Using social media? Here's three tips to boost results by effectively using hashtags.

More than 27 million people have seen Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake join forces in the fight against #overzealous #hashtaggers.

Here's our top three tips for using hashtags:

1). Beware of hashtag overload: The use of excessive hashtags seems desperate and can even be perceived as spam. According to one study, the number of hashtags for optimal engagement is 7. Be strategic with the help of sites like Websta, Populagram, and TagsforLikes - they’ll tell you what’s trending at any given time to help you maximize your hashtag’s impact.

2). Consider color theory: Stay away from posting anything too dark. Light, bright images produce 24% more likes than dark photos. Photos that have blue as the dominant color also reportedly attract 24% more likes (when compared to images in red).

3). Offer a “behind the scenes” glimpse: People are inherently voyeuristic. Giving your customers a sneak peek into how the sausage gets made can be an effective social tool. If you’re a jewelry designer, post photos of your studio or a mood board that inspired your latest collection. You’ll make your customers feel like they have a closer relationship to your company.

'Hashtag,' 'selfie,' and 'tweep' have officially been added to the dictionary.

Tech terms continue to wind their way into the dictionary.

"Hashtag," "selfie," and "tweep" are just three of the latest words recently added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster announced on Monday. The new words have already popped up in the online edition and will join the print version as well.

Other tech terms that are now part of the club include "crowdfunding," "big data," "gamification," and "steampunk."

Merriam-Webster has also added "catfish" to the list. In addition to describing the actual fish, "catfish" refers to a "person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes." The word came into play following a documentary and MTV TV series as well as the bizarre hoax perpetrated against football player Manti Te'o involving a nonexistent online girlfriend.

"So many of these new words show the impact of online connectivity to our lives and livelihoods," Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster, said in a statement. "Tweep, selfie, and hashtag refer to the ways we communicate and share as individuals. Words like crowdfunding, gamification, and big data show that the Internet has changed business in profound ways."

Source: Merriam-Webster

Facebook has adopted the hashtag symbol.

Hashtags are coming to Facebook to help users better surface conversations.

Support for the all-but-ubiquitous topic organization system was rumored in March and will roll out to a small percentage of users Wednesday. Facebook will roll out hashtags to more users in the coming weeks.

 

The social network wants to make it easier for users to find content already on Facebook, and functional hashtags are the first step. According to Facebook, many users already post hashtags anyway, so why not make them work? Hashtags will be both clickable and searchable, so, for example, topics like #NSALeaks or #NBAFinals will now exist.

 

Hashtags from other services, such as Instagram, are clickable as well. Users will also be able to compose posts directly from a hashtag feed and search results. That could make adding real-time content to specific streams easier than before.

 

How nice...now we can see more #smile #happy #selfie #sunshine crap clogging up our Facebook feeds, just as it does to our Twitter accounts.

 

Source: CNN