The name hashtag is tied to social networks and is generally used to make content easier to find. Surely you have come across many hashtags; Words that start with #. But the question is, where did the hashtag come from and what can it be used for?
In this article, we are going to take a look at the history of this sign to understand hashtags first and then talk about their uses. For example, we reviewed the use of hashtags in increasing the number of followers on Instagram to improve the status of businesses on social networks in an article earlier, and now we want to discuss the hashtag itself in detail. Stay with us.
What does hashtag mean?
Before hashtags became popular, the # sign generally had different meanings in different countries. For example, in the UK, this symbol is called “Hash” or “Gate” and earlier “Octotrope”. In 1970, this symbol was used in PDP-11 assembly language; A 16-bit microcomputer sold between 1970 and 1990.
Even Dennis Ritchie (the founder of UNIX and the programming language) as well as “Brian Kernighan” – who was one of the main researchers at Bell Labs – used this symbol in the C programming language to represent some keywords that must first be interpreted by the C preprocessor. were checked
But none of the above meant the current hashtags. It can be said that the first use of hashtags happened in 1988 by IRC. IRC or Internet Relay Chat is a method of instant communication on the Internet. This protocol is designed for group conversations and chat happens in groups and even with individuals in channels. The designers of IRC decided to tag groups and channels using the # symbol.
But the founder of the hashtag was “Chris Messina“; The person who, inspired by IRC’s use of the # sign, suggested that Twitter use # to mark tweets. By using this sign, it was actually easy to refer to different and similar content. For example, right now on Instagram, by clicking on #blue_sky, you can see the posts containing this hashtag.
Of course, Chris Messina does not own the intellectual property of the hashtag. He is of the opinion that the hashtag came from the heart of the Internet and belongs to all the people who use it. However, in most sources, Chris Messina is considered the founder of the hashtag.
After he proposed this idea, Twitter did not welcome the idea and considered it related to people who call them “Geek” in English. But after some time, using hashtags in social networks became a habit and these days its use mostly happens.
What does hashtag mean and know its uses?
As we mentioned earlier, hashtags are used to label content. In fact, you can use hashtags when you want to know that your content on the Internet is related to a specific topic. For example, when we write #rayabaan, we should read it as “hashtag rayabaan“.
But now that we know what a hashtag is, we need to get to know its uses. Applications that can go beyond categorizing posts. These days, we can use hashtags to reach more people and be seen better than before. But how to use hashtags is very important.
How to make the best use of hashtags?
Although the use of hashtags is useful, you should know that inaccuracy in choosing them can have a negative effect on posts. For example, the analytics website TrackMaven concluded that tweets with more than two hashtags engage fewer people over time:
This statistic has similar conditions in the posts used on Facebook:
But the story of Instagram stories is different. Using more hashtags will make more people see your posts and participate in them. Of course, stories that have more than 10 hashtags are less noticed by people:
Therefore, having sufficient knowledge of the virtual space and also the proper use of hashtags (away from spamming) can be the best solution to be seen more on social networks. In a study conducted by RadiumOne, the results showed that almost 75% of cyberspace users use hashtags. Of course, the number of people who know how to use hashtags is significantly less.
Using hashtags in posts is easy. Just use # before keywords. In English, you can use more than one word in hashtags. For example, WeCanDoIt# consists of several words. To make it easier to read in English, the beginning of each word is written with a capital letter. In Farsi, this is done with “underline” or “underline”: “_”. For example, #technological news or instant news, or national team. It should also be noted that you can use numbers in hashtags.
But typing hashtags is the easiest. The most important part is how to benefit from them, which can play a constructive role in any social network. First, it is better to get acquainted with the basic concepts of using hashtags.
- If you are using hashtags for a specific purpose, it is better to reduce the words attached to it. For example, using #national_team in sports news related to national football team training can be better than #national_football_team_training.
- In most social networks, if you use a specific hashtag using public (not actually private) user accounts, everyone who searches for that hashtag can find you.
- Never spam using hashtags. Using unnecessary hashtags under the posts will make fewer people see your posts. It is better to use two hashtags on Twitter and Facebook.
- Always use at least one hashtag. Studies have shown that tweets in which hashtags are used are retweeted 55% more than posts without hashtags.
- Only use hashtags that are relevant to your post. Using hashtags that are not related to your post is useless and will only cause some people to see your post and reject it. On the other hand, complying with this issue will make it easier to access the content.
Always keep an eye on the various events going on so you can tweet or post about specific issues at the peak of attention:
- Important events such as the World Cup and the use of hashtags #WorldCup#
- Holidays and special events, for example, #Pizza_Day or in English WorldPizzaDay#
- In relation to a film, series, or major media events such as #Game_of_Thrones# or GOT#
- Special and unique topics such as programming
Some useful tools can help you analyze and check suitable hashtags, such as Hashtagify. me and RiteTag. By using this tool, you can find out the statistical usage of different hashtags in the world.
When choosing a hashtag, always try to have a specific strategy. First of all, choose hashtags according to your audience. By doing this, more people from your target community will come across your posts, which means you will get more feedback.
Apart from famous hashtags, sometimes you may need to use a hashtag related to your brand. For example, McDonald’s has a hashtag like this: #imlovinit, and wherever it is used, it somehow means advertising for this great restaurant.
As you can see, you don’t need to use hashtags that contain your company’s name for your brand, and it will be enough if it is related to your field of work. A branch of hashtags related to the brand is the hashtag of products. For example, Samsung uses the #Galaxy hashtag.
Creating charity campaigns related to the field of work can be another interesting strategy. For example, Tom’s shoe company managed to draw attention to children around the world who have no shoes to wear by using the #withoutShoes hashtag. It is true that this work had a benevolent purpose, but in any case, it made the name of this company more visible than before.
Of course, you should be careful when creating special hashtags for your business or field of work must have suitable wording that is easy to remember. Choosing difficult sentences or words for this work is not recommended at all because it will not be of any benefit to your company.
How do you use hashtags?
Using hashtags can be very useful to be seen more in cyberspace. Choosing the right strategy, having a proper understanding of important events, and choosing sentences that are easy to remember are among the most important things related to hashtags. But you may have another interesting strategy to be seen online using hashtags; (What does hashtag mean) Share it with us.
