What's the Purpose of Hashtags on Facebook

Facebook has seemingly followed the micro blogging service Twitter, adding clickable hashtags functionality to its posts. The purpose of hashtags on Facebook is keeping the users informed an all popular topics discussed on the social network. Adding the '#' signs to a word will turn it into a clickable link that brings up a feed of what the social network's other users are saying on the topic. Using hashtags to identify topics has been popularized by Twitter a considerable while ago. Facebook says the new addition will give the users a larger vision of what's going on around.

However, unlike Twitter, Facebook does not currently allow advertisers to target people with using specific hashtags. Some people were previously annoyed of those using Facebook hashtags, since they were not clickable.

However, some suggest, the innovation might change the way advertising is done - by allowing the advertiser create real-time marketing; the timing of the ads can be determined by livetractable consumer behavior. Previously, when people were talking about topics that could bring ads were not public, so not always seen by the advertisers; now, with clickable hashtags, advertisers can easily find their audience - in case Facebook allows the practice.

Users can limit the list of those who can see their hashtag posts. Since the hashtags can greatly increase the value of Facebook advertising by tracking user behavior in real time. Catching the trending topics and bringing relative ads to the users is a possibility which is not yet monetized by Facebook, but will definitely by in the closest future.