#Hashtags Will Change The Way You Use Facebook

Love them or hate them, #hashtags have been enabled on Facebook and they are here to stay.

Nearly half of Facebook users cruise the site via their smartphones, so as of right now- they can't utilize the feature.

But mark my words- once the social network giant gives smartphone users the ability to click on a #hastag and see what it does....the game will change.

In case you are still unfamiliar with exactly what a hashtag is or what it does- you are not alone.  Hashtags were first introduced on another network you may have heard of- a site called Twitter.  When typing the "#" symbol directly in front of a specific word or phrase containing no spaces, the phrase becomes a clickable link.

Here is how it appears on Twitter.  As you can see below, the word hashtag turned red because I added the number sign in front of it.

 After I submitted the tweet, I clicked on the hashtag and search engine like results appeared.

Think of hashtags as a way of googling through your Facebook friends conversations.  If you want to know whose watching Mad Men, Facebook is finally going to make it easier to find them.

How to Disable Nested Comments on Your Facebook Page

By: Mary Ellen BostOwner, Savvy Social Media Marketing

 Just recently- Facebook launched a major new feature for Fan Pages called the "Reply Button.”  (Pictured Right)  Amongst a few things-, the feature gives Facebookers the ability to reply directly to a Fan's Comment.  

With the reply feature enabled - users have the choice between posting a comment under the main thread...or reply directly to a specific comment (known as "Nested Comments".  The ability to reply directly to a comment is something that Facebook Page managers have been wanting for some time.  

However, when the feature is enabled- comments do not appear in chronological order of the time that they are posted.  And therin lies the confusion.  See below.

According to Facebook, an algorithm of sorts determine which comments will appear first, second...last and so on.  Here is how it was explained it on the Facebook Blog:

"Conversation threads are re-ordered by relevance to viewers, and may appear differently to each person based on their connections, specifically:

• Positive Feedback: the amount of positive feedback based on the total number of Likes and Replies in a conversation thread, which includes Likes or Replies by the Page owner.
• Connections: connections to participants in a thread may move the conversation higher. For example, conversations with Comments left by friends may appear at the top.
• Negative Feedback: the total number of spam reports in a thread, as well as marks-as-spam made by the Page owner.  We also may down-rank comments made by frequent spammers."

In other words- to the average reader- there is no real rhyme or reason where a particular comment will appear.  Moreover, it can be downright messy and confusing.

Regardless of what you think- if you have enabled the "reply button" to your Facebook Page and need to disable it...here is the quick trick to do so.