#UsingTheHashtag

Twitter is a widely growing social network.  For whatever reason, to me, it seems to be the most commonly contested of all the social networking sites.  Those not on twitter seem inherently opposed to it, but my experience has also been that these are the very people who become Twitter's biggest advocates once they get into the swing of it. 

I'm a huge fan of Twitter.  I think it's great.  I also think it gets misused.  I realize there is not technically a "right" and "wrong" way to do things when it comes to your own personal social networking site, but I do think there are attributes to Twitter that had particular intended purposes.  

  There are plenty of platforms to teach you how to use Twitter and what its intended purposes are, including a section on the site. However, I think it's rare for people to go out and research this information on their own.  

I think one of the most universally misused features of Twitter is the hashtag.

A hashtag is putting the # sign in front of a word or series of words which then creates a link in your tweet.  The intended purpose of this link is to be able to click on the hashtag and view other tweets about the same topic.  It also helps identify trending topics.  A trending topic is a topic about which many people are tweeting.  

For example the other day a trending topic on Twitter was #ThingsLongerThanKimsMarriage.  I had a tweet that said #ThingsLongerThanKimsMarriage, Kim's engagement.  Then, to all who saw the tweet they could click on the hashtag and it would lead them to every tweet in which someone hashtagged #ThingsLongerThanKimsMarriage.  

So how does the hashtag get misused?

The way I most commonly see a hashtag misused is for the punchline of a tweet.  Many, many people do this.  I don't like being notified of a punchline through hashtag.  You do not need to point out to me the best or funniest part of your tweet via the # sign.  If your tweet is funny or clever enough, I'll be able to figure it out on my own.  After all, it is only 140 characters.  

#Myauntelizabethisgoingcrazy is far too specific of a hashtag.  I think there is a small chance of there being many other tweets about that same topic, if any at all.

The purpose of your tweet does not need to be hashtagged at all if there is not an appropriate hashtag for it.  Signaling the purpose of your tweet with a hashtag is unnecessary and not the point.  I don't like to be told which part of your tweet to pay attention to and that is not the intended purpose of the hashtag.  

If a tweet has a hashtag in it, I hope that there is at least a small following of people who share that hashtag so anyone interested in what your tweeting can see similar tweets.  It is actually a useful thing when used properly, not just a comedic tool.  

Again, people are free to tweet how they want, I'm not trying to be the Twitter police, I just think that not enough people are sure of the intent of the hashtag.  I think it is important for people to at least know that the hashtag does have a function. 

 Choose to use it properly or don't, it's up to you.  However, I recommend keeping in mind the purpose  of a hashtag when using one, because hashtags seem to have a negative connotation and some people have a strong distaste for them.  I think a lot of this can be attributed to the misuse of them. To these people I would like to say, when used properly, I think hashtags can be incredibly useful.  

Also, to those of you who do not have Twitter and have been seeing words or phrases prefixed by  "#," that is a hashtag-- it is intended for Twitter, but is being leaked over into facebook and text messaging where it has no real function.  

Anyway, that's what I had brewing this time! Don't forget to follow me on Twitter where you will see the hashtag used properly! (when not mocking the misuse of them) @mkbeer08