What Are Twitter Hashtags ("#" Symbols)?

I bet you have a twitter account or wait a minute, you do but dont know what to tweet about? Well, as you already know Twitter is an information network made up of 140-character messages called Tweets. It's an easy way to discover the latest news related to subjects you care about. And take it from me "Twitter is more fun to read than write".

Okay so you tweet, Do you use or are aware of the HashTag?

The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

Using hashtags to categorizing Tweets by keyword:

    People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords or phrases (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search.
    Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category.
    Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end.
    Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

Example: In the Tweet, @michael what we do with this #GEJ team renaming our universities anyhow

where #GEJ is a hashtag fro GoodLuck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ)

Using Hashtags Correctly:

    If you Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Tweet
    Don't #s-p-a-m #with #hashtags. Don't over-tag a single Tweet. (Best practices recommend using no more than 2 hashtags per Tweet.)
    Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic.

Do you use the HashTag?