Community Corner
Using Twitter to Follow Live Events and Favorite Topics
Twitter's hashtag search helps you have real-time updates from gatherings of all sizes
Have you ever attended a conference or large event and couldn’t keep up with all that happened? Have you ever returned from an event and wanted to read what others thought of it? Maybe you are planning on attending an event and want to keep track of any updates, such as changes in schedule, locations or to be reminded of start times.
Twitter users have discovered many uses of the “hashtag” search in making social gatherings just a bit more social. A Twitter hashtag is used to help people search for tweets by a common topic and it uses the number sign symbol #.
On Saturday, my family attended Virgin's FreeFest at the Merriweather Post Pavillion. As we were stuck in the inevitable traffic jam, my husband and son were able to log on to Twitter with their mobile phones and check for updates by doing a search for all posts containing the hashtag “#FREEFEST.” We found reviews of performances, descriptions of just how muddy the grounds really were and advice on food, beverage and bathroom lines. Afterwards, we found photos and reviews of the event others linked to in tweets.
During the earthquake, people used #NOVAQuake, #DCquake or even just #earthquake as hashtags. Of course, not all of the tweets were informative or accurate, but you quickly got a sense of how people were reacting and you could find stories that you wouldn't have otherwise. On the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 tragedy, you could search #9/11 or #Sept11 to read people’s thoughts and remembrances of that day.
If you use a Twitter application such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite instead of Twitter.com, you can keep some searches as saved columns where topics you wish to keep up-to-date on can be collected. This could be the #Nats or #DWTS (Dancing with the Stars). Being a geek, one of the topics I like to follow is the recently developed substance graphene (carbon atoms that can be formed in a sheet just one atom thick). When someone tweets a news story about new uses or developments, it appears in my column.
If your friends or family are using social media, why not create your own hashtag to tweet updates on planning or use the name of your soccer team so you can update fans with scores and schedules. Try to keep your hashtags short so they don't cut into the 140-character limit of a tweet and unique enough so that it is specific to your event and not some other similarly named team or topic.
If you follow your local Patch site, you will often see the editors using particular hashtags to follow breaking news. When you want to add to the discussion, follow their lead and use the hashtag to help others know your perspective.