#hashtag: Helping You Keep Track Of Your Conversations

As soon as you get started using Twitter, you will be introduced to a popular conversion-tracking feature that is symbolized by a “#.” This “#” is otherwise known as a hashtag, or a simplified way for users to search tweets with a common topic.

For example, let’s say #TedGinn is a trending topic due to his record-breaking performance this past Sunday. Each person tweeting about Ted Ginn’s amazing back-to-back return touchdowns in 57 seconds will tag the words #TedGinn in their post to encourage topic participation. This provides an easy way for interested parties to join the discussion and offer their thoughts on his performance.

The following tweet says it all: @MIamiDolphins Did you know #TedGinn is trending? Maybe because he by himself had 268 return yds today Remember when he was a Dolphin? People even tweet that topics are trending…using hashtags of course!

While hashtags are a very useful aspect of Twitter, they are often misused and overused by Twitter users. Keeping track of communities, joining a cause, encouraging topic participation or running contests are appropriate ways of utilizing hashtags.

Communities are now using hashtags on twitter to monitor conversations occurring in their groups. You may follow #easports if you are interested in keeping up with the latest video game news about the latest FIFA title. Hashtags can be used to support your cause of choice by tagging a term related to your favorite charity, for example, and organizing the conversation surrounding it.

Hashtags can also be added to keywords like #TweetDeck in order to track helpful tips being shared about how to use the software. This is an excellent way to add to an existing pool of information without running over the 140 character limit, yet still offering the ability to discuss exactly what your tweet pertains to. Companies and twitter users alike have begun fashioning hashtags to track contest participants. These users are able to gain insight into who is actively engaging with the brand by monitor search results for entrants.

There obviously are plenty of ways to effectively use hashtags in your posts, yet there’s rampant misuse of #’s on Twitter. For example, don’t use hashtags in every word of your tweet! This is an absolutely pointless practice that accomplishes nothing for a Twitter user. Another impractical application of hashtags is using an entire sentence to mark a tweet. Some users also choose to abbreviate long phrases with unidentifiable acronyms. What purpose is served by tagging an acronym that is not easily recognized by interested parties? Twitter users attempting to be picked up by search and gather more followers have decided to string together popular hashtags in posts. This practice only serves to diminish the consistency and usefulness of a conversation.

Hashtags have advantages and disadvantages. In the future Twitter may introduce a more intuitive way of keeping track of conversations, but for now this is the way in which users are forced to tag topics they’d like to follow. Hopefully, I have clarified the confusing nature of hashtags for new Twitter users, and offered some insight into the proper use of tags for those misusing this feature.