Hashtags on Facebook will suck… until it has an actual ad product

It’s been a tough couple of months for the big blue whale (or perhaps big blue punching bag these days) – most announcements (even the superb earnings results) have met with little more than a “meh” from even the most loving of outlets. The Instagram video announcement in particular seemed to come across as being as welcome as a fart in a lift. Fifteen seconds? Sounds like more ads to me…

Stealth video ads aside, one announcement that did get a lot of people riled up (for personal versus professional reasons it seems), has been the introduction of hashtags. Click on a hashtag your friend or brand has lovingly thought of and voila you have a page that looks um… naff, doesn’t auto update, is only publicly posted statuses and doesn’t (currently) work on mobile. Currently they offer close to zero value for the user. At least this is what the damp squib of the coverage alluded to.

I doubt it will be a quick ride for hashtags on Facebook — it’s more of a Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ thi…oh wait — this might just might take off! Sure it hasn’t really educated users about the change (it only really does that when it wants to tell you it is like a chair it seems) but it’s pretty much everywhere already so why not on Crackbook? Clearly this was a grab for engagement and more data points but my jaw dropped when there was no mention of a supporting or specialist ad product. It just begs for one. “This is all organic for now folks, please buy the ads we just trimmed down to blast your reach into outer space, #Kayfanksbai” was how it came across.

Facebook hashtags could have really been different – pushed something, given that more TV chatter happens on Facebook than on Twitter. Facebook could have given users a unique reason to use them on Facebook than on any other site where they are available. Imagine the possibilities!

I talk about #TopGear and because Audi has a car on there (or based on my likes) I now get an Audi ad/offer/message — thanks Audi, I would like a test drive on my birthday! What about going a step further? Ignoring “live” for a moment, imagine I am just posting a simple update “I hate it when [insert bad company x] does [insert bad thing y]” — wouldn’t a tool to put them in a bucket titled “never going to happen so let’s save our money” be useful? It’s not perfect but it’s a start.

Negative targeting on Facebook is still very young but based on this introduction it would seem foolish not to add it to future strategies. Stop talking to people who definitely don’t care or will take a bankers salary to get to neutral and fish where the fish are. The possibilities for smart data folks are probably way beyond what I have described here. I’m sure they are on their way and it’s because the social network just announced it was trimming down its existing ad offerings, so it could confuse people but I would have risked it for something that adds so much value to other competing platforms.

Tragically all this is based on publicly posted data (i.e. profiles that are public) which are (at best I would say) around 25% of the total Facebook population. 250-million is not bad but let’s hope they are your 25%…

Which leaves only one question left to answer: without the full picture, which brand will fall foul of hashtag hijacking first? Drop me a tweet with your prediction.