If you’re a “social media beginner“, social hashtag are short links preceded by the “hash sign” (#). It may seem confusing and unnecessary. But social hashtag are integral to the way we communicate online, and it’s important to know how to use them. The hash (#) turns any word or group of words that directly follow it into a searchable link. Click on a social hashtag to see all the posts that mention the subject in real time.
As in Wikipedia
A hashtag, introduced by the hash symbol (#), is a type of metadata tag. Hashtag used on social networks such as micro-blogging services. It lets users apply dynamic, user-generated tagging that helps other users easily find messages with a specific theme or content. Users create and use hashtags by placing a hash symbol in front of a word or unspaced phrase in a message. The hashtag may contain letters, digits, and underscores. Searching for that hashtag yields each message that someone has tagged with it. A hashtag archive is consequently collected into a single stream under the same hashtag.
For example, on the photo-sharing service Instagram. The hashtag #ishana allows users to find all the posts that have been tagged using that hashtag.
The use of hashtags was first proposed by Chris Messina in a 2007 tweet. That, although initially decried by Twitter as Ta “thing for nerds”. Eventually led to their use rapidly becoming widespread throughout the platform. Messina, who made no attempt to patent the use because he felt “they were born of the internet, and owned by no one”. Messina has subsequently been credited as the godfather of the hashtag.
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