With the advent of social networks on the World Wide Web, developers began to wonder how to sort the information uploaded to sites. Tens of thousands of photos, hundreds of quotes, videos, music and documents are published daily. It is impossible to assemble them into one single group by formats. Each shared document has its own theme.
And so the hash tags appeared.
What is a hash tag?
Translated from English, the "hash tag" means "pound" + "label". This type of tag is used only in microblogs and social networks. Tags help sort all types of information by type, subject, and other properties.
Hash tags are often used by commercial companies to promote goods and create a trend on Twitter, Instagram, etc. Each user can create their own hash tag. To do this, it is enough to put the pound sign "#" before typing letters and numbers.
Tags were first introduced in 2007 by Chris Messina. However, the innovation did not receive public recognition and was forgotten for almost three years. Then in 2010, on Twitter, we began to add tags to funny quotes and sayings.
After just a few months, tags became a great way to filter out information. Further, the fashion trend began to be used on other sites.
How to add
Although the "lattice" was invented by a foreigner, over time, hash tags began to be used by different peoples.
However, their use is subject to several basic rules:
- The tag can be written in any language.
- For correct spelling, the word should not be separated from the lattice by a space.
- Hash tags are separated only by a space.
- If a phrase consisting of several words is used as a tag, then spaces are removed from it. For example: #herehould be a hashtag.
Terms of use
In addition to knowing how to write and position tags correctly, the most popular bloggers point out that there are several unspoken rules for using them.
Although you can add a tag to any part of the message: beginning, middle or end, in different social networks they prefer several approaches. On Twitter they usually put a hash tag at the beginning of the message or in the middle. It’s more convenient to read tweets.
"VKontakte" and "Facebook" there are no restrictions on the size of messages. In such cases, all hash tags are wrapped at the end of the message. Instagram has not put forward rules for tagging, but most often users write a short signature to the video, and then post a list of tags.
Bloggers are advised not to make hash tags of five or more words. Its optimal and convenient length: ten to fifteen characters. Twitter recommends a maximum of three tags.
To promote a channel or profile, you should familiarize yourself with the lists including popular hash tags in advance. So a message, image or tweet will not be lost among a huge amount of information.
Social Media Hash Tags
For many Internet users, the correct use of a hash tag is the key to success and profit. Channels designed to promote business, ideas, videos, and so on, are gaining new subscribers through the correct and proper use of tags.
But for each of the most popular sites, the hash tag has its own meaning and place in the message.
Twitter
For the first time, hash tags were used on Twitter. This was done for the convenience of finding tweets by topic. If you mark the message with the tag #sales, the tweet will be automatically entered into the general feed in the corresponding section.
According to statistics, the correct use of tags increases the number of views at least twice.
"In contact with"
The social network "VKontakte" is one of the largest in RuNet. A huge number of groups and public pages does not allow you to quickly sort all the data. Here, tags are used to display posts in a shared stream.
Group moderators can also create community-specific tags. Then visitors can quickly find the right one among all the posts.
Facebook
For Facebook, as well as for the VKontakte network, hash tags are a way to sort information. By clicking on the tag name, the user will go to the feed where all posts will correspond to the request.
Large companies often track the general mood of customers through the quality use of hash tags.
Instagram
This is not so much a social network as a place where you can share your photos, interesting images and short videos. But hash tags are also used here. Thanks to tags "Instagram" allows you to quickly find photos of a certain category. This is how subscribers find new profiles.
Some users who have only recently registered in such networks note that using tags is inconvenient. Indeed, VKontakte tags are not as common as on other sites.
However, after a month, almost everyone claims that this system is convenient. Proper use of hash tags allows you to not only quickly find the information you need, but also collect more “likes” and subscribers.