That Mysterious # sign in Twitter…What Does it Mean?

*** Update!  Now that Facebook has implemented hashtags, I’ve posted information about that as well.  :-)  ***

*** Note:  Even though this post is originally dated a very long time ago, I still keep it updated with current information so don’t let that throw you off :-)   It’s still relevant and updated info.  You might also be interested in “What does the # symbol mean on Facebook?” ***

I’ve recently started using Twitter a lot ( you can follow me at http://twitter.com/KristineWirth) and would sometimes see people who post a tweet using a hash symbol (#) before a few words…I never gave it much thought until another person on Twitter wondered what the hash symbol (#) meant.

Since I had seen it as well, I too got curious and so decided to do a little investigation…here’s what I found…

The hash mark (#) before a word in a post allows you to tag that post for that word. However, in order to get tracked via a hash tag, you need to opt-in and follow http://twitter.com/hashtags.  Once you’re following Hashtags, every time you make a post in Twitter and tag it with a hash mark like so:  #iPhone, it will then show up as a real-time post on http://www.Hashtags.org.

If you then visit Hashtags.org, you can click on any tag and it will show you all of the posts that have been tagged with that keyword.

I use the term “keyword” with a grain of salt since some of the tags aren’t keywords in the sense that you know them related to search engine optimization, because some of the tags are completely non-sensical in nature. And although you can get a complete list of words that have been tagged on the site, there is no way (at least currently) to search for a specific tag.

However, it is possible to view all tweets (posts made to Twitter) that contain a specific tag by modifying your URL a bit like so:  http://hashtags.org/tag/iPhone.

You can also subscribe to any updates that contain a tag by visiting http://hashtags.org, entering in the tag you want to follow and then clicking “subscribe” on the right hand side of the page.

Since Twitter only allows you to post 140 characters at a time you can see how you’d have to be pretty selective when using the hash mark – although one character doesn’t seem like much, you’d be surprised how much you actually need that one additional character when trying to get a point across in your Twitter post.

Here is yet another site that you can use that makes use of hash marks.  This site allows you to see who has been using the hash mark you enter within their posts and how many times they’ve done so.  Note that when you visit this site you don’t have to enter the hash symbol (#) in the search box.

I’d love to hear your thoughts…have you had experience with the hash mark via Twitter?

See Also:  Twitter Karma – How to find out who is following you back on Twitter.

A few other alternative sites you might want to check out:

  • http://twubs.com/ – Twubs are groups of words using the hashtag in Twitter.  It’s kind of a neat little site so I’d check it out.
  • http://tagal.us/ – This site is useful as well.  It helps you understand what those Hashtags mean.  For instance the hastag #TLS means “The Love Stories”.  All kinds of goodies here and you can even help define them yourself.
  • http://www.whatthetrend.com/ – This helps you follow Hashtag trends.

 

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kristinewirth

kristinewirth

Kristine Wirth runs Wirth Marketing, a company that specializes in Local SEO services, consulting, and training. She has worked online since the late 1990's, and became deeply involved in SEO in early 2000 after managing an IT department for a large telecommunications company. Her personal blog is at KristineWirth.com and her company website is WirthMarketing.com.
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  13. robbie on said:

    I am even stinking older than I thought. The # sign always meant pounds when following a number and number when proceeding a number (ie. 37#=37pounds, ID#=ID Number). Now (like everyone else) I see this sign attached to EVERY TV title on every network. According to your explanation we now have to call this a hash sign and somehow use it with twitter (I have less than no interest in twitter).

    So my question; is attaching the # (hash sign) to a TV title only of value to those who tweet (tweet being another abnoxious new term), or is this attached # (hash sign) have any other use or meaning with TV shows? OMG is this yet another dubious gift from those tweety folks?

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  15. When the # thing started popping up in the corner of TV shows, I’d log into IRC and nobody would ever be in the room but myself… I could never figure it out, the # was never used for anything else but IRC room names… I refuse to join Twitter. I’m keeping my #’s for IRC.

  16. Anonymous on said:

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  17. its very nice & intresting1

  18. Thank u for taking the time to explain.

  19. Nicole Dominguez on said:

    THANK YOU! Thank You!! Finally clarification. I have shared with all of my friends. I am only 29 and many of my friends have been very confused on this # thing. It is explained on the Twitter website but nothing like you have done. Your article is great. Thank you for really breaking it down. This is very well appreciated and received : )

  20. Parthenia Maffey on said:

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  21. Jo @ yogagear on said:

    Thank you!! New to twitter so you explained it well!!

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    Nice explanation I just search about # sign in twitter and now I know I can practice it on my own..:) thank you very much.

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  26. Phyllis Smith on said:

    And some people (me) use it to seem cool, whether or not they know what it means

  27. Dave Doolin on said:

    I’m sad that wthashtag is gone. It was pretty cool to me. I think there is business model around hashtags, they’re just too handy.

    Also, it’s amusing to read posts from 2 years ago announcing the death of hashtags. Greatly exaggerated, as the man once said.

  28. Bernie on said:

    Every time I clicked on the hash mark I got a long line of entries that had nothing to do with the subject in which I found the hash tag embedded. It was a mystery to me, and really remains so. I don’t really understand its usefulness. I appreciate your attempt at enlightening me!

    Thanks!

  29. Mama Jeanius Maternity Jeans on said:

    As a twitter noob this has been a great insight

  30. Tami on said:

    Just joined Twitter today (I know I’m a late bloomer), one of the first things I noticed were the hash marks as I have not really been following social networking for some time and so it looked alien to me. Thanks to the author and also to all those that replied with more useful info on how to use the # in Twitter.

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  32. jefferis peterson on said:

    So, if you post a tweet with a hash but without an @ to anyone, only your followers will see it, and/or perhaps the group that is following #theGroup ? But what if you have a person and a group with the same tag… #igotasti is the company of @igotasti for igoasti.com Does igota have to allow or turn on a group or allow hash marks to work? Would @igotasti see it if I post it only to # ? Or would he have to be subscribed to the hash to get the notice of the post?

    Very confusing.
    Thanks
    jeff

    • kristinewirth on said:

      Jeff – if I’m understanding you correctly, you’re wondering if the particular company you’re referring to would see that you have mentioned them if you only use a hashtag. And they may, it depends upon whether or not they follow the hash tag itself (which you had mentioned). (For the record, some companies, not all, but some that have an interest in keeping an eye on mentions of their name online will see that hash tag). Whether or not this company does, I obviously don’t know. Hash tags work best when there are large numbers of people using the same one. For instance, EzineArticles.com runs a contest called “A hundred articles in a hundred days” and they use the #HAHD hash tag. You’ll also see the most popular hash tags when you log in to your Twitter account and look down on the right underneath “trends”. Today for instance, there’s #thingsthatpissmeoff (LOL) and Verizon wireless’ #MM2011. If you are mainly concerned with whether or not the company can see mentions of them, you’re better off using the “@” symbol.

  33. TheKoolDots on said:

    Timely Information!

    We’ve recently started using Twitter and also were wondering how to take advantage of the this.

    Thanks

  34. social media suffolk on said:

    ah! i get it! thanks, i think i will be using these # tags more now. thanks dude :) i have been wondering about them for a while. good article.

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  36. Mike Swedenberg on said:

    I was told the hash marks (pound sign) doesn’t have any functionality on Facebook. But I’m no expert.

    Great article BTW.

  37. Thanks, just started twitter 3 days ago and glad to find an answer to this…

  38. Thanx for the post! I’ve haven’t used twitter all that much, but will probably start… still learning all the little “signs” and such…

  39. I was wondering what the hashtag meant and your site was first on google to come up. Thanks for enlightening me :)

  40. Corri Byrne on said:

    Thanks for the article on # tags, as an under-user of Twitter I’m just not keeping up with the times – and yes, the article’s over two years old but give an old guy a break!

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  42. Jaf Terwel on said:

    Has anyone noticed that some (many?) people are inserted the poundsign (isn’t it only a “hashtag” if that is the intent?) in front of some words or phrases in their status updates on Facebook? I knew about the hashtag in twitter, but am not aware of the same functionality in Facebook.

  43. Alicia Franks on said:

    The things you learn in the twittersphere!! Thanks for your help, I’m still learning the ropes:-)

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  46. Nicole on said:

    Thank you for sharing that with us! I have started using Twitter more often lately and that symbol was a mystery for me as well.

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  48. Jazmine Farley on said:

    Thanks a lot kristinewirth for your post.

    It was very useful as I was somewhat deterred by twitter’s 140 character restriction. Probably it was just me but I could never manage to routinely get my twitter content to to 140 characters or less.

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  50. Calmplex on said:

    Thanks for the info… still not sure what the use of hashtags are though… i understand what they do now but why?

  51. Maternity Clothes on said:

    Thanks I have been wondering about the # too!

  52. Secret Shopper on said:

    Thanks for explaining – I’m still need to Twitter (started really late) so found it all quite confusing at first. Surprisingly, it’s all beginning to make sense very quickly though! All the best.

  53. katrina on said:

    thanks..it helps alot.. :)

  54. Hashtags.org is still working for searches. you type a hash in and you can see the frequency of use.

    good info! glad i found this article.

  55. Michel on said:

    Ohh, so thats what the # symbol mean. Thanks for the post!

  56. Roland Millward on said:

    A good post and explanation!

    Well done

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  57. Craig on said:

    time to start using hash tags. Thanks

  58. G Clark on said:

    Thanks for this simple but really useful explanation

  59. Tents on said:

    Brilliant! top article, many thanks.

  60. Jim Jinright on said:

    Great information. I never understood what the hash mark was and how to use it. I’ll be checking out those sites you recommended straight away. It would be fantastic to know who is tweeting about a particular subject; especially one that is of relevance to me and my industry.

    Thanks for the education on this! :)

  61. Veronica on said:

    Today I attended a seminar that indicated we submit comments and questions through twitter by ADDING #HubSpotSMB. I got curious about the # and upon search I found your article. I went to hashtag.org and now they show a list of the latest tweets with such tag. hashtag.org/HubSpotSMB so I think somehow they are not dead. I do not see the stats of #word in their graph, but this exposed me to many of the followers of such tag. The graph points to http://trendistic.com that also lets us see what the trends of any particular word are, which is a resource. Thank you for your article. Definitely a tool for the web marketeer.

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  63. Anat on said:

    Thanks!!!
    Now I am aware about # symbol used before any words but can u explain the significance of @ symbol

    • kristinewirth on said:

      Absolutely! – the “@” symbol is usually followed by someone’s Twitter name. Many people use this to reply to a tweet someone made “Great Job @someone!” or as I’m sure you’ve noticed that Friday’s on Twitter is #FF or Follow Friday where you’ll often see numerous names recommended by others @person1 @person2, etc.

      Placing the @ symbol in front of someone’s Twitter name makes it click-able so that everyone else who sees the post can click on that person’s name and see all of their Twitter updates.

      Hope that helps!

  64. Yorkshire Web Design on said:

    Thanks for the great explanation. Cheers Ted

  65. Alvaro on said:

    Hashtags service is over!!! its page shows a ‘deceased’ message and announces an out-of-business sale, is there any alternative service?

  66. Thanks for this useful information. I’m new to Twitter and looking to maximize the experience! I’ll be back here to learn more. Off to follow you now!

  67. Tents on said:

    Some very useful and helpful information there. I strongly think that even though many people know what the # does they didn’t know other things associated with it. Thanks a bunch for the article.

  68. Signage on said:

    This is some very usefull information, thanks for telling us about the # tag, it seems like it is a usefull thing to use if your using twitter, I may have to check out twitter. thanks for the information.

  69. Felix Cruz on said:

    Thanks for all the great information. I was going crazy trying to figure out what the hashmark meant

  70. Alex the girl on said:

    Been wondering what that little bugger was all about and I actually could not find it in the Twitter help links. Thanks a lot for this one :)

  71. fatosus on said:

    how soon after following the @hashtags will get my post with # sign show up in the real time search? thanks

  72. Bryan Phillips on said:

    Hello, this is the second message that I am sending you. I cannot get onto the sight because my username and psssword are being denied. I am using those I submittes when I signed on. I am losing patience and will likely never come back and I will speak to a lot of people re: this matter. If you don’t need anmy new users, then tell them at the time of sign-up. This is the last time I will try to sign in and if I am rejected, I will never be back and I’ll take my friends with me. Thank You, Sincerely, Bryan Phillips.

    • kristinewirth on said:

      Bryan – what site are you referring to? I don’t run any of the sites I talked about in this post so if you’re having issues, you need to take it up with them.

  73. S Barringer on said:

    I did a Googel to find out about the hashmarks in Twitter and found this website. Thanks for the info.
    http://twitter.com/sandlynx

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  75. rona Fernandez on said:

    THANK YOU! Jesus, I looked on mashable, twictionary and twitterspeak and didn’t find the meaning of #, but they used it all over the place. Whew!

  76. Joel Ungar on said:

    Thanks for the explanation – I’ve been totally confused by it.

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  79. Page on said:

    Gen y reporting here from Oz: The hash is the sign of the times. It’s new…but that’s what makes it what it is and why we love it. Our prediction: Wait another 10 minutes, humanity will stumble upon the next e-volution, and hashtags will be small (virtual) beans. Regardless, we’re on board!

  80. Shawn Hazen on said:

    THANKS! I’ve been wondering about this…

  81. kristinewirth on said:

    Cole –
    I believe that it used to be the case where you could follow the hashtags directly in Twitter (this post was originally written over a year ago)…however, now the best way to do so is to visit http://hashtags.org, enter in the tag you want to follow and then click “subscribe” on the right of the page.

    Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I’ll be sure to update the post itself.

    - Kristine

  82. Cole Musolff on said:

    i cant follow the hash tag update for #dontyouhate. I do exactly what you say, i say..follow #dontyouhate…and it says it cant find that person. I know im spelling it right. whats going on

  83. Becca on said:

    I have seen the hash tag on Twitter many times and was VERY confused. At first I thought it was a way to get your tweets posted on another, designated site. Who knew? There are some that make sense to me, but others just seem silly. By and large Twitter has confused me! I have been used to using more complex sites like Facebook or Myspace, so the simplicity of Twitter actually threw me for a loop. Then with the hash tags and @ symbols I have not yet become used to using Twitter. I still get confused. I guess it’s time to catch up and stop calling it the pound key and use the hashtag reference instead!
    Becca S.

  84. Dennis on said:

    Thanks for the explanation– it had been driving me crazy as well. Time to jump on the bandwagon :)

  85. Diane on said:

    Thanks! Sounds silly, but after three days of searching and being convinced my hashtags weren’t working, you gave me piece of mind. I visited hashtags.org and was shocked! by the results!! thanks again!

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  87. Donna Maher on said:

    Hey Kristine,

    Thanks for the in-depth answer – I ‘googled’ my question about those hash tags in some people’s twitters although it seemed from their context it could be keyword-related but then you never know in a newer realm what means what for certain.

    I appreciate your explanation and will check out the hash tags site.

    Have a super evening,

    Donna

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  89. Re: “You can also subscribe to any updates that contain a tag by posting “follow #tag” (without the quotes) in Twitter.”

    Thanks for the info, Kristine, but I don’t understand this part. What do you mean by ‘subscribe’? And ‘posting’? Posting is the same as making a tweet, I presume? (Sorry if I sound like a dumbarse but I’m new to Twitter.)

    Do you mean to say that if I make a tweet that simply says “follow #videogames”, I’ll automatically start following any twitterers (*chuckle*) that make a tweet tagged “#videogames”? That’s it? Couldn’t that get out of hand?

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  91. Eric on said:

    Wow, I knew that the # was for tagging post but was unaware of the site hashtags.org. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

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  92. kristinewirth on said:

    I honestly don’t know that I’ve ever seen a hash mark clickable to be honest with you. Usually it’s just added after the comment; wish I could help but have not seen a clickable hash before.

  93. eduardo on said:

    i am following that hashmark profile so i decided to test a hashmark out so i uposted one and it isnt clickable like other peoples’ are. theirs are like links to that specific hashmark but mine isnt a link :( help?

  94. oral seymour on said:

    Thanks for clarifying what the # sign means. I couldn’t find another explanation anywhere!!

  95. vickie Martin on said:

    thanks so much for this. I was invited to a twitter bookclub and didn’t know how to access it. I’m learning this little by little and I’ll come back here!

  96. Holly Clark - Mustang Designer's Daughter on said:

    THANK YOU SO MUCH! WOW! Now if I can use Twitter’s Hash Tags and # signs.. :) to make my Dad get in the Mustang Hall of Fame.. I will be a happy camper and owe it all to you! #PhilClarkforHALLOFFAME!

  97. hangover cure on said:

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  100. Sherell on said:

    That information was extremely helpful…i never knew what the # mark meant in the twitters.

  101. Kathy on said:

    Ugh! Just started on twitter and already I feel so behind! The hashmark almost did me in, honestly. I feel like I’m back in high school with the cools and their own secret language.
    Thank you for cleaering this up for me!!

  102. susie on said:

    Thanks so much for clearing this # mystery!! I just started on Twitter and couldn’t figure out the the # was. So I googled “what does # mean in Twitter.” and there you were. The number one spot! Thanks for clearing that up.

  103. Roy Fuchs on said:

    As it is, too many tweets are trivial. Tracking hash marks seems to be the ultimate test of Gresham’s Law – bad money driving out good.

  104. Andre on said:

    Thanks for this post, such a relief. So, with this new found info, I went and posted two tweets using the # :-)

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  106. you can use @tagalus (http://tagal.us) to get/set definitions for #hashtags – it’s the largest/oldest of the hashtag dictionaries

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  109. chunter @chunter16 on said:

    My first glance at twitter’s hash marks makes me think of channels in IRC…

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  111. Whyinthehell on said:

    Aack, thank you! This was majorly helpful. I hope you’re getting good karma constantly….

  112. dropshipping on said:

    Thx this will help me a lot, now I know how to use twitter.

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  113. Lisa Irby on said:

    This was so helpful! I’ve been wondering what the hashtag was for and how to use it.

  114. Alison on said:

    Thank you! I also just googled “twitter hash mark” – and you’re the top hit. Thanks for a clear and detailed explanation!

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  115. kristinewirth on said:

    You’re very welcome Quintin! Glad it helped you out.

  116. Quintin on said:

    Holy Cow that was helpful!!! I have been looking for an explanation for months and google finally spit you out! Thank you thank you thank you. Now I can sleep in peace (I just got use to the @ stuff… even though thats basic).

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  117. mrs boo radley on said:

    Whew. Now I can sleep at night. Thanks for expounding on this!

  118. Isaac Dorsey on said:

    Aren’t all words searchable in a tweet. What is the advantage in using tags if all words are searchable?

  119. Leila on said:

    hrmm…tried what you were saying for example:

    http://hashtags.org/tag/BlackBerry

    but this (BlackBerry) and any tag I put in (fitness) gives me an error:

    503 Service Unavailable
    No server is available to handle this request.

    I’m still confused and don’t know how this ‘hash tag’ thing really works!

  120. Oh good! I googled the answer to this and brought up your insightful research! Doing all the work to find an answer just got easier. :)

  121. Christy on said:

    Thank you for this post! I use twitterfon on my iPhone instead of sms; the app tracks trends and tags in tweets. Half of the results on the trends search had the # before it – bugged the heck outta me until I found your post.

    @mathew – I didn’t want to look like a noob twit either!!

    Thanks again
    @lady_saffy

  122. Mathew on said:

    Thanks for the article, a nice simple concise article that saved me from looking like a noob twit.

  123. kristinewirth on said:

    Helen –
    That’s what I understand. I posted this quite a while ago and honestly can’t remember where I found the information.

    If you’re interested you can also visit http://search.twitter.com/ and enter in a hashtag such as #fail and see all posts that have been made with that hashtag. Not just the ones from people you’re following.

  124. Helen on said:

    Kristine, great post, thank you! Just one question, when you say “You can also subscribe to any updates that contain a tag by posting “follow #tag” (without the quotes) in Twitter.” do you literally mean, add a tweet which says #[tag] and nothing else to then start receiving tweets on key words?

  125. Carol on said:

    What a relief to find such a clear and concise explanation. Thanks!! :-)

    Carol

  126. kristinewirth on said:

    You’re very welcome Dirk.

    It all spawned from my own curiosity so I’m glad it helped others as well.

    - Kristine

  127. Another big THANK YOU (sorry, it was meant to be big, not uppercase…) to you Kristine to figure out the thing with the #hash sign. The twitter help strategy is soooooo poooooooor…..

  128. kristinewirth on said:

    Hi Jeremy –

    Typically the hash mark comes before the hash mark message. For example:

    Sample Twitter message: It’s a great day today. #greatday

    The message after the hash mark can be literally anything at all but I’ve seen it used often to communicate between groups. Sometimes there will be a seminar that many people are attending and they’ll have a hash mark code that they use to identify that seminar.

    Sometimes people will have a tweetup locally where people on Twitter who live in the same location will get together. Then they’ll use something like #dmtweetup to identify that group.

    Hope that helps!

    - Kristine

  129. jeremy on said:

    Hi Kristine,

    I don’t understand how the hash marks work? Do you put the # after the message on twitter than it goes to the person?

    Jeremy

  130. meeshell on said:

    Thanks for this post, this is the explanation I was looking for!

  131. Stephen Cronin on said:

    Hi Kristine,

    Thanks for this. You just opened up a whole new world of content for me! Wait, I already don’t have enough time, what’s this going to do to me! :)

    Seriously, this will let me track some topics I really need to track. Thanks.

    Stephen Cronins last blog post..Poll – Which WordPress Theme Framework To Use?

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  133. Jonathan on said:

    Hi Kristine!

    Great post! For this very reason I started http://hashmarksthespot.com/, a directory for # entries. I caught on pretty quick to what they were, but didn’t know what some of the acronyms meant. Hope you find it useful!

    JT

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  137. QuirkynBerkeley on said:

    Thanks so much for explaining this.

  138. Andrea on said:

    Hashmarks can also allow your tweets to automatically post to a particular group or a community website, be used to enter you into contests and serve other related functions.

    I just used a hashmark related to a public event that I attended earlier today (#eventname). Posting the name of the event with the preceding hashmark published my tweet to a related community website, while entering me into a contest being hosted by that website. So, they definitely serve a wide array of purposes.

  139. kristinewirth on said:

    Actually I’ve personally never heard of tweetchat. There’s so many new applications for Twitter that it’s hard to keep up.

    That being said, I really don’t think that there’s a way to determine if someone is using hashtags to track keywords. Great idea though.

    - Kristine

  140. MaryBeth Smith @divamover on said:

    Thanks for clarifying this for me. Now, I have more questions:
    I’ve seen that hashtags are also used to participate in tweetchat. (http://tweetchat.com) There’s another chat function whose URL escapes me at the moment. How do you know if someone is just using a hashtag to track keywords, or if it’s the chat room?
    Please keep the good news a’comin’! Thanks again.

    MaryBeth Smith @divamovers last blog post..Star Wars, or whatever

  141. I’m glad I finally searched the web for an explaination of what the # in Twitter posts mean. And I learned the # is called a hash tag. Who knew? (obviously, not me)

  142. amie hamilton on said:

    Thank you thank you thank you… I’ve been all over twitter trying to figure out what the hashmarks mean.

  143. Daniel Greene on said:

    Thanks for this blog post. I found it by Googling “twitter hashmark” because I wanted to understand the use of hashtags better (and there’s nothing in Twitter’s help section).

  144. Jorin Cowley on said:

    Hey thanks for the information, I searched Google as well, and you came up, I just started using Twitter a week ago, and I’ve been wondering about the # sign from the first day!

  145. Dina Santorelli on said:

    Thanks a bunch! It’s been driving me crazy.

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  147. TallMan on said:

    Great concise explanation I too came to google trying to find out the deal on the # i keep seeing. Good explanation. I can definately see some use for the hash tag & marketing uses/branding. ie #UPS #myonlinestore. #journchat is one i am watching now!

  148. Lani & Allen Voivod, aka "The Content Lovers" of Epiphanies, Inc. on said:

    Hey — thanks for being there w/ your post when we were trying to figure out the deal with the pound sign, er, I mean, “hash tag.” Although your post was as clear as it could have been, like most things social networking, we’ll have to figure out how best to use it by actually using it. Still, we appreciate sharing your insights and experience.

    This world is getting crazier and crazier all the time, don’t you think?

    Best,
    Lani & Allen
    “A-Ha Yourself!”
    www.AhaYourself.com

  149. Kathy Purdy on said:

    I saw many from the BlogHer conference tweeting with them and wondered what they were. Thank you for saving me some time googling the answer.

    Kathy Purdys last blog post..How to read more blogs in less time

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