One of the confusing things to many new Twitter users is this seemingly weird use of symbols and acronyms that they are suddenly exposed to in a 140 character world.
While long time texters are familiar with the texting shorthand (LOL, BRB, IMHO, IDK*) that’s been adapted to Twitter there are a few variations unique to the Twittersphere that are a bit puzzling.
In this post we’ll tackle one particular Twitter convention that a lot of people struggle to get their heads around, hashtags.
Twitter Hashtags Explained
#[something] – this is a hash tag symbol, “#” (some of us think of it as the pound sign) followed by a word, phrase or acronym. Hash tags sprang up as a way for people to easily track conversations (or “tweets“, i.e., a twitter post) about a particular topic (#taxes), ideology (#rush), event (#FollowFriday), person (#Obama), company (#Dell), or product (#iphone) on Twitter. Hashtags.org is the mothership for all things hash tagged and, if you follow their Twitter feed (@hashtags), they’ll track and aggregate your use of hashtags in your personal posts.
Hashtags demonstrated…
Let’s say that I’m interested in starting a Twitter conversation about President Obama’s new health plan. I may create a hash tag called #OHP (for Obama’s Health Plan) to track this conversation on Twitter. Each time I tweet about the health plan I add the tag, #OHP, to my post and savvy respondents will do the same. Then I can use a number of tools including Twitter Search and Hashtags.org to see what everyone is contributing to this particular conversation. Sample Tweet stream (all Tweets made up):
Obama’s health plan is causing a lot of controversy. Ur opinion? Good or bad? #OHP
@tomjgrayObama’s so called health plan is the first step on the road to perdition. #OHP
@rushonalimbEvery American is entitled to comprehensive health care and if the government needs to drive this the so be it #OHP
@bleedingheartliberal… and so the Tweets flow…
Each time you use a hashtag in a post that post get’s captured at Hashtags.org and the entire conversation can be easily accessed there. Here’s a screen capture that illustrates how conversations are cataloged:
Drilling Down with Hashtags
If you want to ‘drill down’ into a particular conversation then you merely click on the hashtag itself (e.g., #iphone) to review a chronological listing of all the Tweets that have contained this tag as well as monthly activity for this hashtag….
If You Want to Know More About Hashtags
For further understanding of Hashtags I’d recommend that you visit Hashtags.org and just explore the various options it provides for discovering the multitude of hashtags going on all around you on Twitter.
For even more good stuff on hashtags visit the hashtag page at the Twitter Fan Wiki.
One Last Thing
I encourage you to participate in the many dialogues tracked by hashtags on Twitter and to use hashtags to start and track your own but to avoid confusion do yourself, and your followers a favor, and check to see if the hashtag you’d like to use is available by checking it out in the directory of hashtags on twitter.
I’m Available to Help
As always, leave your comments or contact me directly with your questions about Twitter or other social media.
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[*LOL - Laugh Out Loud, BRB - Be Right Back, IMHO - In My Humble Opinion, IDK - I Don't Know]
