How Hashtags are Remaking Conversations on Twitter – NYTimes.com
The always enjoyable Virginia Heffernan wrote a column this week on how hashtags are changing the conversations on Twitter.
Hashtags are those little keywords prepended with a pound sign – like in this blog post’s title.
They are the subjective, descriptive little tags added by the tweeter as a way to signify what the tweet is about. Think of them like when you tag a photo on Facebook with a person’s name. You’re adding an additional level of searchability to your postings or tweets.
I commonly see handwritten signs at events where the organizers declare the hashtags for their event. This lets everyone attending cluster their comments around what’s happening, and gives the organizers an easy way to monitor the conversations about them.
I’ve even begun writing my name tag as @geofftucker at these events so people can follow me. It still seems to be a subtle, in-the-know thing but people are catching on.
Make a habit of hashtags in all your posts. And hunt down who or what you need using them.