While Twitter is not “new news,” there is no end in sight at the rate it’s trending. And Twitter’s infamous hashtags have become uncontrollable- in more ways than one.
Rarely do I come in contact with someone who doesn’t understand the concept of a hashtag, but it does happen. So, how can it be explained? Well, if you want to get down and technical with it, hashtags were originally designed to mark keywords from the tweet to help categorize it. And what has it become? Confusing.
Often times, the hashtag following a tweet exceeds the character amount that was used for the initial content itself. And, a lack of capitalization to separate words can make matters even worse- #hardtounderstandnoteasytoread. Case and point.
But, concise and clear hashtags can help spice up a tweet’s appearance and potentially spark a new trending topic. So, if you’re looking to be a trend-setter in this social media day and age, make your content easy to “follow,” see what I did there?
Also, there’s been a recently developing debate about if hashtags are Twitter-exclusive or not. I’ve been seeing a lot of Facebook statuses that implement the use of hashtags, and it just doesn’t seem right to me. With that, I also feel like the content of the two sites’ posts should be different. Or, maybe it’s more beneficial to post the exact same thing on all means of social media to enable even more people to see it. But, I think that takes away from originality and creativity.
The option to link social media accounts with each other has allowed for multiple posts in various portals with just one submission. So, essentially, posting your tweet can update your Facebook status and be displayed on your blog… simultaneously.
However, as a social media junky, I think it is best to keep your content separate and diverse. Tweets are designed to be short, sweet and to the point. But, since your Facebook updates aren’t limited to 140 characters or less, give them a little more meat.
Don’t just join in on trending topics… create them.