Good news for Facebook users who are fond of using Twitter-style hashtags on posts – those hashtags will actually be supported from here on in.

Yep, you read that right, hashtags on Facebook now make sense, and will no longer just be some random words preceded by “#.”  Many Facebook users have been using hashtags on the social service like they do on Twitter, apparently without wondering why the hashtags aren’t getting hyperlinked or remain non-clickable like they are on Twitter.

Until now, when you use a hashtag on Facebook, it doesn’t actually do anything.

However, Facebook announced on its page that hashtags on the service will now be clickable – just like they are on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest.  Hashtags on Facebook means that you can now discover what others are saying about a certain topic, or start your own topic of interest and let others find you.

This new integration will allow users to search specific hashtags from the search bar, click on hashtags that originate on other services such as Instagram, and compose posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results.

Facebook explains in its blog:

“Hashtags are just the first step to help people more easily discover what others are saying about a specific topic and participate in public conversations. We’ll continue to roll out more features in the coming weeks and months, including trending hashtags and deeper insights, that help people discover more of the world’s conversations,”

#Ads???

Facebook is pretty late adopting hashtags onto its platform, but as Andrew Frank, a social media analyst at the consultants Gartner, states – hashtags are popular with advertisers and what with how badly the social giant is doing, pissing off shareholders because of its plunging stock price, it needs all the advertising advantages it can get its hands on.

“Hashtags are also popular with advertisers. They are a way to extend the value and reach of advertising,” Frank stated.

Frank’s statement was supported by Cotton Delo, digital and technology writer at Advertising Age magazine, who claims that there are so many conversations happening on Facebook but the lack of hashtags makes it harder for marketers to know what people are interested in, especially in real-time.