The hashtag system on Twitter, created by it’s users for a powerful way of categorizing massive amounts of information, is possibly the most misunderstood and misused tool in the entire Twitterverse. Hashtags, for those who aren’t aware, are words or phrases preceded by a pound symbol (#). For example, the ever-popular hashtag #iamageek has allowed geeks everywhere to collaborate and share their geekdom.
The major thing that most Twitter users don’t know is how to properly apply these hashtags. One might think that if their talking about a movie, they should put a hashtag before it’s name to categorize that tweet for that movie. This is a misuse of the system, however, because one could just as easily find tweets about that movie by searching Twitter for the name of the movie without that hashtag. No, hashtags are intended to be used to apply a tweet to a motif that is present in tweets that may not share the same exact subject matter.
An example of a misuse of a Twitter hashtag would look something like this:
Just finished reading a really great #book by #danbrown.
Whereas an example of a properly used hashtag would look something like this:
Sending out Wave invites to followers, DM me if you’d like one! #googlewave
What the latter tweet has done correctly is to categorize the main concept of the tweet in a way that allows other tweeters to find it easily. They have also put the hashtag outside of the tweet, which is not necessary, but can help the English of the tweet flow better while still accomplishing it’s purpose.
The last important thing about hashtags is that one must remember to stay to the predefined hashtag for a certain category. Often there are widely used hashtags for different things (like #iamageek) that several people use every day. If you use a hashtag like #iamsuchageek, not many people will find that tweet in a search because they have no reason to search that tag. By using #iamageek, you are integrating your tweet with all of the other tweets that have used that popular tag, and thus you are increasing the chances that many people will see that tweet.
Hopefully this guide has been helpful for understanding how to use Twitter hashtags correctly. If you are interested in Social Media, you know that having interesting and engaging content is only half the battle, and you have to find a way to advertise yourself. Hashtags are a great way to do that.
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