A few seconds after some of us concluded that we'd got Twitter figured out, this crazy "#FollowFriday" thing shows up. First, let's explain what the heck the pound sign ("#") is doing on Twitter.
A pound symbol or number sign ("#") that is part of a Twitter update (or "tweet") is called a "hashtag". The reason it's called "hash" is because the number symbol, "#", is also known as a "hash mark". Learn more about it here on wikipedia.
The reason it's called a "tag" is because the "hashtag" is a label. A hashtag is used to label something.
Why label something on Twitter? Isn't Twitter a bunch of announcements about what we're having for lunch or when we're running out for more coffee? Well, yes, mostly.
But soon after Twitter launched (like, six months ago), someone realized that Twitter was sort of like Google News on speed. On Google News, the top news stories that people are searching for on Google float to the top. Google News reflects the most popular news.
There is no Twitter News yet, though "Twitter Trends" is a start. Twitter Trends appears off to the right of a Twitter user's home page, like this:
Instead, Twitter's search function, http://search.twitter.com, shows the most recent tweets about whatever topic you search for. So Google News reveals what's on the Jungian hive mind while Twitter reveals information on a topic that is just a few seconds or minutes old.
Okay, still we want to know: why label something on Twitter, especially if you can already search for a topic using search.twitter.com?
Two reasons:
1. Hashtags consistently identify specific news or ideas. Say your plane just crashed into the Hudson River and you want to become a celebrity survivor. You whip out your cellphone and tweet "holy moley! my plane just crashed into the hudson!". Once you're safely above water and standing on the wing, you might tweet "i'm standing on the wing of my airplane which is now floating down the hudson!". But no one who is not following you on Twitter would know how to follow your fascinating adventure.
Enter the hashtag! Let's say you're a hashtag-savvy tweeter. When your plane first splashes down, you would instead tweet "#hudsonplanecrash holy moley! my plane just crashed into the hudson!". Once on the wing, "#hudsonplanecrash i'm standing on the wing of my airplane which is now floating downriver!".
Now your tweets on this topic have a consistent way to identify them.*** Instead of forcing Search.Twitter.com users to search for a bunch of keywords to learn about your story, you've given them one very precise keyword, "#hudsonplanecrash".
Now things get interesting. Say a friend who is following your tweets sees your tweet about the crash. He tells CNN's breaking news Twitter feed about it like this: "@cnnbrk a plane just crashed into the hudson! #hudsonplanecrash". Alternatively, that friend could direct CNN to your Twitter home page or your @ address.
So this is one use of hashtags. But can't anyone create a specific keyword? Why does it need the # symbol in front of it?
2. Hashtags are subscribable. If you want to follow tweets about one specific topic, you can subscribe to them using hashtags.org. You simply enter the one-word topic or an existing hashtag and the hashtags.org search engine shows you the most recent tweets containing that hashtag. Click the "tag results" button on the left and the "subscribe" button on the right, and you are now subcribed via RSS to all tweets that use the hashtag you searched for. Super sweet! Now, instead of being subscribed to a billion Twitterers, which is like trying to watch 10 tv shows on 10 tvs all at once, you can subscribe to topics instead of people. Using hashtags and a feedreader, you can stay on top of the most bleeding edge news about any pre-hashtagged topic.
***But creating hashtags that show up on hashtags.org is not quite this easy. In other words, you can't just begin hashtagging about your plane in the Hudson. You think this is wikipedia or blogger or something?
Not just anyone can create a hashtag and not all hashtags show up on Hashtags.org. First you have to "register" with hashtags.org. To do this, you simply follow "@hashtags" on Twitter. @hashtags will then automatically follow you and begin tracking all the hashtags you create. And now those hashtags will become searchable and subscribable on hashtags.org. If you don't follow @hashtags, your hashtags are mere mortal keywords and findable only via the plain vanilla search.twitter.com. (Borrrring!)
I have a sneaking suspicion that most people using hashtags on Twitter have no idea what they're for. I suspect that most hashtaggers are simply doing what they see other Twitter users doing. I mean, @hashtags only has 83,500 followers, and I'd be surprised if all those 83,500 Twitterers were responsible for all the hashtags I've been seeing lately. There's an easy way to check. Next time you see a hashtag on Twitter, check to see if that Twitter user is following @hashtags. If not, you know that person is a big time poser.
Don't be a poser. Follow @hashtags here:
http://twitter.com/hashtags
Alright, so what's up with #FollowFriday?
#FollowFriday is a hashtag that I guess is maybe a little like a chainletter or an icebreaker game. Let's break one down:
"#FollowFriday @davetrendler @lancearmstrong @velopress"
Translation from Tweetese to English: "Hey, my loyal followers, it's Friday and I think you should begin following these interesting Twitter users: dave trendler, lance armstrong, and velopress!".
#FollowFriday is nothing more than a suggestion to your followers that they should consider following the people listed in the tweet.
So marketers like me instantly look for a way to turn this into more followers. Fortunately, Rafe at CNET has experimented with #FollowFriday and found the key to getting more followers. (Economics majors will recognize Rafe's tactic as rooted in game theory.)
If you like, you can follow me on Twitter in two places:
www.twitter.com/davetrendler (mostly personal stuff)
www.twitter.com/velopress (mostly work stuff)
But don't be dismayed if I don't follow you back using my davetrendler account. It's nothing personal, it's just because I think I understand how to use Twitter. More on this later.
Useful links:
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