Hashtags - Communicating via Twitter . . Faster

I've noticed an increase in the use of hashtags recently, which seems to have grown with the Twitter user base. While you might think that it is inevitable, this is not necessarily the case.

Obviously there will be more hashtags being generated, but relatively the number will likely stay the same, or in fact decline as more users subscribe to Twitter but don't yet use the hashtag facility.

Therefore, the increase in use that I've noticed, must be an organic growth from within the accounts I'm following. So, what's responsible for this increase and should we follow suit?

While thinking about writing this post, I did some research into other information/opinions out there on the use of hashtags. Believe it or not, there was an abundance of opinion on their use, fancy that.

I read an interesting post by Dave Coustan's on his blog, Extraface, although this was a year ago, so his opinions may have changed. Dave talks about unfollowing those that use excessive hashtags, something I probably still agree with.

Dave goes on to explain that he believes that hashtags spoil the purity of the content that is already restricted to a limited 140 characters, something to which I can see value in his argument.

Believing that metadata should be kept out of the visible content, with enough tools and search functionality already available to assist with finding specific content when we need to. He does, however, go onto see the value of hashtags in specific scenarios, such as events or disasters.

My hashtag research also took me to Melissa Attree's blog, here Mel talks about how to use hashtags, with specific reference to using hashtags for events. This is a belief that I share with Mel entirely, hashtags lend themselves ideally to event tracking.

The original aim of me talking about hashtags was not necessarily how they can be used, but why I believe there has been a recent increase in the use of them in my Twitter stream.

With the phenomenal growth that we are all experiencing on Twitter, the content levels have increased dramatically, as expected. This has led to an increase in irrelevant content for everyone. No matter what your using Twitter for, the increased user numbers inevitably leads to more irrelevant content appearing on Twitter.

At the end of the day we're not all here for the same reason, nor should we be, so this should not necessarily be seen as a bad thing.

Dave points to the number of existing search tools and platforms that are available for others to find relevant content without the requirement to utilise hashtags. I agree, there are a number of good search services now for Twitter, and Twitter themselves are improving their own offering and usability with regards to this.

But this doesn't mean that everyone else is using these platforms or search features, while this might not be as important for individuals Twitter streams, it might be very important for commercial/brand driven accounts.

Commercial streams want to ensure that their content and its value is reaching its target audience by which ever method is required, and hashtags need to be considered as a method/interface for communicating messages.

For me this is where I see the increased value of the hashtag, the ability to tag content that might otherwise be lost in the myriad of new content. Obviously this was its original purpose, but I think it should be finding new feet in the current content swell.

The issue I have now with using hashtags, and yet avoiding Dave Coustan's pet hate of mixing content with metadata, is the old 140 character restriction conundrum. Message space still hasn't grown on Twitter and I hope it doesn't, but you want to add a hashtag, it makes sense to add it to the body copy in-line. As ugly as this might be perceived.

The issue you need to be wary of, is ensuring you only use of hashtags when you believe they'll add value to your stream. Adding a hashtag to the Tweet "just got a great #bagel for lunch" personally doesn't add any value to my stream, but then I don't work in the sandwich industry.

Whereas, for me, adding the #semantic tag to a post I've just published on Digital Signals relating to, you guessed it, semantic internet developments, adds value to the post. Using the hashtag appropriately has driven visitors to the Digital Signals blog on a number of occasions and found me new followers that share these interests.

Hashtags and their use are becoming increasingly more relevant for me when sharing important/valuable information via my feed. Where previously I'd predominantly used them for event alerts, I can see an increased value in their use elsewhere in the future.

I think, as with all content shared, their use still has to carefully considered and not overly utilised. As with all content/conversation, never repeatedly sing the same song, your followers will switch off and your content will decrease in value with every overtly hashtagged tweet.

Instead, use hashtags selectively and increase the value of your feed, not just to your current followers, but to people who might be using the hashtag feature to follow stories, explore content and find new Twitter streams to follow.

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