What the heck are Hashtags?
Twitter user or not, you may have seen this number symbol(#) being placed in front of various subject titles and wondered what was going on. Well, it’s what’s known as a hashtag, which is like a label you put on topic in order for others to find related postings. It’s used in almost the same fashion as you would tag photos in Flickr. Doing this helps you and others find or track a particular subject on Twitter.
For example if you wanted to find out what others are saying about your favorite band, say The Black Eyed Peas, you could simply search #blackeyedpeas and you would find all tweets that refer to the band and what people are saying about them right this minute. Think of the potential this can have on other topics!
So you want to know how to hashtag? Well its easy. First, you should search the topic to see if a hashtag already exists. Then type out your tweet. Before you post, just add the “#” before the topic(s). Here are a few posts showing the use of the hashtag:
- Did you hear #Apple is planning an #iPad Mini
- #PresidentBarackObama in #Wisconsin with #Milwaukee Mayor #TomBarrett
- Listening to #BlackEyedPeas at work
Here in the Fox Valley / Green Bay area, everyone is talking about the latest project with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which is being taped in Neenah, WI. We at HTMLgraphic wanted to share the message of hashtags and the excitement it can create during the event.
Jason Gegere, owner of HTMLgraphic, drove to Neenah to the home site Monday evening and displayed a 4×8 banner suggesting to Makeover fans to FOLLOW #EMHEWI. You may be wondering what does this stand for? It stands for “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – Wisconsin”. The banner is definitely getting attention and maybe we won’t get any new twitter follows out of the endeavor, but at least it gets people to think twice about Twitter and the powerful community that backs it up.
HTMLgraphic would like to thank all of those involved in the #EMHEWI banner project – @andygaerthofner, @ardent_photo, @GraceKutney, @gegere, @AnnMollica, @Mike_Giesen
For more info on using hashtags
Also useful tools to organize your tweets and other social media accounts