Social media gurus love to tell you that hashtags are dead.
And then you’ve got the younger crowd chiming in with the occasional “OK, Boomer” like using a hashtag somehow means you’re out here sending faxes.
But that hasn’t been my experience at all.
I still use hashtags from time to time and when I do, I consistently see new eyeballs on my content. I’m talking about people who don’t follow me, aren’t in my network, and have zero connection to anyone I know.
Which tells me something pretty simple, those hashtags are doing their job. In fact, when I look back at the posts that have really taken off for me, the ones that pulled in hundreds of thousands of views, and even a few that crossed into the millions, almost all of them had hashtags attached. And those posts introduced me to millions of people outside of my immediate network.
Coincidence? Maybe, but I don’t think so. And the best part is, you can invite many of those people to follow your profile or page on Facebook once they hit the like or heart button.
I think this is one of those areas where “guru advice” gets a little too absolute. And if you’ve been around this game long enough, you know that absolutes are absolutely silly in some scenarios.
The reality is, most of the people giving advice are speaking from a very specific context and then presenting it like it’s universal. It’s not.
So yeah, I’m still occasionally use hashtags, and based on what I’m seeing, they still work from time to time. At least on Facebook.
I’m curious what your experience with hashtags are. Are you still using them, or have you ditch them completely because someone told you they no longer work?
