What is it you actually do here?
Granted, I can see how people can say, DUH, of course those are all purposes of the hashtag. However, walk with me just a little while longer on this path towards a more refined expression of what a hashtag can really do.
A hashtag can be conjured up for a myriad of things:
- Dates
- Events
- Names
- Holidays
- Hotel Chains
- Cars
- Literally anything can be given a hashtag
We obviously know that hashtags are important, or else Facebook wouldn't have just joined the party only 8 years too late. Hashtags are everywhere, TV Commercials & Shows, Sporting Events, Police Uniforms in Europe, Kids Birthdays, (sorry, not those, but that's not a bad idea is it...have a kids party w/a specific hashtag so that people can post their pictures right to the hashtag and everyone can share in all the different perspectives or coverage being offered at the event, just great for posterity) and we haven't even touched on their main areas of relevance, Google Plus or the inventor, Twitter.
People use twitter for that live news feed type atmosphere. People don't come to G+ to give us their short bursts of info flowing quickly and from many places. Those people stay on twitter, those on G+ feel a little more leisurely in their pursuits, more like a conversation in the park that might not end quickly, it might spill over into a coffeehouse or possibly a meal followed by a little soiree at a jazz club. There's no need to cut conversation short on G+. Why would we want to rush it? Don't they say the best things come to those who wait?
What Can the Hashtag do for me?
Recently I have been in some seriously long conversations that take the original post and make it seem like an after thought. When the conversation is flowing in real time, some people involved want to track that. In those situations a specific hashtag works. Especially for concurrent posts that potentially discuss the same topics. It could be seriously beneficial to have a singular hashtag for each post or again, a series of posts all related to the same subject. That way none of the shares get lost in the shuffle, they are all linked back to the original hashtag provided by the author. This type of approach could allow for authors to use their own hashtags to bring people into the mix and let them continue the conversation.
For instance, let's say the author wants to create a new series of posts centered around the same theme. Perhaps the posts are going to come out in chronological order, like Dickens with Great Expectations. Every week a brand new installment gets released. The author could apply hashtag #GreatEXP (and maybe add a # for each concurrent week)... This way both the author and the reader can congregate around this central hashtag (or hashtag theme) allowing them both the ability to connect and engage in further discussion.
People like acting as a curator and the hashtag allows easy access to information, in an organized fashion. There are many means of curating posts and articles. It's the single entity of the hashtag that is relevant to this conversation. It's a one character curation tool. With one name you can forever classify a story, you can group a bunch of ideas into an amalgamation all under the same premise and allow other people to follow right alongside every part of the conversation wherever it may travel.
People connect on Google Plus in an extraordinarily dynamic way. Sometimes people want record of these spectacular conversations to call upon later. They also want to stay involved in that specific conversation and the hashtag makes it easier to follow. Another thing that occurs is the transference of similar threads. Sometimes a person shares a post or a piece of content and simultaneous conversations spawn and they are all worthwhile. Well how do you keep track? You assign a unique hashtag to the original thread and then tell people to use that when they share. That way the author and fellow readers can follow the post wherever it may go.
One of the beautiful things about Google Plus is its innate ability to allow for such dynamic conversations to take place. Since the platform is geared towards this type of conversation, people can often have similar discussions about similar posts but the meta layers are different. Each conversation adds a new layer into the mix and thus new knowledge is added to the collective knowledge database where we can all gain from the shared experiences or conversations. Never before has this been possible where simultaneous conversations take place and value added to each one independently. The whole thus being greater than the sum of its parts.
Hashtags allow people to follow a conversation in an enhanced way by giving them the ability to follow threads and other conversations that are generated around the initial post. Hashtags allow people to curate information as to better classify their topics of interest and allow for increased search-ability around those key words. These are just a few examples of how hashtags can create a better user experience through conversation if utilized in these ways.
Birds of a Feather, Flock Together
Google Plus offers a distinct ability to create communities around ideas, themes, subjects, objects or really anything at all. By using a central location such as a community people can join together around similar ideas. The hashtag, in essence, can create a micro community around a post, series of posts, or an idea.
This concept isn't as simple as it sounds. Community building is difficult and one word hashtags aren't the answer to massive growth. They are the answer to continuous discussion and furthering specific dialogue. This type of goal is admirable in my opinion because it breathes pure oxygen (or life) into an idea and doesn't let the conversational flame go out. It stokes the fire and doesn't let it die. The embers live on in the form of this eternal hashtag that once applied can be searched, found, referenced, indexed and used to add more value. Make sense?
What has the Hashtag done for you Lately?
The hashtag is a way to categorize what we want without losing what we need. The stability we require when a conversation is happening and we don't want to miss a beat. We all know the types of conversations that seem to start off innocently and then 3 days later it feels as if the whole world has changed. Except now we have a way to track and maintain involvement even while we sleep so we no longer have the fear of missing out because it's all still there. It's the feeling we get when we are a part of something special. So it's important we have a structure defined to give us comfort so that we can always reach back and see our old friends when we desire.
Where do we go from here?
I think it's ideas like these that can help shape conversation and community building to come, if each post, idea, topic or discussion had a certain hashtag they would be forever searchable. Unique Hashtags could play a large role in where search might go, they will play a large role in company branding and they will allow for a new means of being found via the web. Indexing hashtags is in its infancy but the possibilities are endless. Who is to say what will happen from here but I would suggest grabbing onto a couple hashtags and making them your own. It's like claiming your own digital plot of land, better do it now before all the good ones get taken!
What do you think about hashtags? Do you think if properly utilized they can help build small engaged communities around ideas? I do, but I would love to hear your thoughts...so please feel free to comment below. If you happen to share this post, please use #GotHashtags as the identifier. Thus far on G Plus there are no entries with this moniker, so let's see what we can do about that!
Written by +Michael Bennett who works at Michlin Metals. A Woman Owned Small Business Aerospace Metal and Stainless Steel Distributor. Follow Michlin on Twitter @MichlinMetals, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ or on the Web at www.michlinmetals.com. More on the author on Google+.
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