Ganesh Harinath

I’ve had a series of great conversations with people interested in learning more about how they can leverage Twitter to help them create lift, create a loyal base of followers and engage their public on important issues. During these conversations, the course of discussion inevitably turns to Tactics for Twitter. As part of a potentially on-going series on this, I’ll be discussing a few simple Twitter Techniques that can help the average Twitter user instantly gain notoriety and relevance while using this Web 2.0 Service.
One of the easiest ways to up one’s Twitter game is through the use of hashtags.

What’s a hashtag?
The pound symbol we all know and love from our old telephones [remember those dark days before cell phones?] and tic-tac-toe [in the age of the iPhone does anyone still play this?] has been given new life through the Twitter interface. Provided that your tweets appear in the public timeline, entering the ‘#’ symbol before a word will instantly make it searchable on the public timeline.

What’s the implication?
Now when you are attending a sporting event, watching a political debate, spending time learning about your trade at a conference, or even just catching up on back episodes of Entourage, you can alert your followers and the Twitterverse at large. This allows Tweeps to connect on areas of common interest. For example, a photographer might find other photographers by hashtagging their camera model, the type of film they use, their lighting preferences or even the simple fact that they are a photographer.

The tweet that would otherwise go unnoticed becomes much more relevant and informative.

“Headed to the beach today to take photos of my daughter and wife.” –Nothing too interesting about that.
“Headed to #OCMD for #LaborDay to take #photos of my daughter and wife. #canon #hdcamera #photography” –By creating a series of hashtags, this user has allowed others the option of engaging him in conversation about the subjects he is addressing in his tweet. An avid OCMD fan might follow this user now. The same goes for the tourism board of Maryland, the makers of Canon cameras, a high-definition camera enthusiast or two, and potentially even a slew of photographers.

The mechanics of a hashtag.
Hashtags are single words or phrases with no spaces or adjoining punctuation. “#Customer Service” would hashtag the word ‘Customer’ but not ‘Service’. The same goes for “#Customer_Service” and “#Customer-Service”. The only way to get both words hashtagged together, simultaneously, is to make it one word. Capitalization is the easiest way to ensure the individual words in a hashtag are distinguishable, in this case “#CustomerService”.

Some general tips.
-Keep it short. Shorter hashtags are easier to digest. After all, this is a microblogging service we are talking about.
-Hashtag often. You never know which of you interests or keywords might spark a great conversation. Why limit yourself in the number of ways you can connect with others?
-Experiment. If you’re not sure whether a word should be a hashtag, or if you’re at a conference and you want to find others in attendance through their hashtags, just give it a shot. You’ve got nothing to lose. Just be logical, short, and to the point. For example, if you’re attending the 2010 Pennsylvania Governor’s Debate, you probably don’t want to hashtag #2010PennsylvaniaGovernorsDebate. Instead, consider #2010PAGovDebate or #PAGovDebate or similar.

NB: Hashtags rarely require a year in the name given the relatively instant manner of communication Twitter allows us all to enjoy.

So there you have it – a really simple introduction to a really simple tool. Are there other instances of hashtagging you’ve seen work well? What are some of the areas this article misses that are important to you?