Twitter Hashtags (the symbol: #) are used when you want to track a subject or trending topic in Twitter. For example, #FollowFriday aka, #FF. This particular hashtag was started by Warren Whitlock (follow him @WarrenWhitlock) and became viral almost immediately after being introduced in the first few days of New Year’s 2009 celebrations.
Another example, #bdivas is from an international group of amazing boomer women who make a difference daily, not only to each other, but to their respective local communities. This group was organized by Beverly Mahone (follow her @babyboombev) from Boomer Diva Nation.
With hashtags becoming more common, people began to find more reasons to use them. I’ve seen them used for vanity purposes, like license plates, and also for favorite causes like clean drinking water. There is a another trend in hashtags in that you pick a night and host a Twitter Chat with anyone willing to join in. One of my favorite weekly chats is #ageop on Thursday nights. #ageop only lasts an hour (9PM ET) but the quality of the chat is worth every minute. You use an aggregator such as www.Tweetchat.com and put the name ageop in for the room (no need to use the hashtag) and automatically follow the discussion. You can use TweetDeck or Seesmic too, but you will have to remember to add the (hashtag) #ageop somewhere in the tweet. Tweetchat automatically adds in onto the end of your tweet. There are other programs that do this, use your favorite.
Today I found something extraordinary that I wanted to share. Robert Swanwick (follow him @spkrinteractive) created a Twitter Chat schedule on a Google Docs spreadsheet and has collected details of each hosted chat for all of us to refer to and even update. I’m thinking he deserves a mighty THANK YOU from all of us that enjoy Twitter Chats. Here is the link to his spreadsheet: http://budurl.com/z88d This is not an affiliate link, just a shortened link to Mr. Swanwick’s awesome document. Check it out for yourself!
Beverly Mahone @ 12:53 am
Teri,
Because of your expert knowledge, I have learned so much about Twitter. I appreciate U so much and just wish you were going to be a part of our All Women’s Social Media Summit—maybe next year.