You can take the greatest photograph in the world and put it online. But if you don’t use a hashtag with it, most people will probably never see it. So what is a hashtag?
twitter
A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the symbol ‘hash’ (#) that is used online to identify messages about a specific topic. Traditionally, the # symbol was called a ‘hash’, a ‘number sign’ or ‘pound sign’. It was used to indicate the word ‘number’ before a figure, and in the US, the phrase ‘pound sign.’ Then, in August 2007, an American technology evangelist called Chris Messina proposed using the symbol # to classify messages on Twitter. Later that year, people on Twitter started using hashtags in messages about forest fires in San Diego, California. A new trend had begun!
The use of hashtags became very popular on Twitter, and also on other social networking sites, such as Instagram and Facebook. In 2014, the word ‘hashtag’ appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary for the first time.
halloween
Today, people use hashtags to promote their posts or to search for posts that they’re interested in. For example, if you want to see posts about Halloween, you can simply do a search for ‘#halloween’ on a site like Twitter or Instagram to find relevant posts and photographs.
If you want to see what people are talking about, look at the Trending Topics on Twitter. This is a list of the top one hundred hashtags in any one country or area, at any one moment.
If you look at this list on a Monday, you will probably see the hashtag #mondaymotivation, which people use on Mondays with positive and motivating messages, to help combat the Monday blues. If you look at it on a Thursday, you will probably see the hashtag #throwbackthursday, which people use with nostalgic photographs on that day.
popular
The most popular hashtags on Instagram, a site where people post photographs and videos, include #love, #instagood, #photooftheday, #beautiful and #fashion. So if you want people to see your Instagram post, it’s a good idea to use one or more of these hashtags – but only if they are relevant to your post!
And if you have difficulty deciding what hashtags to use, you can use a hashtag generator to suggest hashtags for you. So what are you waiting for? #startposting #havefun #befamous #doitnow