Twitist Forums
What are hashtags on Twitter? - Printable Version

+- Twitist Forums (http://twitist.com)
+-- Forum: Twitter forums (/forum-1.html)
+--- Forum: Twitter Hashtag (/forum-2.html)
+--- Thread: What are hashtags on Twitter? (/thread-107414.html)



What are hashtags on Twitter? - Max - 03-05-2014 04:54 AM

My son was just wondering why people are doing hashtags on Twitter. Like for example, #ilovepizza or #surprisinglygood? Did they just start with that, or did they do it for a long time?


- Sarosh Hadi - 03-05-2014 05:08 AM

Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links in your posts on your personal timeline or Page. This helps people find posts about topics they’re interested in. To make a hashtag, write # (the number sign) along with a topic or phrase (written as one word) and add it to your post. For example:

I walked up so many hills today! #SanFrancisco


- Who, me? - 03-05-2014 05:22 AM

Hashtags have been around since before Twitter (IRC chatrooms), but Twitter is really what made them popular. They're supposed to be a way to "tag" a message with subjects or topics - so if I'm posting about a job opening, I might add "#jobs #california" at the end to help people find it, or maybe if I'm at an event, I might add "#ComicCon2013" so people see it's related. On Twitter, people can search for a hashtag, so a job-seeker may be searching for #jobs to find postings or useful information.

More and more though, people just use hashtags for the sake of using them, which is why you see ones like #ilovepizza and #OMGcantlivewithoutstarbucks