There are many features available when using Twitter.
From the retweet to Lists, they are fun and provide additional levels of functionality. The more of them you use regularly, the more powerful Twitter will be for you.
The Hashtag (#) is one of these features and lately you’ve been seeing it more often than not.
The Hashtag is similar to a subject line in an email, or keyword tags in a blog post. The words you “tag” are the very essence of your tweet.
To understand this crazy symbol’s involvement in Twitter, you must first be aware of Twitter Search.
It Starts with Twitter Search
On the web interface there is a search box on the right column. You can search for anything you’d like, and if it’s been
mentioned in any tweet recently, it will be shown to you in the search results. Nothing special has to be done to your own tweets, they are publicly search-able by default. Cool huh?
But wait! Your results won’t always be what you expect them to be.
If you typed in “wave” into the search box looking for information about Google Wave- and I just did. These are some of the results:
Jakafe @St_agustaf Yo… Wave yo hands in da air like you just don’t care… Hooo.. Heeeyy.. Hooo…
zckenny just requested my Google Wave Invite! Get yours at http://www.google.com-wave.info – #googlewave #googlewaveinvite
strellson 說 大家晚安 (wave) (sleeping) http://plurk.com/p/2pjspa
And the list goes on with several more pages.
There were successful results about Google Wave, but they were mixed in with other uses of the word “wave.” Could you have used the search phrase “Google Wave”? Yes! Of course, and we’ll get to the difference between using/not using a hash later on.
Try that same search with the search phrase #wave and you get a much cleaner result- most if not all are related to Google Wave. Why is this? One important thing to remember is that:
The # is not automatic, it’s another person’s implicit identification of the subject of their Tweet.
This implicit, going out-of-their-way notation of the core of their tweet makes the hashtag a very good way of finding other people’s tweets related to a subject. Compare the two:
I got my Google Wave invite today!
I got my Google Wave invite today! #wave #GoogleWave
This example is a little simple, but the idea is the same. Hashtags are deliberate. The Tweeter (person who Tweets) is actively thinking about other people who might be searching for the same topic.
The next level…
Okay so we take it to the next level now. Why waste all that valuable space? Perhaps you need it for your really cool quote? You can use the hashtag inside your actual message. Here’s our previous example kicked up a notch:
I got my #GoogleWave invite today! SWEET!
That is a finely tuned tweet right there. Gets the message across and tags it for others.
Tweets: 140 Characters is Too Short to Not Have Fun
You can also have fun with your hashtag usage! And even use it to get a second point across. Here are some actual tweets found by searching #fail.
pingu_98 left power supply for my laptop at work. #fail.
And here’s a great one! (Link goes to image shown below.)
debcha Propped-door #fail: http://yfrog.com/37p44j
So Debcha’s tweet talks about MIT wanting to conserve energy- even use TWO signs, all while propping open the door. Notice how the use of #fail worked perfectly for a search. Just typing in “fail” would have resulted in tweets simply containing the word.
The possibilities are endless!
Events!
For me, the most fun use of the hashtag in tweeting is at large scale events and conferences. If the Event Management
or Corporate Sponsor of the even is up on the their social media, they’ll tell you what hashtag to use while you’re there.
For example, I recently attended a B2B conference and the host, SilverPop let the attendees know prior to and during the even that the hashtag to use when tweeting about the conference was: #b2buniversity
On my Twitter iPhone app Echofon, there is a place to search and I typed in #b2buniversity on my way to the event. The fun starts here as you’ll see lots of other people tweeting about making their way TO the event:
On my way to #b2buniversity! Looking forward to it!
And when at the event, people will often tweet key points and metrics:
@KeynoteSpeaker : 28% of all elephants are color-blind #b2buniversity
So for someone not at the event, all you have to do is set your Twitter Search to the hashtag and you can follow along with updates and often pictures of the event!
#Hashtag
The Online World, Twitter, and the way we tweet/search is constantly evolving. Understanding and using hashtags will help keep you at the forefront of the #knowledgecurve. So get out there and use those #hastags like a #hero!
