Hashtags worth using
I had NO clue about any of the Twitter terminology before September, although I had a pretty good idea what a retweet might be. The most perplexing term of all was hashtagging.
Once I got over the nomenclature, to my instructor’s credit, I found these little doodads make searching and scanning the endless Twitterverse significantly easier. I’ve especially enjoyed participating in or simply following chats on Twitter.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, Twitter chats bring together people with a shared interest from across the Twitter community for a discussion.
These #chats and #topics are perfect for someone just starting to come up in the world of communicators. The #topics are constantly checked by most interested individuals and are essentially discussion threads that anyone can access easily. The #chats occur live but serve as discussion threads even when the actual chat session has ended.
There are an abundance of people ready to answer your questions and pose questions to you. Whenever I need a question answered I can post it with the appropriate hashtag(s) and the response will come swiftly.
My favourite #chat is definitely #PRStudChat. This group is full of students dedicated to learning and professionals committed to helping the next generation of communicators. The hosts @ValerieSimon and @dbreakenridge come up with unique ways to keep the format fresh.
Many of these hashtags possess Linkedin groups where individuals can network and build stronger connections. ie) #PRStudChat’s LinkedIn group.
Such groups also provide you with a great opportunity to find professionals and students whose answers/questions you like and, thus, make your base stronger by following quality individuals on Twitter.
Other hashtags that I would definitely reccommend everyone in public relations follow are:
I’ve only been with Twitter for a few months now and am sure there are several others that I’ve missed. These are simply the ones I’ve come across so far and enjoyed.
Managing all these tags can seem daunting, but I find TweetDeck pretty good. If you don’t want to download anything, TweetGrid is a website that you can seach/follow up to 9 separate hashtags at once. And you can share your TweetGrids. ie) Here is an example of one I’ve used.
I’m always looking to develop as a communicator and I’ve found hashtags to be extremely helpful.
If you have any hashtag suggestions for me, please let me know.
One good tag deserves another.
If you have a daily search routine of these tags or key terms on twitter, scan the results for additional tags.
You notice tags that are used to bring together conversations at conferences that are planned for the future, happening that day or those that have taken place in the recent past.
Once you zero in on a conference tag you can review the results to recap the conference highlights (perhaps for a blog post), join the twitter conversation, scan for additional tags added to tweets carrying the conference tag to discover new quality threads.
cheers,
mc
Michael Cayley
November 16, 2009