Hashtag – This is a short word or phrase prefixed by a hash mark (#) in Twitter or other micro-blogging services. Users leverage hashtags to provide context and metadata to tweets, and to create groups so that other micro-bloggers can easily access tweets on the same subject.
On Twitter, any term that includes a hashtag at the beginning creates a link that will aggregate all of the tweets containing the same tag. With this ability to view all tweets with the same hashtag, marketers can track what is being said about a topic and know who is considered a thought leader in the area. There are numerous services that track hashtags in real-time including hashtags.org, TweetChat, TweetGrid and TwitterFall.
In order to successfully use hashtags, you must research what established hashtags already exist in the context of your tweet because they are not always intuitive. Also, be sure to search what others are talking about in that hashtag topic so that you can join in on that topic and become a “go-to” source for information.
