On Twitter, what do @Name & #Name do/signify (at sign and hashtag)? Thanks?

[Caysie101]

I keep seeing these on twitters. The site provides cryptic instructions (imho).

[Paige]

A hashtag signifies something related to your post, or an overall theme. People can search hashtags to find related posts, and hashtags can also trend if they are used a lot. For example, If I tweeted "80% dark chocolate is the bomb! #yummy" then if somebody searched yummy, they would find my post. When they say @name, then the are referencing another twitter user's handle, and that message appears in the said handle owner's feed. It's also a sign of the person who originally wrote the message was if you retweet. Another example would be, "Watching @theellenshow right now!".

[Donnie Porko]

@ = when you're addressing someone specifically. say i want to ask if you want to go to the mall, i would say, @caysie101 wanna go to mall.

# = trending topic. say i want people to retrend go fighting irish, i'll go #gofightingirish.