Facebook launches hashtag support for its mobile site

Last week, Facebook started rolling out hashtag support to its mobile site (m.facebook.com) along with ‘related hashtags’ to its service. The move marks a further development following Facebook’s introduction of hashtags to their desktop site. The hashtags help users view a feed of what other people and Pages are saying about a certain event, topic or brand.

What are Facebook hashtags?

Users are now able to keep track of popular topics on Facebook by searching for hashtags from the search bar on Facebook’s desktop site. Users can click on hashtags from other Facebook users and Facebook-owned apps like Instagram, which will open a feed of updates containing that hashtag. When users click or search for a hashtag, the results page will show other related hashtags that share a similar meaning or theme.

What will be the impact of the mobile site support?

Although hashtags are not yet available on Facebook’s iOS or Android applications, the move by Facebook to introduce support on their mobile site suggests hashtags will be rolled out to the apps soon. From this, users will be encouraged to start conversations using the hashtags through mobile devices. 

What do we think?

As with (Facebook-owned) Instagram’s recently introduced ‘Photos of You’ feature, the hashtags will encourage greater interaction between users, enabling views to be shared to a wider audience. This, coupled with the introduction of ‘related hashtags’ and the eventual rolling out of the feature across iOS and Android devices, will encourage more conversations and increased sharing. Popular topics, events and brands will generate a greater reach across the social network.