Hashtags and Tracking Social Media

It's really interesting to learn how the first hashtag came to be and what it's original purpose was. I don't think many people realize that it was created for tracking purposes. From my personal experience with Twitter I have come to find that people exhaust the use of hashtags. I don't think it's necessary to include one in every single tweet- only when you know it could be a trending word/phrase. From a business perspective hashtags are really an effective way to monitor trends and learn ways to connect with your target audience. In addition, I find it annoying that people use hashtags when using Facebook- the hashtag is completely unnecessary and ineffective. When I have to compose Facebook status' and tweets for my internship on Hootsuite, I make sure not to use a hashtag if I am making my tweet the same as my Facebook status. From a business side of it, you have to know how to appropriately use each medium. It's really interesting to learn how the first hashtag came to be and what it's original purpose was. I don't think many people realize that it was created for tracking purposes. From my personal experience with Twitter I have come to find that people exhaust the use of hashtags. I don't think it's necessary to include one in every single tweet- only when you know it could be a trending word/phrase. From a business perspective hashtags are really an effective way to monitor trends and learn ways to connect with your target audience. In addition, I find it annoying that people use hashtags when using Facebook- the hashtag is completely unnecessary and ineffective. When I have to compose Facebook status' and tweets for my internship on Hootsuite, I make sure not to use a hashtag if I am making my tweet the same as my Facebook status. From a business side of it, you have to know how to appropriately use each medium. 

 

I found this article particularly interesting to me because I have always wondered why the hashtag is used in Twitter and how it came about. It is so crazy to me that one person started this huge phenomenon. I really didn’t quite understand the proper use of the Twitter hashtag until I became an avid Twitter user over the summer. Now I understand the trends and I think it is such a great form of communication. You are able to see who else has posted the similar tweets as you, able to see fun trends and can even see who all is tuning into the same show as you (#KimKWedding).

Even though I really appreciate the whole hashtag “phenomenon” I do have some pet peeves when it comes to them. Hashtags should be used sparingly; it drives me crazy when people are using hashtags in every other tweet. I also hate when hashtags are used on Facebook. Twitter and Facebook are two different social media sites and Facebook statuses are not meant to updated constantly like Twitter. Twitter abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms that are obnoxious and ridiculous are also very annoying. Nobody knows what SYAD or AFAIK means, so please don’t tweet it thinking we all know what you are talking about. I actually found a funny site that shows the most annoying hashtag abbreviations.

 

This past weekend, I was able to witness the power of the hashtag first hand while attending the PRSSA National Conference in Orlando. @PRSSANational created its own hashtag, #PRSSANC, specifically for the conference. Using this hashtag, students could share not only their own thoughts on the various conference sessions but also post quotes and tips from session speakers to share with those who could not attend the conference. 

In my personal use of the #PRSSANC hashtag, I was able to find other conference attendees on Twitter as well as have my own tweets retweeted by universities around the nation. Hashtags are a great way to connect individuals all over the world based on similar interests, much as a Facebook “like” page does. However, the hashtag does an even better job of displaying conversation about conferences, products, companies and services when a standard hashtag is used.

Upon returning to MSU from the conference this past Tuesday, I was surprised to hear how many of my friends had seen my tweets using the #PRSSANC hashtag and searched the hashtag to see other attendees’ tweets. 

For any students interested in public relations, I encourage you to check out the hashtag and learn a little more about the conference. Also, if you would be interested in attending next year, please let me know!

 

I do not have a favorite hashtag because I don't go on Twitter enough to have one. I do however recognize that the hashtag is so commonly used nowadays. The most popular one that I have heard of is #winning (is it from Charlie Sheen?). Anyways, I think it is a cool and easy way to separate and manage content. It makes it easy for others to find certain information, and also easy for you to be seen by others. But as mentioned in other comments here, it seems like it is being slightly overused nowadays. They are so common that they are even used on Facebook, text messages, etc. even when the actual functionality of the hashtag isn't there. Eventhough they are overused, it doesn't bother me like it does other people.

Overall, hashtags are a really smart way to have something expressed to everyone and at the same time grouped into its own category. It's relevance when you need it (well, sometimes) and being able to easily find that information that you are looking for.

I feel that having a hashtag in your tweet is becoming the norm. Every single tweet that I see has a hashtag attached to it. I feel that they are being over used. Even the small couple of word tweets have a hashtag attached to it. For example I saw a tweet "Studying. #notcool" it was almost as if that person wrote the tweet just to use a hashtag. I feel that there is a time and a place for a hashtag. I that the use of hashtags should only be allowed if the tweet is insightful and about that topic.

One of the best things about twitter is having a trending conversations using the hashtag. But as mentioned there is a time and a place for that. From the top 10 list "#confesiontime" is the one that I have seen the most. Reading through those tweets they are very funny that everybody can releate to. I have been known to use two hashtags in the same tweet and sometimes even three. I would agree that at times it can be a little much but they relate to each of the trending coversations. Hashtagging has changed twitter for ever and will not be going anywhere anytime soon. I feel that hashtagging will only increase from here.

I have recently came across a new reason to love hashtags.  I have become the marketing & PR intern for The McKinney Foundation, and have a lot of work to do.  This foundation is not currently actively engaging the public through social media.  It is my first task to analyze and make recommendations for improvement in the social media aspect of the foundation, then to put it to action. 

To begin my analysis, I have done some research.  The McKinney foundation is dedicated to giving underserved Detroit and surrounding area residents knowledge and access to resources that will help them to make healthier lifestyle decisions.  Aside from assessing their presence on Google, Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter, because of the hashtag, I can see if people are talking about them, and what they are saying!  It is going to take a key part in my analysis, recommendations, and final implementation of the digital marketing strategy.

An interesting fact that I have found in my research, #Detroit is hardly used!  Lions are actually getting broadcasted and winning, Tigers had a phenomenal season, Pistons are battling to be able to play...not to mention the attention that Detroit is getting about being the new creative hub city!

Hash taggings is a growing phenomenon. And people taking a little bit too much advantage of it. I have various twitter friends that I have deemed as #hashtaghappy. Quite frankly, I don't think many twitter users know how to properly use the hashtag feature. Personally, I do not think that the practice of hashtagging is particularly difficult or even necessary. At first, I though that the hashtag phenomenon was a way to segment tweets of related nature, in order for twitter users to search for other users of common interest and/or opinions. But the search application on twitter can return results of common tweets without the presence of a hastag. Hash tagging as become an epidemic among twitter users, with tweets of the weekend reading " going to the #bar for meet some #friends and #icantwait! #letsgetdrunk." When I come across a tag happy twitter followers, the first thing I do, if not unfollow them right away, is consider their bragging idiocy over twitter. There is no need to hastag one word, let alone an insignifcant word in a group of other insignifcant words. I completely understand the idea behind tagging #GoGreen, or tagging a classroom dicussion with #NMDL or #newmedia, but the hashtag has become so popular that it runs the risk of being ruined and rendered pointless. Let's keep the hashtagging to ideas that are significant, and leave the #hash #tagging #about #everything #that #isn't #to #the #people #who #don'tknowhow #to #use #twitter.

I am not very knowledgeable of hashtags. Earlier today when I was reading the this blog post, I googled what they were exactly. I found that it is a way to create a sort of buzz for the social people of the internet. Hash tags can become links to other websites information or other social network users. I always see them on facebook and twitter, but still am unsure as to how to use them. I did read from this website that it is annoying to enter more than one hashtag in one post. I can see how this would be beneficial to business to try to interact with consumers, but I personally don't see a reason to use them, unless it's on game day, I'd like to see everyones rants about whats goin' on with the game.

Cool to see where it came from!

I do not have a favorite Hashtag. Personally, I find hashtags somewhat annoying at this point. I feel this way because the use of hashtags have crossed over into casual conversations verbally and via text message. I understand the purpose of using it for business purposes and what not, but using it in everyday text message conversations and things of that nature are childish in my opinion. I would rather just have a normal conversation with someone without them using #______. However, sometimes they are entertaining to read on twitter, and they are useful to track things on twitter. When used correctly I am ok with it. I just feel like the hashtags should stay on twitter and out of my personal text message conversations and I will be a happy guy.

As a relatively new user of Twitter, I've come to enjoy using hashtags. I think it's a cool and clever way to end a Tweet. It gives the "Tweeter" the opportunity to close their Tweet with a quick, final message. It also offers you the chance to emphasize a point. That in itself is the nature of a hashtag. I've come to be so used to hashtagging that I find myself doing it on Facebook, where it really has no relevance, other than people recognizing it as the symbol from Twitter. All in all, I find hashtagging to be fun, impactful, and addicting!

When I first learned how to use twitter, I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew was that people would put a pound sign and then generally an emotion or some other random word behind it.

Well, I asked around about it, and I remember this one girl saying, "Oh I love twitter! I always am like ugh this homework is taking forever! hashtag #annoyed!" And from then, I started to use hashtags. It was awkward at first, but eventually I figured out that's how people could search for topics on twitter as well, and then hashtags really started to make sense. I still like to make up random hashtags, but sometimes I will tag something that a bunch of other people are tweeting about.

Overall, I think it is a really cool way to keep track of similiar topics and see what people from all over are talking about!

Having never used Twitter before this class, I am still getting the hang of hashtags and when its alright to use them (#twitternoob). From what I've noticed so far, hashtags are great for grouping Tweets together and its kinda interesting to see what other people say using that same hashtag. Sometimes I have a hard time choosing a hashtag... maybe a suggestion list would be cool? But I think the creativity of thinking of your own hashtag to use is also fun. Favorite hashtag is #peoplearestrange.

I think hashtags are a great way to gather related information and to measure Twitter performance. There have been several instances where I have personally gone through the popular hashtags or even interesting hashtags to see what other people are saying. It also allows people to have fun with it and get creative. Another aspect is that it allows companys to track their Twitter presence and response rates. Companies have used customized hashtags to spread their Twitter presence and it allows them then to go in to that hashtag and see what other people are saying about their products, company, etc. I really think this is one of the greatest things about Twitter and if it werent for the hashtag I think Twitter wouldn't be as popular as it is now. The reason is because it would be the same as the Facebook status update.

Hashtags are great because they can be used in so many different ways.  One way is to hashtag some current event, such as #golions.  It is fun sometimes to click on a hashtag like that and see what everyone all over twitter is saying about that topic.  Other interesting ones are hashtags such as #wheniwas13.  Those are fun to read if you have some time to kill because a lot of people can come up with interesting things to say there.  I think the best way to use them though is if it is not a common hashtag at all, but just a way to add a punchline to the tweet.  A good use of these I saw today was "This guy at work is using a portable cd player #StoneAgeSwag".  Anything that adds a little extra to the tweet.

Hashtags in and of themselves can be very useful tools. The real problem lies when people misunderstand or misuse hashtags. And sadly, it's many people claiming to be PR or social media professionals that misuse them the worst. Posting a link to a story with a broad hashtag is fine for a news outlet hoping to garner new readers, but for a personal account to share information in that way comes acrossed as generic and unfeeling. The hope in doing so is that it will attract people searching for those terms, but too often (probably 999 times out of 1,000) it attracts spammy accounts with 10's of thousands in the "Following" column and only a few thousand "Followers". These accounts are noise. They contribute nothing new, and exist only in hope that you'll follow them back and they can inundate you with their own misguided hashtags. There's not much value in gaining their "follow", and even less in following them back. Hashtags can be fun ways of organizing trends, but when they're used simply as a means of obnoxious self-promotion; they lose their worth, and lose it quickly.

I think hash tags are a great way to group things together.  My favorite hash tags are related to sporting events.  I love being able to search a hash tag about the game I am watching and see what people are currently saying about it.  I think that hash tags could be an industry standard for a long time to come.

 

 

Although I have never used hashtags until taking this class, I think the idea is awesome.  It allows thoughts to be grouped together by category, obviously making search organization much more efficient.  It brings people together via like-minded thoughts who wouldn't have been connected prior to hashtags.  Although I have very little experience with them, #slapyourself is very entertaining.  I was disappointed that I could not find a good hashtag specific for producers in a program called Ableton Live that I use.  It would be helpful if more people trying to improve their skills in the program would start using a hashtag to give tips and thoughts rather than just general comments such as "This is hard".

Hashtags are cool but sometimes people use them too much. Not every tweet has to have a hashtag at the end. This post is interesting because I never knew how or why hashtags started. I don't think hashtags should be thought of as their own form of communication. Hashtags should be thought of as a part of a form of communication.

I think the use of the Hashtag is great for our industry. In terms of promoting a product or service, businesses can leverage themselves and effectively build their brand image by the use of Hashtags. Business should keep their Hashtags relevent and specific to their product or service. For example, Goodyear tires may have a new type of tire they are promoting with a tweet and use the Hashtag #goodyeartires. If this business simply uses #goodyear or #tires people will have a more difficult time connecting the Hashtag with the brand. The Hashtag brings a whole new dynamic to brand awareness via social media sites.

I think hashtags are a great, new form of communication. It makes it so easy for us to group similar bits of information and posts together and thus easier to find things in a search. I think its great when used on a fun level and great for business purposes as well. Personally, my favorite hashtag is #winning - because, well, who doesn't love winning?

I absolutely love Hashtags and their functionality. Not only can they serve as the witty one liner after a long tweet, but they can make it so much easier to monitor trending topics, and unite all twitter users. This is great news for up and coming businesses or products, and especially for aspiring PR specialists like myself. Searching for Hashtags allow me to see what's getting attention, and whether that attention is positive or negative. Hashtags are the reason why Twitter remains to be my favorite social media network. Unlike facebook, a twitter user can use Hashtags to get their tweets recognized by other twitter users that they may not follow or be followed by. 

It's interesting to me how Hashtags can often make or break a tweet. The the creation of the Hashtag is almost revolutionary in that a Hashtag can completely change the meaning behind a single post. Perhaps the best thing about Hashtags, in my opinion, is that they offer an easy and conveniet way to create niche yet informal communities. They also effectively create conversation that would otherwise not exist, as can be seen with trending topics. Hashtags such as #LoveLansing and #GoGreen a great for interacting with students and others in the Lansing area.

Hashtags have reinvented the way one uses twitter and social media.  It is a great way to link together conversations and ideas.  It can be used for a class to communicate just as we have in our New Media Drivers License class (#NMDL).  It also allows one to easily track an idea or an event that is going on without having to create a new username for every change.  I am curious to see what the next minute change will be that has such a predominant effect.  This has just become another way for individuals and/or companies to stay or get in touch with one another.

Hashtags to me are just another way to communicate and integrate all of our thoughts together in a unique way. They drive unique ways to express ourselves and our personalities, just as much as status updates on Facebook do. My favorite hashtags are those that actually make me click the links in order to see the amount of people that used that hashtag. They can be funny, serious, sad, or just those I have no idea about but seem interesting. This form of communication is a great way to start an idea or gain exposure in the social media world, and I believe that some marketing genius will figure out a way to integrate hashtags to manipulate us into buying a product, which has probably already happened 

HashTags are awesome. They've become integrated into the way we talk and communicate both on and offline. I get texts with HashTags in them. It's an amazing idea to have everyone who is thinking about something all put in the same place. I'm pretty sure my favorite HashTags are always something that are sarcastic. I always get a great kick out of what people make HashTags out of. My biggest HashTag pet peeve is when people type in very specific and long HashTags that no one else will have written. Example: #worstdayeverimsotiredandicantwaittogotosleepafteralltheseexams

I know that seems ridiculous, but I know people who do it, it drives me nuts! 

I never wanted anything to do with Twitter until I was forced into getting one for a class I took last Fall. We were not allowed to raise our hand in class or email our professor with any questions, instead we had to Tweet to the class hashtag to get our answers. It made it easy for other classmates to help answer questions and ease up on repitition. I also write for an online publication for Grand Ledge and hashtags help to find out what is going on in the community without making the drive multiple times a week.

I think that hashtags are a great idea. What I really like about hashtags and find them useful for is searching for news topics on twitter. If I am interested in finding a news article or other peoples thoughts on a topic I can just search the term on twitter and have thousands of results. I like that when using a hashtag it instantly categorizes my tweet with other similar tweets. Personally I do not have a favorite hashtag. I like browsing through popular hashtags to see what being said about a certain topic. It would be interesting to have more sites such as Facebook, Google News, Google Plus, and various blogs to start using hashtags and to be able to search across all of the sites for certain hashtags instead of just twitter.

I've always wondered where the #hashtag came from.  Before I had a twitter account, and when I was first exploring twitter, I had no idea what a hashtag was.  I would see people using the pound sign but I was too embarrassed to ask why they put a pound sign in front of a certain word or phrase.  Now that I am more into twitter, I love hashtags.  I think they are a great tool to connect people that are talking about the same thing.  Sometimes it is just fun to read what people are saying about the trending topics.  One reason I love hashtags is that I can learn about news I may not have heard about otherwise.  If something happened, enough people will talk about it.  We live in a world where the news of Osama Bin Laden's death broke on twitter minutes before any other news source.  People still underestimate the power of twitter and hashtags but they are very powerful.  

My only pet peeve about hashtags #iswhenpeopledontknowhowtousethemlikethisandhashtagtheirwholepost or #when #people #hashtag #every #word #because #it #defeats #the #purpose #of #a #hashtag.

Hashtags are like mini directories within the tweet world. Yet since it is community driven, it is difficult to filter obsolete information from valuable ones. As Twitter keeps its development, I think there will be more complete systems, even mini search engines to help sorting tweets in different subjects. 

Now I know the history of Twitter hashtags. Since I seldom use Twitter, I didn’t often use hashtags. It’s really interesting to use hashtags to find someone share opinions on the same topic. However, when I typed a hashtags, there always was thousands of information! Therefore, sometimes I’m really tired of read those tweets. For me, hashtags are good if they don’t be used too much!

I actually like hashtags. Althought I know the idea of it came from twitter, I use it on facebook too. Hashtags really helps when it comes to searching a tweet,  topic or brand, just as we had to do for the assignment due tonight. My favorite hashtags is #gogreengowhite & might I add I used it a whole lot this Saturday! Hashtagging makes it also easier to engage in a conversation. Hash tagging is an ideal way to quickly find informationversus googling it. Although I have just recently gotten a twitter acount, Im already in love with hashtagging. I think ithis is a great form of communication and should have been brought to the world wide web years ago.

I actually like hashtags. Althought I know the idea of it came from twitter, I use it on facebook too. Hashtags really helps when it comes to searching a tweet,  topic or brand, just as we had to do for the assignment due tonight. My favorite hashtags is #gogreengowhite & might I add I used it a whole lot this Saturday! Hashtagging makes it also easier to engage in a conversation. Hash tagging is an ideal way to quickly find informationversus googling it. Although I have just recently gotten a twitter acount, Im already in love with hashtagging. I think ithis is a great form of communication and should have been brought to the world wide web years ago.

I love hashtag. It's too bad sites such as Facebook and myspace dont get on board with thhem because comedy wise they are highly entertaining. I know Jimmy Fallon will do segments on his show where he sets up a hashtag such as #mydadisnuts and then he will read some of the funniest responses on the show. It's definitely great for inside jokes with your friends too. Besides comedy purposes it is also great for doing research on current events. I know during the last tigers series i would just hashtag detroit tigers and it was a lot of fun to read everyones thoughts in real time about the game. It's really been a great innovation in the obnline information searching game.

For me, Hashtag is really interesting and useful. You can track what others are talking about and join them, like #2010disappointments. You can also track the group of discussion easily. Just like, you can track #NMDL to see what the professor and classmates are discussing and get your questions answered soon. Sometimes it’s like a symbol or a label for a group of people; sometimes it’s like a trigger which can get more and more attention by more retweets; sometimes it’s like an organizer which helps you track the information interesting to you.

I personally don't use hashtags when I tweet but then again I don't really tweet all that often. I usually follow people or news organizations that I find interesting. When I do look at hashtags on occasion I find them to be interesting and helpful or not so much. Sometimes hashtagging things makes it easier to find the info you need immediately. Then again I also find that some people are hashtag crazy, which I guess if you like doing it then why not.

I think hashtags are great when they aren't overused. Hashtags are excellent for grouping similar thoughts, as well as adding a specific question or conclusion onto a tweet. However, #alotofthetimestheycangooverboard and it is hard to figure out the point of them, or what the various words are within the hashtag!

I was a late comer to the hashtag craze. Once you start using it, it's kind of addicting. I think this form of communication is another unique way to become recognized as a company. 

I think hashtag is not useful for me. When I click a hashtag, it shows me a lot of tweets which are use this hashtag, but there are few things really mathch what I want to find. However, I can't say the hashtag is very useless and bad, it still can find something are interesting, there are still many people like to use it to communicate with others who has the same interested. I never use any hashtag, but I think if I will use one, I gonna use #GoSpartan!

My friend actually set up my twitter for me a while ago without me knowing. i didnt start using it until like last year and i had no idea what a "hashtag" was, or how it worked. i rarely use hashtags in my tweets because i honestly dont see the point. I do understand for businesses how it can be a great way to communicate and/or group your topics, and I guess I can see how it can be useful for important things such as class and work (like how we use it for this class). But for personal use, it doesnt make sense to me. I will never understand why people hashtag the most useless words or phrases...

I personally don't use hashtag because I don't have a chance to use it, however, I do use hashtag for the company I work for. I think hashtag is a really good idea for categorizing all the reseult. For companies, except using some popular hashtag, they can also create their own hashtag. My favorite (or the one I use the most) hashtag is #FF (Follow Friday). Every Friday I will recommend 2 (or more) twitter account for my followers to follow, and sometimes I get #FF from others, too. 

I was a little late to the party on Twitter, but now that I've been on for about a year, I love it. I use Twitter much more proactively than I use Facebook, and I think that has a lot to do with hashtags. I think Twitter is great for instant results about what is going on in the world. Since information is not coming from just the people/organizations/whathaveyou that you follow (or are friends with in Facebook's case), you truly get the sense of democratization of information, and know that whatever is trending is something people are talking about at an incredible rate. A search for #schwartz five minutes after the Lion's game yesterday, yielded at least 200 tweets a second. That shows you the power that Twitter has, and it's insane capacity for timeliness.

The first time I came across Hastags, I was confused.  It was a while before I actually decided to join Twitter.  I always heard my friends talk the twitter language while joking around saying "pound(#)" this and that.  I joined Twitter in 2009.  Once I became aquainted, Hashtags were interesting and fun to use.  I think it was a good thing to put on twitter because it allows you to search different hashtags and see what people have to say about things that you inquire about.  It also allows you to see who relates to what you are saying and gives you insight and many topics.  At times for some hashtags it can be entertaining.

In ever really understood the whole hashtag obsession. I don't get what it means but it's all over the place. It's kind of like a fad thatni choose to ignore but now that I'm on twitter more than ever I see it all the time and am getting used to it. It has even caught on to people for their statuses on Facebook.