If you’ve been using Twitter for a while, you probably have heard of hashtags. If not, you’re probably wondering what it’s all about.
I was asked this question last night when I was talking with a group of women about Twitter. Some had never heard of Twitter, while a few had just started using it. One of the women said, “I’ve seen people using something called hashtags on Twitter. What the heck is a hashtag, and how do I use it?”
Hashtags are a very effective way of categorizing and grouping conversations and topics. Unless you’re using an application like TweetDeck, for example, there is no way within Twitter to group or thread conversations. This was a bit of an annoyance, until some creative people started using hashtags as a way to keep all of the tweets in a conversation together.
It’s easy to use a hashtag. Simply include it in your tweet. For example, if I want to start a hashtag on the Super Spring Event, I might start a hashtag called #SSEVENT. Then all I need to do is to include that in my tweet:
“I’m having a blast at the Super Spring Event #SSEVENT”
Keep in mind to keep your hashtags short, because every character you type goes toward your 140 character limit.
If you want to search on a hashtag, go to http://search.twitter.com and put in the hashtag (or person, or topic) that you’re looking for. Your search results will include every tweet that includes that hashtag or topic.
Looking for some interesting hashtags to follow? Go to Hashtags.org to find some interesting ones. Found one you like and want to jump in the conversation? Just include the hashtag in your tweet, and let others follow your lead. It’s that simple. 
