What’s a #Hashtag? And How Do You Use Them on Twitter (and now Facebook)?
With the roll out of hashtags on Facebook this week, it’s important to go back to the beginning.
What is a hashtag? And how do you use them?
What is a hashtag?
“I don’t know why people keep talking about hashtags, they’re just pound signs!”
– One of my dear friends
You’ve probably seen hashtags if you’ve been hanging around practically any social media network recently.
At its core, a hashtag is simply a word or phrase (with no spaces) behind a pound sign. Plain and simple.
How to use hashtags
There are a number of uses for hashtags, from humor to business to everywhere in between.
To be funny
Often, a hashtag ends up being a punchline to a joke. Especially on Twitter, where you only have 140 characters to plead your case, the hashtag is the perfect place for the ba dum cha!
To be searchable
More often than not, hashtags are the perfect way to become searchable for a subject. Wrote an article about social media? Hashtag it #socialmedia or #socialmediatips. Talking about a specific geographic location? Hashtag it with that.
They are also a great way to do searches as well. Interested on learning more about a topic? Click on a hashtag in order to see all of the other posts using that hashtag.
To be apart of an event
One of the best ways to be searchable is by hashtagging an event that you’re at. That way, all of the followers of that event will be able to see your posts as they are doing searches for the hashtag.
What are your rules for your professional vs. personal online profiles?