This is the Fifth post in the twitter series…Twitter for Educators: The Only Guide You Will Need. Please see the end of this post for the series’ links.

Last time we talked about adding hashtags to make your tweets easier to find. You search for a hashtag(#) in the twitter search feature, as identified by the magnifying glass. 

You can find a number of posts related to that hashtag. For example #oilers:

This is a great browsing feature but it becomes time consuming to check all your hashtags this way. There is actually another way to view and save hashtags. I use Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a third party application that can used to organize your hashtags into their own columns or as Hootsuite refers to them as streams. 

Here is a screenshot of  three of my streams on my ipad.

The Benefits of Streams

1. Streams make it easier to participate in “chats”. (I will blog about this next)
2. Streams function as curator for likeminded conversations. Grouping conversations by hashtags into streams gives you a chance to see the big picture of what people are talking about over time.
3. Streams help to keep you informed about what is going on in your city. I set up streams to follow the city I am in #yeg, the traffic in my city #yegtraffic and what is going on in my school district #ecsd.
4. Streams add to your professional development. I have set up streams to follow conferences that I am attending  #ira2013 and not attending #ira2014. 
4. I set up streams that are aligned with my interests such as #writing or #nanowrimo.

Here is a helpful video to get you started.

Other Posts in the Series
Part 1: Getting Started With Twitter
Part 2: Responding To Your Twitter Feed
Part 3: Composing a Tweet
Part 4: Using Hashtags

Until Next Time,
Lit Maven Out!

So far…in the last three parts, you have signed up on Twitter, found some people to follow, replied, retweeted and perhaps composed a message or two.

Today we are going to learn about hashtags.

Egads…I know…you have been wondering about those. Well, it’s your lucky day.

• Hashtags are comprised of a pound sign (#) followed by some words, letters and/or numbers.
• Hashtags make ideas/topics/conversations easier to find.
• Hashtags are a special type of tag.

So How Does This Work?

Let’s look at an example. Here is the tweet from last post.

Hey! What is up with the Oilers? Are they still rebuilding? http://goo.gl/8J2lI9

Here it is with the hashtag.

Hey! What is up with the #Oilers? Are they still rebuilding? http://goo.gl/8J2lI9

Now this tweet is more searchable for other users on Twitter.

Fun Facts about Hashtags

• There is no limit to the amount of hashtags in a tweet other than the 140 character limit.
• Major cities often use airport codes to identify themselves. Edmonton’s airport code is Yeg so the hashtag for Edmonton is #Yeg. 
• Here is fun list of all the NHL team hashtags and Twitter accounts.

Let’s add #Yeg to our tweet.

Hey! What is up with the #Yeg #Oilers? Are they still rebuilding? http://goo.gl/8J2lI9

On your twitter home page you find a section on the lower left side labeled “Trends” There will be a list of hastags that are currently trending. If you select one, a list of tweets will pop up. You might find some interesting information or some new people to follow.

Next post…we will look at organizing our Tweets. 

Twitter Series
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Until Next Time,

Lit Maven Out!