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Three Kinds of Twitter Hashtags Worth Following

By: Ashlyn Brewer | 06/29/2010

Many communications professionals use Twitter to follow friends, colleagues, clients and other thought leaders in our industry, but if you're only following Twitter users you aren't getting the full experience. Following Twitter hashtags provides a wealth of knowledge, insight and a sense of community.

Here are three types of hashtags you should be following:

1. Hashtags for your city: Most large communities and cities have hashtags that provide insider information on events, deals and attractions. I'm new to St. Louis, and the #STL  hashtag has helped me discover the city.  Even if you're familiar with your area you'll find it's interesting to learn about other people's experiences, and tweeting your insights with a localized hashtag establishes your social media presence in your community.
2. Conference and seminar hashtags: Official and unofficial conference hashtags are a new way to experience these events.  For example, many people that were unable to attend the popular South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas followed the #SXSW hashtag for updates.  Those attending conferences can tweet what they're learning and connect with other attendees.  Presenters and conference organizers discover what works (or doesn't) by scanning the conference's hashtag feed.   This social media tool helps make the event more successful and engaging.
3. Hashtags for your client's industries:   If you work in public relations and use Twitter it makes sense to follow the #PR hashtag, but you can delve deeper by following hashtags for your clients' industries. For instance, we at Standing better understand our education clients by following #edtech, a hashtag tracking developments in the use of Web 2.0 tools and technology in education, and the #education hashtag, which provides a great feed of industry information. Our team members are also currently monitoring #4profit, the hashtag for the Congressional hearings on the future of for-profit colleges to stay up-to-date.  Overall we develop a better understanding of our clients' worlds by watching their commonly used hashtags.

Twitter applications like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck make it easy to follow a hashtag by adding it as a column. If you view Twitter from the Twitter home page you can follow a hashtag by searching for it and clicking the "save this search" option above your results. The feed will then appear in the right-hand column on your Twitter home page, under "saved searches." You can also follow hashtags with RSS feed readers by searching for the hashtag and clicking the "feed for this query" option. 

Following hashtags is valuable addition to your online activities that reminds us that listening is just as important as speaking and provides insight into the thoughts of communities that we don't interact with in our offline worlds.

Posted in Digital Communications