Many of you may wonder why people put the pound symbol in front of words on their twitter messages. Hashtags are a way of showing what the entire twitter universe is saying about a topic you’re discussing. It will show, in real time, what tweets contain the same word.
The reason why this is so powerful is that it demonstrate trending in real time. The best example of twitter, to demonstrate how real time the technology is, was when there was an earthquake and the twitter employees saw a spike in the word “earthquake”. Moments later, they felt the earthquake and the subsequent aftershocks.
Adding validation to your tweets by writing about something that is being discussed is a good way to gauge the public’s perception. The next time you tweet, be sure to put a hash tag in front of the topic you want your readers to see.
Quick #$.02…
-SD
Nice to see you bloggng again. The hash tag is facinating because it serves a useful purpose but can also be an annoyance/gimmick. Seeing tweets with the #squarespace or #followfridays doesn’t change my life. #earthquake or #wwdc does have some impact