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What the Heck are Hashtags and Why Do I Care?

Posted: October 30, 2011

If you're a Twitter user or you're going to join the social media platform, hashtags are a must-understand element. The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet.

If you're a Twitter user or you're going to join the social media platform, hashtags are a must-understand element. 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 categorize messages. Here's what else Twitter teachs about hashtags, how to use them and why they're important.

Note that #huntfishnews is a POMA hash tag that the organization (POMA_HQ) uses in Tweets. We encourage you to use #huntfishnews too, whenever you Tweet outdoor industry news - product metnions, a promotion, awards that were presented or the launch of a new TV show or book - on Twitter. POMA also uses #pomaconf, when Tweeting about POMA's annual business conferences.

 

Hashtags: helping you find interesting Tweets
  • People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets to show more easily in Twitter Search.
  • Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category.
  • Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet.
  • Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

Example: In the image here, you'll see POMA_HQ adds the hashtag before the word huntfishnews in its messages. The word is now a link to search results for all Tweets containing "#huntfishnews" in the message.

Using hashtags

  • If you Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Tweet.
  • Don't #spam #with #hashtags. Don't over-tag a single Tweet. (Best practices recommend using no more than 3 hashtags per Tweet.)
  • Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic.

Further Discovery and Reading

  • The third party site hashtags.org offers an overview of popular hashtags used on Twitter. Find out about trends, look at small, pretty graphs, and search to see if the hashtags of your fantasies exist.
  • You may also want to read this article about hashtags, which appeared in The New Yorker magazine.