: This tool may display inaccurate or offensive material that doesn’t represent Hootsuite’s views. You’re solely responsible for use of any content generated using this tool, including its compliance with applicable laws and third party rights.
126 best hashtags for Facebook in 2024Need some inspiration? We’ve got a Facebook hashtag for every occasion. We’ve also included how many posts have currently used the hashtag so you know what type of content competition you’re up against.
Note: Each industry will have its own relevant and most popular hashtags. For tips on how to identify relevant hashtags for your content, keep reading.
Popular B2B hashtags for FacebookComing up with strategic and relevant Facebook hashtags for every post can be time-consuming. Where do you find ideas? How do you know which hashtags will generate engagement?
From using AI to manually researching, here are a few ways to come up with hashtags for your Facebook content.
Hootsuite’s AI hashtag suggestion toolChoosing the right hashtags depends on the captions you write, which is why Hootsuite’s Composer has a built-in AI hashtag suggestion tool.
When you create a post in Composer, Hootsuite’s AI technology can recommend a custom set of hashtags based on your draft. The tool analyzes your caption and the images you’ve uploaded to suggest the most relevant tags, like AI magic.
To use Hootsuite’s hashtag suggestion tool, follow these steps:
Hootsuite also has a free hashtag generator (scroll up in this post to use it!). If you want to generate a set of hashtags around certain trending topics, this tool can help you do it in seconds.
Here’s how it works:
The best way to find industry-specific hashtags is to turn to your competitors.
You can use Hootsuite Analytics to analyze your competitors’ posts and see which hashtags are performing best within your niche.
The tool provides an overview of your competitors’ hashtags and breaks down their performance by number of comments, reactions, or estimated engagement rate.
Organic searchYou can also come up with Facebook hashtag ideas by doing a good old-fashioned search on the platform.
Simply start typing a hashtag into your post, and Facebook will make suggestions. You’ll also see how many social media posts have already used that hashtag.
Pro tip: Use hashtags that aren’t as frequently used to increase your visibility. You have a much better chance of showing up in the results for a hashtag with 200K uses compared to 2 million.
5 tips for using hashtags on Facebook 1. Analyze your current hashtag strategyFirst, start by analyzing your current hashtag usage. Are there hashtags you’ve used that have increased post reach and engagement? Are you using hashtags that are relevant to your audience?
When Jon Morgan, the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Venture Smarter, a leading consulting firm that specializes in helping startups and small businesses scale and grow, worked with a coffee brand to improve its Facebook engagement, he started by using Hootsuite to analyze its current performance. This analysis helped him identify what was working and what wasn’t.
“Hootsuite Insights’ detailed reports revealed that their hashtags were either too generic or not aligned with coffee enthusiasts’ interests or local Seattle coffee culture,” says Morgan.
“For example, while hashtags like #Coffee were too broad, tags like #SeattleRoasts were more niche but still not utilized effectively.”
2. Choose hashtags based on engagement rateAnother key to getting the most out of Facebook hashtags is using ones with high engagement rates. Using a popular hashtag may help categorize your posts, but it doesn’t always equate to real engagement.
Focus on using hashtags that generate more interactions on your posts. Start by experimenting with different hashtags on several posts. Then, analyze those posts to see how each hashtag contributed to the engagement.
Using this approach, Morgan refined his coffee client’s hashtag strategy by focusing on hashtags with high engagement rates specific to the coffee industry and Seattle’s local culture.
“Tags like #SeattleRoasts and #CaféSolsticeBlends were chosen for their relevance to Café Solstice’s niche, while broader tags such as #SpecialtyCoffee helped capture a wider audience,” he says.
“This targeted approach resulted in a 55% increase in post visibility. And over a few months, the average interactions per post climbed from 180 to approximately 280.”
3. Incorporate trendsEmploy a social listening strategy to stay on top of current Facebook trends and conversations.
For example, remember the viral cucumber recipe trend that took off earlier this year? Sprouts Farmers Market joined the conversation by making the recipe themselves and tagging their video with hashtags like #CucumberSalad and #Trending so people could find it.
Source: Sprouts Farmers Market
As a bonus, the #CucumberSalad hashtag is niche enough that it’s only been used by 111K posts on Facebook. A narrow hashtag like this makes it easier for brands and influencers to show up in the search results.
Looking for more insights for setting up your social listening strategy? We’ve put together some tips here:
4. Location, location, locationIf your business has local ties, then you should be incorporating hashtags that reflect that. When Facebook hashtags are tailored to an audience in a specific city, they can help make your posts more discoverable.
Case in point: Morgan implemented a local hashtag strategy with the coffee shop he worked with by adding hashtags like #SeattleCoffeeTasting and #CaféSolsticeEvents — which increased organic reach by 50%.
“This uptick was driven by the alignment of hashtags with local interests and timely events, making the content more discoverable and engaging for Café Solstice’s target audience,” he notes.
You can find location-based hashtags by typing in a combination of [Your City] + [Keyword].
For example, this Facebook post from a real estate company in Austin uses #AustinRealEstate alongside broad hashtags like #HousingMarket and #HomeBuyingTips.
Source: Realty Austin Compass
5. Track your hashtag analyticsJust like you track your Facebook analytics, analyzing your hashtag performance is just as important.
Regularly review the performance of your hashtagged posts to see if your strategy has had an impact.
Here’s what you should look for when reviewing your hashtag data:
Understanding which hashtags generate the most engagement for your content lets you know which niche and audience you should target for future posts.
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