How do i use Hash tags?

5. How do i use Hash tags?

How do i use Hash tags?

We're getting a little deeper into Twitter now with the use of hashtags or #tags, which look like this #

.


These are used to mark topics of conversation or themes and make it easier for people to find the conversation/ theme and join in.


For example someone is thinking about buying a digital camera but doesn't know what to get. They've got quite a number of 'followers' and decide to ask Twitter what camera they should buy. They type out their tweet but at the end add in #whatcamera. This tags the conversation, just as you might tag a photo on Facebook or Flickr for example.


Someone following this person is an amateur photographer and re-tweets their tweet. A re-tweet is when someone repeats someone's tweet to their own follower base, crediting it to the original poster/tweeter e.g: "RT @username i'm looking for a top spec digital camera around £900. Any suggestions? #whatcamera"


Other people might see this question and reply giving them their suggestions, all the while tagging the conversation with #whatcamera. This way, when gathering all the replies and advice together, Twitter's search capabilities can get everything in one place - you just search for whatever the conversation was tagged with - in this case #whatcamera..


It's in this way that Twitter becomes a valuable, human-powered, real-time search and recommendation engine.