Why You Are So Afraid of Hashtags

How many times have you heard this said?

“Damn hashtags. I hate those things!”

Usually we dislike systems and technology changes that we do not understand. Technology can be overwhelming. Add on change and it can get downright scary. Yet, if you plan to stay abreast with trends that you love, I suggest you become friends with them!

Simply put, hashtags are a way of searching post groupings on a social networking platform just by typing in one word.

Say, for instance, you love horses. You can go on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest, the four most popular social platforms right now, type in “horses” in their search function, and you will get endless posts about horses. You will find links to articles, forums, videos, photos and more.

Hashtags are, in essence, a way to discover infinite posts on your passions, all by just typing in one word.

How to use them in your posts? Simply put a pound symbol in front of your word. Think about your post and who you will want to connect with. For instance, my passion is child abuse survivors, so my most used one word tags are #abuse #child #children #survivors #csa (that last one stands for child sexual abuse).

If you are into sailing you might use #sailing #sea #sails #sailboat in order to connect with your fellow #sailors

There are also hashtag phrases. Popular Twitter users, Rachel Thompson, @RachelintheOC and Bobbi Parish, @TruthisHers utilize their Twitter account @SexAbuseChat for a global networking chat every Tuesday night where Twitter users can chat with each other by  using the hashtag #sexabusechat

To join their discussion, one simply adds their hashtag to the end of their tweet. #sexabusechat << just like that

I hope this helps those who don’t understand hashtags to become more familiar with them so you can embrace their existence as an inventive way to find everything you love by simply typing one word.

Hashtags have been around a while, and I don’t forsee them going away. In fact, I’m watching social network users utilizing them in extremely productive ways. So don’t be afraid! Come #hashtag with us!