Hashtags on Facebook Don’t Boost Viral Impact
Facebook introduced hashtags on its news feed in June with the expectation that they would increase reach. But a study by EdgeRank Checker finds that hashtags didn’t increase exposure at all. Posts with hashtags actually had less viral reach. Also, posts with hashtags had a lower level of engagement, and organic reach exhibited a slight decrease.
| Hashtags | No Hashtags |
|
| Median viral reach/fan | 0.80% | 1.30% |
| Median engagement/fan | 0.22% | 0.25% |
| Median organic reach/fan | 12.5% | 13.4% |
It was initially thought that hashtags would benefit those brands with large fan bases. The data was segmented by fan size, but regardless of fan size, generally using hashtags did not have a positive impact on a brand’s engagement or viral reach.
Why aren’t hashtags having success? EdgeRank Checker’s hypothesis is that most hashtags are being used in promotional campaigns. By their nature, promotions result in less engagement and fewer clicks.
Although EdgeRank Checker doesn’t typically study Twitter, for this study it analyzed 50 Twitter accounts of Fortune 500 companies. In the case of Twitter, it found that hashtags typically doubled the likelihood of a tweet being retweeted.