Simply stated, a hashtag is a hyperlink in a tweet that leads to a stream of tweets all containing the same tag. It is generated whenever a user adds a number sign (#) to the front of a word or string of words.
Let’s look at an example of a hashtag in action.
As you can see here, there are several hashtags in this tweet. Each one will take us to a different set of tweets. Let’s look at where #NFL will take us.
When I clicked on the #NFL hashtag, it took me to a twitter search results page for that tag. Twitter continues to update this page in real time as more tweets with the same tag are generated.
What is really groovy and super cool is not so much what a hashtag is, but what it can be used for.
Some common uses for hashtags:
- Help make connections
- Facilitate discussions
- Promote live events
- Provide context
Help Make Connections
From very early on, the hashtag was used as a way to draw attention to other Twitter users. Have you ever seen #FF, #WW, or #MM? They stand for the following: #FollowFriday, #WriterWednesday, #MentionMonday. All of these hashtags and many more like them are used to highlight a particular user’s favorite tweeps.
This is a typical Follow Friday tweet with the simple hashtag and all of the twitter handles this young lady wanted to mention. The idea here is that she thinks this list of friends is wonderful and she hopes that the rest of the people following her will check them out and follow them, too. The hashtag is there to provide you with a clue as to why she’s tweeting all these names. The general purpose of #WW and #MM are pretty much the same. For Writer Wednesday, you can expect to see lists of writers on twitter.
Facilitate Discussions
This is one of the fastest growing uses for hashtags at the moment. Let’s look back at my #NFL tweet, again. What if you like talking smack with your buddies during a game? Hashtags will help you do that. I’m from southern Oklahoma, Dallas Cowboys territory. And I love cheering my boys on. So, I can add some fun to watching the game by participating in all of the twitter chatter connected to #Cowboys, #NFL, and #MNF (Monday Night Football)
The way to participate in a topic discussion whether its football or any number of other topics, you simply comment and include the hashtag. Your tweet will automatically be added to the stream for others interested in the same topic to see and possibly respond to. Others might retweet it or reply back to you.
Hashtags also facilitate more formally organized discussions called twitter chats. They are usually organized by a host and take place at an announced regular time.
Here is a tweet announcing the next time the #SocialChat group will be getting together, and what topic they will be discussing.
Joining the discussion merely requires that you include the chat’s hashtag in your comments so that the other members of the group see it in the hashtag stream at the time they are chatting.
Promoting Live Events
Lots of conferences recognize that many of their attendees are also twitter users. They provide a hashtag to everyone planning to attend in order to promote the event and facilitate networking among twitter users in advance of the event. During the event, Tweeps can comment on how they are enjoying the event, new things they are learning, and where to meet new friends after the last session of the day is over all by using the event hashtag.
Here are a few tweets on the official hashtag for the conference, Blue Glass Tampa (#bgtpa). All of the attendees are aware that if they want to discuss anything related to the conference they need to use that hashtag. You will see it is very abbreviated in order to allow as much of the 140 character twitter limit to be used for comment and not the tag itself.
Providing Context
Hashtags can also be used to provide additional context to a string of tweets. For instance, at a conference like #bgtpa, users might want to share several comments on the topic of “Link Building in a Post Panda World.” In order to keep the tweets on that topic in context they might tweet the conference hashtag, #bgtpa, and something like #PandaLink. The second tag would help others to follow a long string of comments all related to the session on link building at the conference.
Some hashtags are just context and nothing more. Take this one-on-one conversation for instance:
Obviously, Brandi and I are just having some fun, but if you took away the hashtags the exchange makes far less sense. In this instance, the hashtags can be an economical use of the character limit without having to spell things out.
As time goes on and Twitter continues to evolve, the use of hashtags will continue to evolve with it. This should give you an idea of what all the buzz is about.
by Michelle Stinson Ross
Do we really need another social network? Aren’t Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn enough?
Take a tour around the Mobli website and you will find experiences shared by people from all walks of life.
Internet access is so readily available that the temptation to take time out of the work day to check in on a personal Facebook or Twitter account is too easy to avoid for most workers. A mental break to check out a YouTube video can turn into way too much time not concentrating on the task at hand.
Become a fan