10.1% of tweets have at least one hashtag in their text while 20.8% of retweets contain a hashtag*

Perhaps you’re already an avid supporter of Facebook for B2B marketing? Or perhaps, like most B2B marketers, you have not been lured into the belief that Facebook is as effective as other social media sites such as twitter .

The fact that twitter offers the ability to track (listen to) conversations using hashtags, makes the process of building relationships with customers and prospects just that bit easier. You may well already be tracking conversations by searching for, and clicking on, relevant #hashtagged words, something that even you probably saw as a unique feature.
Well, perhaps not so ‘unique’ anymore. Facebook has recently announced their latest feature…the clickable #hashtag. If you are one of the many companies already using twitter, you can probably hazard a guess to how this may benefit you.

So does Facebook potentially have a larger place in the world of B2B marketing, contrary to what some of us may have initially believed? It may take some time to know for sure, but my guess is that by providing a way to group conversations on particular topics, the gap between Facebook and twitter is about to get just that bit closer.

*Source: Bongwon Suh, Lichan Hong, Peter Pirolli, and Ed H. Chi. Want to be Retweeted? Large Scale Analytics on Factors Impacting Retweet in Twitter Network. In Proc. of IEEE SocialCom 2010, Aug 20-22, 2010. Minneapolis, MN.

Author

  • Mike Maynard

    In 2001 Mike acquired Napier with Suzy Kenyon. Since that time he has directed major PR and marketing programmes for a wide range of technology clients. He is actively involved in developing the PR and marketing industries, and is Chair of the PRCA B2B Group, and lectures in PR at Southampton Solent University. Mike offers a unique blend of technical and marketing expertise, and was awarded a Masters Degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Surrey and an MBA from Kingston University.

    View all posts