Using the #hashtag in Twitter

Using #hashtags on Twitter

Continuing with my weekly Twitter series, this week we take a look at the #hashtag – once again thanks to Knowlton and Hill Strategies for assisting in compiling this column.

Once you’ve started using Twitter, it won’t take long before you come across what’s known as a hashtag. The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorise messages.

You can use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in your tweet to categorise the tweet and help it show more easily in a Twitter search.

When you click on a hashtag in any message, it will show you all other tweets marked with that keyword. If you tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your tweet.

A hashtag is simply a way for people to search for tweets that have a common topic. For example, if you type #cricket or #CricketWorldCup or #CWC into the search Twitter box at the top of any Twitter page and hit enter, you’ll get a list of tweets related to the Cricket World Cup.

In a way, hashtags allow you to create communities of people interested in the same topic, by making it easier for them to find and share info related to it. Hashtags can occur anywhere in the tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end. Remember to only use hashtags in tweets relevant to the topic and don’t #spam #with #hashtags or overuse the # in a single tweet.

Happy #hashtagging…