An example of a Hashtag!
Applies to: No one or everyone 🙂
The other day I was sat with my housemates talking about how the ‘kids’ of today like to Hashtag everything, even in everyday conversation. And one said “Hashtag chilli sauce is life” which if written on Twitter would read #ChilliSauceIsLife. This made me think, I don’t really know why Hashtags became a thing or why people want to say it in everyday normal spoken conversation…
A Brief history (ish) of Hashtags
They were made popular by Twitter, Twitter used them to group related tweets (or comments) together and make it easy for someone interested in a particular thing to easily find what other people were saying about it. Then people started saying it out loud which really (in my opinion) doesn’t work! But there we are 🙂
What on earth is a Hashtag and how is it used?
A Hashtag is just some text in a comment (usually on social media), the key bit is the use of the # symbol and some words for example #AwesomeDay or #GrumpyCat and note the no spaces, a Hashtag ends at a space.
How does it work in practice: These people all commented on a Ski Slopestyle final in Spain. Their official Hashtag was #SN2017 – they all included #SN2017 in their tweet so other people looking for tweets about the competition can find them easily. Excellent!
Sandra Naeslund wins gold in ladies’s #skicross finals #SN2017. Congrats!
@sandranaslund
@SmithFanny
@ophelie_david pic.twitter.com/ROZrfIZzqK— Sierra Nevada 2017 (@SNevada2017) March 18, 2017
Tonight, night skiing #SN2017… From 19 to 22, will be open Rio slope and initiation terrain park #SierraNevada https://t.co/z1SWsGH4ea pic.twitter.com/YhFE67Y12g
— Sierra Nevada 2017 (@SNevada2017) March 16, 2017
We’ve uploaded some images from yesterday’s #halfpipe finals in Sierra Nevada. #SN2017
Full gallery: https://t.co/7DqsRbxBzR pic.twitter.com/dVMzvwukA3
— FISfreestyle (@FISfreestyle) March 19, 2017
After Twitter started using them, other companies jumped on board. Google+ and Facebook are two other places you can use Hashtags, but also services like Pinterest and almost any social network has support for them (or something similar).
The rise of Hashtag
This graph from Google shows when Hashtag as a word started being used
So next time you feel you want to comment on a thing that’s happening in the world, and you want everyone to find it, try using a # in your comments.
I will leave you with one last thing from that ski competition, which came from the commentator during the Snowboard final…
“Her [snow]board is floundering around like an uncontrollable haddock on the deck of a ship.” #SN2017
#ThanksForReading
Mike 🙂
Note: We can’t be sure what people will have tweeted using the Hashtags we linked to so they might contain any content! Sorry. Also #’s don’t work on this website! Maybe we will find a way to make them work on here one day…
October 13, 2017 at 2:59 pm
Thanks for this excellent explanation – sorry it took me so long to find it 🙁
October 13, 2017 at 8:59 pm
Hello, Fantastic, glad you found it helpful 🙂
I’ve left a comment on your other questions too for anyone following along.
Do let me know how you get on with HashTags 🙂 #. Or as you get a bit more comfortable with them let me know if I missed anything from this guide! 🙂
Many thanks.
Mike 🙂
August 10, 2017 at 12:34 pm
I’ve just returned from a visit to my (adult) son who instructed me on the use of Instagram and hashtags. I now know how to include hashtags in my social media messages but I regret I still don’t understand exactly how this helps people to find my posts – or indeed how I would go about finding posts that would interest me. I feel there is a significant gap in my understanding! Are you able to close it for me?
August 10, 2017 at 2:26 pm
Hello
Generally, you can click on a hashtag and it will show you posts that people have applied the hashtag to…
On Instagram when you view a photo and see the description, try clicking on one of the hashtags and see what it brings up. For example, if you follow an event usually there is an ‘official# hashtag you can follow to see all the updates about that event. Either click on it or search for it.
Let me know if I haven’t quite answered your question…
Thanks
Mike 🙂
P.S. You might be interested in my recent article on why it’s time to stop using Internet Explorer, read more here.