Facebook Inc.’s more than 1 billion members will be able to use hashtags, a tool popularized on Twitter Inc. that makes it easier for social-network users to discover and share topics that are being discussed.

Adding hashtags to words, such as “#NBAFinals” or “#Kardashian” has become a widely embraced method for those sharing 140-character posts via Twitter to create and participate in conversations about specific people, themes or events. Adding hashtags will enable users to more quickly see what others are saying, Facebook said in a blog post.

“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,” Facebook said in the post. “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.”

If Twitter’s use of hashtags is any indication, Facebook will likely incorporate them into its advertising business.

“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,” wrote Greg Lindley, product manager for hashtags, in the post.

Facebook, owner of the world’s most popular social- networking service, is introducing new services to encourage more users to share with each other, spend more time using the network and attracting advertisers.

Facebook revamped its search capabilities in January to help members easily find other users and information. In March, the company redesigned its home page, adding tools for filtering the main News Feed by category, such as music and photos.

(The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this report)