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

July 28, 2008 by
Filed under: Online Marketing, twitter 
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*** 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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140 Comments on That Mysterious # sign in Twitter…What Does it Mean?

  1. Kathy Purdy on Fri, 8th Aug 2008 12:43 pm

    2. 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

  2. Lani & Allen Voivod, aka "The Content Lovers" of Epiphanies, Inc. on Sun, 19th Oct 2008 8:29 pm

    3. 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!”
    http://www.AhaYourself.com

  3. TallMan on Mon, 12th Jan 2009 10:41 pm

    4. 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!

  4. A Propositional Structure » Blog Archive » [2] Write about the dreams that I have at night in my blog on Thu, 15th Jan 2009 6:26 pm

    5. [...] or weeks when you’re asleep. In order to track my progress, I’m going to be using that mysterious hash sign to tag my progress. Over on twitter, you can follow me as cufa, so my dreams will be tagged with [...]

  5. Dina Santorelli on Fri, 16th Jan 2009 9:30 pm

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

  6. Jorin Cowley on Mon, 19th Jan 2009 1:30 am

    7. 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!

  7. Daniel Greene on Thu, 22nd Jan 2009 6:30 pm

    8. 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).

  8. amie hamilton on Mon, 26th Jan 2009 12:06 am

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

  9. Nancy on Mon, 26th Jan 2009 12:00 pm

    10. 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)

  10. MaryBeth Smith @divamover on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 8:30 am

    11. 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

  11. kristinewirth on Wed, 28th Jan 2009 9:13 am

    12. 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

  12. Andrea on Sat, 7th Feb 2009 6:14 pm

    13. 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.

  13. QuirkynBerkeley on Tue, 10th Feb 2009 8:26 pm

    14. Thanks so much for explaining this.

  14. You are now listed on FAQPAL on Wed, 11th Feb 2009 8:42 pm

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

    An excellent post and explanation on just what those hash tags do and mean on Twitter….

  15. My Thoughts » I built a Backchannel on Sun, 15th Feb 2009 7:01 am

    16. [...] itself. The audience can include their messages by texting them to a (dutch) shortcode, or using a hashmark in their twitter posts.  It enhances the involvement of the audience with the talk, as they have a [...]

  16. Covering VSTE Live! — technotainment on Wed, 18th Feb 2009 8:51 am

    17. [...] might just be the answer. Cover it Live allows Twitter accounts to be displayed (up to 12), and hashmarks, as well as allowing people who come to your site to get into the live [...]

  17. Jonathan on Wed, 18th Feb 2009 12:08 pm

    18. 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

  18. The hash mark in Twitter « Thoughts On Translation on Fri, 27th Feb 2009 8:12 am

    19. [...] to a #Boulder Media Women event…”. If you’re also wondering, here’s an easy to follow explanation from Kristine Wirth’s blog. In brief, the hash marks are a sort of keyword tag in Twitter, [...]

  19. Stephen Cronin on Sun, 1st Mar 2009 11:13 pm

    20. 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?

  20. meeshell on Wed, 4th Mar 2009 11:27 am

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

  21. jeremy on Mon, 9th Mar 2009 4:38 pm

    22. 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

  22. kristinewirth on Mon, 9th Mar 2009 5:41 pm

    23. 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

  23. Dirk on Tue, 10th Mar 2009 11:02 am

    24. 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…..

  24. kristinewirth on Tue, 10th Mar 2009 11:48 am

    25. You’re very welcome Dirk.

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

    - Kristine

  25. Carol on Tue, 10th Mar 2009 2:39 pm

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

    Carol

  26. Helen on Tue, 10th Mar 2009 2:47 pm

    27. 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?

  27. kristinewirth on Tue, 10th Mar 2009 4:26 pm

    28. 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.

  28. Mathew on Sun, 15th Mar 2009 5:13 am

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

  29. Christy on Fri, 20th Mar 2009 3:54 pm

    30. 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

  30. green on Tue, 24th Mar 2009 10:11 am

    31. 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. :)

  31. Leila on Tue, 24th Mar 2009 6:05 pm

    32. 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!

  32. Isaac Dorsey on Wed, 25th Mar 2009 5:59 pm

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

  33. mrs boo radley on Thu, 26th Mar 2009 7:03 pm

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

  34. Quintin on Sat, 28th Mar 2009 12:28 pm

    35. 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).

    Quintins last blog post..NDH Broadcast 3.22.9 [Topic: Fashion]

  35. kristinewirth on Sat, 28th Mar 2009 3:43 pm

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

  36. Alison on Sun, 29th Mar 2009 1:57 am

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

    Alisons last blog post..33) Make like a V-neck…

  37. Lisa Irby on Tue, 31st Mar 2009 3:09 pm

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

  38. dropshipping on Fri, 3rd Apr 2009 11:39 pm

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

    dropshippings last blog post..Dropshipping über eBay

  39. Whyinthehell on Sat, 4th Apr 2009 12:06 am

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

  40. iphone app review on Sun, 5th Apr 2009 2:50 am

    41. hey great article, can anyone recommend me a good app for SEO?

  41. chunter @chunter16 on Mon, 6th Apr 2009 2:34 pm

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

  42. Everyone’s Talking About Twitter « A Designer’s Life on Thu, 9th Apr 2009 4:52 pm

    43. [...] hash  marks (#) to tag keywords in posts. Here’s a great explanation from Kristine Wirth: http://kristinewirth.com/that-mysterious-sign-in-twitterwhat-does-it-mean/. You can also “retweet” other user’s posts to share good info with your [...]

  43. That Mysterious # sign in Twitter…What Does it Mean? | RobbJarrett.com on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 7:24 am

    44. [...] [...]

  44. JN on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 7:11 pm

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

  45. That Mysterious # sign in Twitter…What Does it Mean? kristinewirth.com - Twitoaster on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 9:55 pm

    46. [...] hours ago That Mysterious # sign in Twitter…What Does it Mean? http://kristinewirth.com/that-mysterious... [...]

  46. Andre on Tue, 21st Apr 2009 7:54 pm

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

  47. Roy Fuchs on Wed, 22nd Apr 2009 8:20 am

    48. 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.

  48. susie on Fri, 24th Apr 2009 9:16 am

    49. 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.

  49. Kathy on Fri, 1st May 2009 6:29 pm

    50. 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!!

  50. Sherell on Mon, 4th May 2009 8:46 am

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

  51. A More Beautiful Life: Brought to you by Twitter on Fri, 15th May 2009 10:46 am

    52. [...] you Twitter you have surely noticed the little hash marks (#).  These signify that the post is related to a specific keyword.  Some examples: #iPhone [...]

  52. A More Beautiful Life: Brought to you by Twitter on Fri, 15th May 2009 10:46 am

    53. [...] you Twitter you have surely noticed the little hash marks (#).  These signify that the post is related to a specific keyword.  Some examples: #iPhone [...]

  53. hangover cure on Sat, 23rd May 2009 3:13 pm

    54. Great stuff, thanks!

  54. Holly Clark - Mustang Designer's Daughter on Sun, 24th May 2009 5:28 pm

    55. 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!

  55. vickie Martin on Fri, 29th May 2009 8:07 pm

    56. 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!

  56. oral seymour on Tue, 2nd Jun 2009 9:16 am

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

  57. eduardo on Tue, 2nd Jun 2009 7:55 pm

    58. 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?

  58. kristinewirth on Tue, 2nd Jun 2009 8:17 pm

    59. 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.

  59. Eric on Fri, 5th Jun 2009 6:48 pm

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

    Erics last blog post..Turbo Cash Generator Review

  60. Twitter #Hash Tags vs TweetDeck Filters « NetWorks! Boise on Fri, 5th Jun 2009 8:07 pm

    61. [...] did find this article that helped to explain hash tags a lot .. “The Mysterious # sign in Twitter .. .What does it mean?” What’s cool about this post is it will also take you to a few other sites that can be [...]

  61. Rob on Mon, 8th Jun 2009 6:22 am

    62. 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?

  62. Twitted by stevedc on Wed, 10th Jun 2009 8:04 am

    63. [...] This post was Twitted by stevedc – Real-url.org [...]

  63. Donna Maher on Sun, 14th Jun 2009 6:48 pm

    64. 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

  64. so i just set up a Twitter account for my site! on Mon, 15th Jun 2009 8:53 am

    65. [...] # symbol explained: That Mysterious # sign in Twitter…What Does it Mean? | KristineWirth.com Yes, the feed is automatically posted to my Twitter account via Twitterfeed: twitterfeed.com : [...]

  65. Diane on Wed, 17th Jun 2009 11:12 am

    66. 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!

  66. Dennis on Wed, 24th Jun 2009 3:11 pm

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

  67. Becca on Sun, 28th Jun 2009 8:48 am

    68. 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.

  68. Cole Musolff on Fri, 17th Jul 2009 11:09 am

    69. 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

  69. kristinewirth on Fri, 17th Jul 2009 11:38 am

    70. 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

  70. Shawn Hazen on Mon, 20th Jul 2009 7:31 am

    71. THANKS! I’ve been wondering about this…

  71. Page on Thu, 23rd Jul 2009 8:28 pm

    72. 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!

  72. 3,000,000 Reasons why United Should Listen to Customers on Fri, 24th Jul 2009 2:38 pm

    73. [...] is an excellent listening tool, with its @ reply and # hashtag searches.  A friend of mine joked about Rush Limbaugh’s Twitter account claiming that he [...]

  73. EduTech Today Newsletter » Blog Archive » MAET News on Thu, 30th Jul 2009 1:29 pm

    74. [...] Additionally, if you search twitter for #maet you may run across lots of great resources posted by other MAET tweeters.  Don’t know what the # mark means? Check out this easy to follow explanation – http://kristinewirth.com/that-mysterious-sign-in-twitterwhat-does-it-mean/ [...]

  74. Joel Ungar on Sat, 8th Aug 2009 3:02 pm

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

  75. rona Fernandez on Tue, 11th Aug 2009 7:16 am

    76. 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. Social Media & Being Social. Social Media Tips From On Target Web Solutions | Orlando Web Design & Search Engine Marketing Experts on Sat, 22nd Aug 2009 9:19 am

    77. [...] 3.) Learn about using the hashtags to help attract more and more targeted followers: Tip: First, you need to follow: http://twitter.com/hashtags. Learn more here: [...]

  77. S Barringer on Fri, 28th Aug 2009 3:23 pm

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

  78. Bryan Phillips on Sat, 17th Oct 2009 3:43 pm

    79. 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.

  79. fatosus on Thu, 29th Oct 2009 9:55 pm

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

  80. Alex the girl on Fri, 13th Nov 2009 7:53 am

    81. 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 :)

  81. kristinewirth on Tue, 1st Dec 2009 11:05 am

    82. 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.

  82. Felix Cruz on Tue, 9th Feb 2010 10:49 pm

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

  83. Signage on Thu, 4th Mar 2010 5:20 am

    84. 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.

  84. Tents on Fri, 12th Mar 2010 9:58 pm

    85. 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.

  85. Jan on Mon, 22nd Mar 2010 7:53 pm

    86. 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!

  86. Alvaro on Mon, 12th Apr 2010 8:04 am

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

  87. kristinewirth on Mon, 12th Apr 2010 9:37 am

    88. Thanks for the heads up! I’m revising the post now.

  88. Yorkshire Web Design on Sun, 25th Apr 2010 7:20 pm

    89. Thanks for the great explanation. Cheers Ted

  89. Anat on Sun, 9th May 2010 10:20 pm

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

  90. kristinewirth on Mon, 10th May 2010 5:58 am

    91. 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!

  91. The Cronk of Higher Education » As Faculty Finally Embrace Twitter, Students Drop the Service on Wed, 19th May 2010 9:01 am

    92. [...] said Dr. Nelland, director of Faculty Development at Homeland University. “You say ‘hash,’ not ‘pound.’ We’re talking about people who still remember using the Western Union phonetic [...]

  92. Veronica on Thu, 20th May 2010 1:41 pm

    93. 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.

  93. Jim Jinright on Sat, 22nd May 2010 8:13 am

    94. 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! :)

  94. Tents on Thu, 3rd Jun 2010 1:53 pm

    95. Brilliant! top article, many thanks.

  95. G Clark on Mon, 14th Jun 2010 8:54 am

    96. Thanks for this simple but really useful explanation

  96. Craig on Wed, 16th Jun 2010 9:17 pm

    97. time to start using hash tags. Thanks

  97. Roland Millward on Wed, 7th Jul 2010 4:32 pm

    98. A good post and explanation!

    Well done

    Roland Millward

  98. Michel on Tue, 27th Jul 2010 5:34 pm

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

  99. Leah on Fri, 20th Aug 2010 1:13 pm

    100. 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.

  100. katrina on Tue, 31st Aug 2010 8:37 am

    101. thanks..it helps alot.. :)

  101. Secret Shopper on Thu, 2nd Sep 2010 11:43 am

    102. 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.

  102. Maternity Clothes on Sun, 5th Sep 2010 3:19 am

    103. Thanks I have been wondering about the # too!

  103. Calmplex on Wed, 8th Sep 2010 4:29 pm

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

  104. North Norfolk Hotels on Sun, 12th Sep 2010 2:46 pm

    105. Really useful for me – thanks for taking the effort to post!

  105. Jazmine Farley on Thu, 16th Sep 2010 3:56 am

    106. 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.

    With yesterday’s announcement from Twitter that users can now boost the characters used to over and above 140 characters, in addition create video clips together with other rich content, I’m delighted.

    I intend to use your suggestions to really increase my twitter promotions.

    Saved.

    Thank you

  106. twittering | yumjoy on Wed, 6th Oct 2010 11:05 am

    107. [...] 2. the “#” is explained well by Kristine Wirth: “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.”from: http://kristinewirth.com/that-mysterious-sign-in-twitterwhat-does-it-mean [...]

  107. Nicole on Fri, 8th Oct 2010 2:17 pm

    108. 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.

  108. pitso on Thu, 25th Nov 2010 10:04 pm

    109. it worked…and i love the design of your blog

  109. kristinewirth on Fri, 26th Nov 2010 3:50 pm

    110. Thank you!

  110. Realtor Steve on Mon, 29th Nov 2010 8:47 pm

    111. Congrats on being top on my google of the question! Just what I needed

  111. kristinewirth on Tue, 30th Nov 2010 9:35 am

    112. Glad it helped!

  112. Alicia Franks on Wed, 8th Dec 2010 4:25 pm

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

  113. Jaf Terwel on Fri, 10th Dec 2010 9:16 am

    114. 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.

  114. D.Penn on Tue, 1st Feb 2011 2:54 pm

    115. Thanks for a clear yet concise explanation!

    http://www.etsy.com/shop/mayasideas

  115. Corri Byrne on Thu, 3rd Feb 2011 4:14 pm

    116. 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!

  116. Li-Or on Sun, 6th Feb 2011 10:08 pm

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

  117. Stephen on Sat, 12th Feb 2011 12:13 am

    118. 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…

  118. Ava on Tue, 15th Feb 2011 12:04 pm

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

  119. Mike Swedenberg on Mon, 7th Mar 2011 9:33 am

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

    Great article BTW.

  120. What Does #followfriday Mean on Twitter? on Fri, 18th Mar 2011 9:49 am

    121. [...] notify that person that you have Tweeted about them and the #followfriday is what’s call a hash tag.  It is important that you place the “@” symbol in front of every individual’s [...]

  121. social media suffolk on Tue, 22nd Mar 2011 4:54 pm

    122. 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.

  122. TheKoolDots on Wed, 23rd Mar 2011 5:02 pm

    123. Timely Information!

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

    Thanks

  123. jefferis peterson on Thu, 24th Mar 2011 9:28 am

    124. 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

  124. michelle cairiasco on Sun, 3rd Apr 2011 10:15 am

    125. hey les hablo desde españa oye tio esta pag es la mejor gacias adioooooooooos

  125. kristinewirth on Sun, 3rd Apr 2011 11:37 am

    126. 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.

  126. Tami on Mon, 4th Apr 2011 6:35 am

    127. 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.

  127. Mama Jeanius Maternity Jeans on Tue, 12th Apr 2011 7:55 am

    128. As a twitter noob this has been a great insight

  128. Bernie on Tue, 12th Apr 2011 1:45 pm

    129. 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!

  129. Dave Doolin on Sat, 14th May 2011 11:14 pm

    130. 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.

  130. Phyllis Smith on Tue, 7th Jun 2011 7:49 pm

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

  131. 6 Twitter Sign Sites | GoDigitalPlus on Sun, 7th Aug 2011 9:41 am

    132. [...] That Mysterious # sign in TwitterWhat Does it Mean .Jul 28, 2008 I never gave it much thought until another person on Twitter wondered what the hash symbol (#) meant [...]

  132. affordable Philippines Condos on Sun, 21st Aug 2011 8:26 pm

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

  133. pooria.ms on Fri, 26th Aug 2011 12:53 am

    134. Thanks. very useful

  134. What Does the # Sign Mean on Facebook? : KristineWirth.com on Wed, 31st Aug 2011 8:45 am

    135. [...] you’re making an update using Hootsuite and you want to make reference to a certain hash tag on Twitter then within your status update you’d use the # symbol.  Since you’re also updating [...]

  135. Jo @ yogagear on Fri, 9th Sep 2011 5:40 am

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

  136. Parthenia Maffey on Sun, 4th Dec 2011 4:26 pm

    137. Hello, just wanted to say, I loved this blog post. It was funny. Keep on posting!

  137. Nicole Dominguez on Wed, 4th Jan 2012 1:03 pm

    138. 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 : )

  138. Trish on Wed, 1st Feb 2012 1:14 pm

    139. Thank u for taking the time to explain.

  139. madhu on Wed, 1st Feb 2012 11:35 pm

    140. its very nice & intresting1

  140. Anonymous on Fri, 3rd Feb 2012 12:02 pm

    141. What does #TU mean
    ?

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