How to Find Trending Hashtags on Facebook

Finding trending hashtags on Facebook can sometimes feel like searching for a needle in a haystack, but a solid method makes all the difference. Knowing what people are talking about right now allows you to join relevant conversations and boost your content's visibility. This guide will walk you through practical, step-by-step strategies to discover what’s buzzing on the platform and build a hashtag approach that actually moves the needle for your brand.

Why Hashtags Still Matter on Facebook in 2024

While hashtags found their fame on other platforms, they’ve become an integral part of Facebook’s content discovery engine. When used correctly, they signal to the algorithm what your post is about, helping it surface your content in users' feeds, search results, and Reel feeds. Think of them as signposts that guide both the algorithm and users to your content.

A good hashtag strategy on Facebook can:

• Increase Your Reach: Hashtags make your posts discoverable to users who aren't your followers but are interested in the topics you discuss. When someone searches for a hashtag, your public post has a chance to appear.
• Categorize Your Content: They help organize your content into pillars or themes. For example, using #HealthyRecipesFromUs on all your recipe posts makes it easy for followers to find all related content in one place.
• Build Community: Branded hashtags (e.g., #MyBrandChallenge) encourage your audience to generate content related to your business, creating a sense of shared community and providing valuable social proof.
• Tap into Trends: Using a relevant trending hashtag can give your content a temporary visibility boost by inserting it into a much larger, ongoing conversation.

Ignoring them means you're leaving free reach and engagement on the table. The trick isn't just to use them, but to use the right ones.

Method 1: The Direct Approach – Using Facebook’s Built-in Tools

Your first stop should always be Facebook itself. The platform provides several native tools and features that give you clues about popular conversations without having to look elsewhere.

Check the Professional Dashboard for Inspiration

If you have a Facebook Page running in Professional Mode, your Professional Dashboard is a goldmine of information. Facebook often provides a "Hashtag Inspiration" or similar module to creators and page managers.

Here’s how to check it out:

1. Navigate to your Facebook Page and click on "Professional Dashboard."
2. Look for sections related to content inspiration or trends. Facebook often pushes recommendations here, including popular topics and hashtags based on your Page’s category and audience interests.
3. It might show you hashtags like #MondayMotivation on a Monday or seasonal ones like #FallDecor as the season changes. While these are broad, they confirm what Facebook's algorithm is actively promoting.

Use the Facebook Search Bar a Smarter Way

The search bar is more powerful than most people realize. You can use it to gauge the popularity of hashtags and find related ones within your niche.

A Step-by-Step Search Strategy:

1. Start Broad: Type a relevant base hashtag into the search bar, like #digitalmarketing or #homecooking. Don't press enter just yet. Facebook will often autocomplete a list of related, popular hashtags below. Make a note of these.
2. Filter for Hashtags: After searching, look at the filters on the left side of the results page (on desktop). Click on "Hashtags." This will show you a dedicated feed of top-performing public content using that hashtag.
3. Analyze the Results: Pay attention to the volume and recency of the posts. Does the hashtag have hundreds of new posts every hour or just a few per day? High volume indicates a trend, but also more competition.
4. Discover Related Tags: Look at the other hashtags being used by the top-performing posts in your search results. Often, you'll find more specific, community-focused hashtags here that offer better engagement. For instance, a search for #digitalmarketing might reveal top posts also using #SEOtipsforbeginners. That’s your gem.

Spy on Your Competitors and Industry Leaders

One of the easiest ways to find effective hashtags is to see what’s already working for others in your industry. You don't need to reinvent the wheel.

• Identify 5-10 Competitors: Make a list of direct competitors and aspirational brands in your space.
• Analyze Their Best-Performing Content: Go to their Pages and scroll through their feed. Look for posts with unusually high likes, comments, and shares. What hashtags are they using on that content?
• Look for Patterns: A brand might use the same 3-4 hashtags consistently on all of their high-engagement posts. This tells you they’ve likely found a set that works well for their audience - an audience that is very similar to yours.

Method 2: Looking Beyond Facebook for Trends

Trends rarely live on a single platform. What starts on TikTok or X today often becomes a popular topic on Facebook tomorrow. Staying aware of the broader digital landscape is essential.

Watch for Crossover Trends from TikTok and Instagram

TikTok is the internet's trend factory, and Instagram Reels is a close second. Because Facebook is heavily pushing Reels, trends from these platforms migrate over at lightning speed.

• TikTok's For You Page: Spend some time scrolling your "For You" page on TikTok. What audio clips, challenges, or conversation formats keep appearing? Often, these are connected to a specific hashtag that a creator names in their caption or comments. That same hashtag is likely to gain steam on Facebook Reels.
• X's 'Trending' Tab: The "Trends" tab on X (formerly Twitter) is an almost real-time look at what the world is talking about. While many are news-related, you'll also find cultural moments, memes, and industry conversations that can be adapted into Facebook content.
• Google Trends: This is a powerful tool for validating if a topic has legs. Before you create content around a buzzword topic like #BioHacking or #SustainableFashion, plug it into Google Trends. You can see its search interest over time. If a topic is on an upward climb, hashtags related to it are likely to perform well on social platforms too.

Building a Smart and Sustainable Facebook Hashtag Strategy

Finding hashtags is only half the battle. Using them effectively requires a thoughtful approach. Randomly adding popular tags to your posts won't get you very far. Instead, think in tiers.

The Hashtag Tier System: Broad, Niche, and Branded

A balanced strategy includes a mix of different types of hashtags, each serving a different purpose.

• Broad or Popular Hashtags (1-2 per post): These are tags with millions of posts, like #marketing, #fitness, or #foodie. They give you a chance at broad exposure but face a ton of competition. Your post might appear for a fleeting moment, but it's good for a small impression bump.
• Niche or Community Hashtags (2-4 per post): These are where the magic happens. They are much more specific to your industry or audience, like #Chicagoweddingphotographer, #ketomealplanning, or #UXdesigncommunity. The audience is smaller but far more engaged and relevant. These hashtags drive quality followers and interactions.
• Branded Hashtags (1 per post): This is a tag specific to your business, campaign, or event. For example, #YourBrandNameHere or #YourBrandSale2024. It helps you track conversations about your brand and encourages user-generated content.

A good mix might look like this for a small coffee shop in Brooklyn: #BrooklynCoffee #WilliamsburgEats #CoffeeLover #CozyCafeVibes #NameOfShop

How Many Hashtags Should You Use and Where?

Unlike Instagram, where 20-30 hashtags are common, Facebook is a different beast. Walls of hashtags can look spammy and out of place in a Facebook caption.

Current best practices suggest:

• Use 3-5 strategically chosen hashtags per post. This looks clean and focuses on quality over quantity. The algorithm doesn't need 30 signals - it just needs a few strong, relevant ones.
• Placement matters for readability. You have two main options:
  1. In-Sentence Integration: Weave your most important hashtag directly into the caption. For example, "Starting the week off right with our new #ColdBrew available at all our locations." This feels natural and organic.
  2. End of Caption Block: Place your list of hashtags at the very end of your post copy, often separated by a few line breaks. This keeps the caption clean and readable while still giving the algorithm the signals it needs.

Your goal is to optimize for both algorithmic discovery and human readability. Does the post still read well? If not, rethink your hashtag placement.

Track, Measure, and Refine Your Approach

You won't nail your hashtag strategy overnight. It's a process of testing, learning, and adjusting based on data.

Use a simple method to track what works. A basic spreadsheet can do the job. Make columns for:

• Post Date
• Post Topic/Link
• Hashtags Used
• Reach
• Engagement (Likes, Comments, Shares)

After a month, review your spreadsheet. Are posts with a certain type of niche hashtag getting more comments? Do your Reels with trending audio hashtags get more reach? This data is your North Star. Stop guessing and start using the insights from your own account to build 'hashtag sets' you can reuse for different content pillars - one set for educational posts, another for company culture, and so on.

Final Thoughts

Finding trending hashtags on Facebook is a simple blend of art and science. It involves using the platform's tools to see what’s popular, looking outside the platform for emerging cultural trends, and sticking to a consistent strategy that targets both broad and niche audiences. Most importantly, it requires testing and paying attention to what your own data tells you.

Once you nail down your hashtag sets and content pillars, having a streamlined workflow makes all the difference in staying consistent. That’s a big reason why we built Postbase. Our visual content calendar helps you plan exactly which posts and hashtags you’ll use weeks in advance, while our simple analytics shows you what’s working at a glance. It eliminates the guesswork and helps you turn your hashtag strategy into real results, without all the busywork.