What Is a Hashtag?
What is the Definition of a Hashtag?
A hashtag is a word or phrase, without spaces, preceded by the "#" (pound, hash or number) symbol (example: #hashtag). Today, a primary use of the hashtag is on social media to help organize posts and topics around specific keywords to make them easily searchable and followable. In practice, hashtags can often function as keywords in the social-verse just as regular SEO keywords do within search engines.
When people include a specific hashtag in their Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or other social media posts, they are telling their followers and the world that this post is about a specific topic OR that it is relevant for others using the same hashtag.
Though hashtags are now used throughout the social media universe, they really became mainstream through Twitter. With a limit of 280 characters per Twitter tweet, a shorthand hashtag is a useful tool to identify topics.
Because social media users purposely insert hashtags into their postings, users are identifying themselves with particular topic feeds and groups. This can provide valuable information for the social networks, marketers, media and researchers on what's hot or trending in general and for specific populations. Many marketers also launch and promote their own hashtags to monitor response or public relations "buzz" from their social media marketing efforts.
Why the "#" Symbol?
Use of the "#" symbol joined with keywords has origins in the C computer programming language which helped identify special keywords, as well as in IRC (Internet Relay Chat) circles where it helped label groups and topics (Wikipedia).
How is a Hashtag Created?
Here's something that surprises many social media users. They can create and use their own hashtags in any way and any time they wish, subject to a social network's terms of service policies. Technically, all users need to do is type in the "#" symbol, the keyword or topic they want to identify and—boom!—a hashtag is born.
But... that raises the question of hashtag ownership and trademark issues.
Who Owns Hashtags and Who Can Use Them?
In theory, no one truly "owns" hashtags as of this writing. But, legal pun intended here, the jury is still out on this developing area of intellectual property and trademark law.
- Click here to read Who Owns #Hashtags? from the Lexis/Nexis® Legal Newsroom.
- Click here to read Can You Legally Own a Twitter Hashtag? from Social Media Today.
Consulting an attorney about possible legal protection for a hashtag that is unique and also unique to a business or brand name is recommended.
Anyone can use any hashtag at any time on Twitter or social media, as long as it does not mislead others in suggesting affiliation or violate other terms of service for the social network.
The ability for anyone to use established hashtags is both good and bad. It's good in that anyone can join in on any social media conversation simply by including the hashtag in a post, tweet, etc. However, it can be bad in that spammy, poorly behaved participants can overload a topic feed with rude, inappropriate, irrelevant or obscene commentary or even overuse a hashtag to the point that people will be hesitant to follow it.
A recourse for dealing with hashtag abuse is to report the suspect behavior to the social network's support team for handling since it may violate the network's terms of service.
Is there a Directory of Hashtags?
Yes! Two common hashtag directories are:
Both of these sites allow users to add their hashtags, or add a definition to an existing hashtag, so that others can find and understand them.
What are Hashtag Communities and Chats?
These days, many people are more connected to their affinity groups—non-family clans with common goals or interests—than even their own blood relatives. And social media has just fueled that trend.
One of the ways this trend has grown is through hashtag communities on social media, particularly Twitter. Basically, a hashtag community is a loosely tied, ad hoc group of people who consistently use a common hashtag when posting to the social networks. Some communities have participants from every part of the world and number in the thousands.
On Twitter, these hashtag communities can be fostered and expanded by hosting a chat. On a specified date and time announced by a community leader or influential member, for usually up to 60 minutes (though some can go for hours!), anyone in the community who wants to connect in real time with other community members can simply tweet using the hashtag. Everyone who wants to participate can monitor the feed either through the Search function on Twitter. Often these chats are scheduled to discuss a particular topic or do Question & Answer forums. Warning: The chatting can go lightning fast!
Did you know what a hashtag was and how to use them before reading this article?
This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.
Questions & Answers
© 2014 Heidi Thorne
Comments
I'm still trying to get to grips with hastags and how to use them to best effect. I advertise my hubs on Facebook and Twitter and in the posts I usually put in a few arbitrary keywords from the hub and stick a hashtag in front of them, but I never have any real idea whether they are effective, or whether they could be made more effective. So thanks for this hub. Alun
Well-written, with very helpful info! I knew what they were but appreciate seeing it articulated so well. I had never heard of hashtag directories before. Voted up and useful. ~Lurana
Very informative and helpful, thanks for writing this! Cleared up things a bit for me.
Awesome explanation of hashtags, I learned several things I wasn't aware of by reading this hub. voted up!
I've some idea of hashtags but I learned so much just from reading your hub. Interesting and useful, it's a thumbs up for me all around.
Interesting and useful information Heidi. I use hashtags on twitter posts and have found them to increase my views.
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Thanks for writing this up. I'll need to read again and take a closer look so I can make the most of hashtags.
Informative one!! I'm also a hashtag user In twitter and facebook . It serves to improve viewers for my page. Thanks for sharing...
Thank you for this timely information. I've been using hashtags, knowing that people pick them up in some way, but wasn't aware of the overall picture of them. I've been noticing them a lot on Facebook and Pinterest too. Voted useful and up!
This is very useful information. It gave me a better understanding of what hashtags are all about. Although, I do believe some people overuse hashtags to the point that their posts become entirely unreadable. I once saw a post where every word was preceded by a hashtag. I would say, that's overdoing the hashtag thing.
This was interesting Heidi, I had tried Googling 'hash tag' a few times and never really understood the descriptions they gave. I was wondering why you kept mentioning Twitter though ? I am not a member of that, plus are hash tags only for businesses, marketers, etc.? I voted this up, shared and pinned it.
Kevin
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I love the idea of hashtags, but I consistently forget to use them. Every now and then I remind myself. :) I'm going to have to make an effort to use these more.
Well-written Hub, which made it so interesting to read. You have provided so much info, thanks.
I learned about them from my teen but didn't know about the inner workings described here. They have been helpful on G+.
Great info Heidi..I use them on twitter and Instagram and they work well..it's good to have a clearly set out understanding of their purpose and how they work though..will tweet this..Cheers
Brilliant! I use hashtags, and I know they work, but I had no idea they had so much going on behind them. The links to the directory really helps, since most of my Tweets are related to caregiving. I can see what tags are being used most often. Thanks for the helpful info!
Hi Heidi! My organization recently discussed creating a hashtag for an upcoming project. I admit I don't use Twitter and never really understood how hashtags worked. This is a great hub for someone like me. I appreciate your information and can now understand some of the things we need to consider before starting to use our own hashtag. Thanks. Voted up and very useful!!
I just recently figured out the meaning myself and how to use them.
Thank you! Seriously, I have heard it and heart it but had no idea what it was. Now I can rest in peace. :)
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