#hashtags in Twitter

You may have seen people used the # in front of a word in Twitter and wondered what it meant. Called hashtags, these are a way of indexing a conversation in Twitter, so it can become more visible. Hashtags have been used for conferences as well as newsmaking events. The concept was created by hashtags.org. Documentation for the feature is on their blog. To use hashtags, you should follow the twitter person hashtag, then hashtag will be able to find the tweets more effectively. To search hashtags, go to hashtags.org.

Hashtags tend to be very topical. For example, one of the important hashtags for today (Nov. 28, 2008) is #mumbai, which has been providing status and news of the critical situation there. Noting the importance of social media, one person twittered, "Just that social media reporting got us better, fast & accurate info than mainstream."

If you have not used hashtags, you should get familiar with them, so you can use them when necessary. Recognized them as a useful tool, but also recognize that they may not always help you communicate important information quickly. As I look at hashtags.org, I see that the feed is way behind perhaps due to the volume of hashtags being used, so the news it provides is not always up-to-the-minute.

Related post: Using hashtags in Twitter

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Technorati tag: Twitter