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twitterday: tag, you're it


Last week I started a mini-series that focuses on trying to get in the swing of using Twitter. (You can find me here.) It's not all tweets though, so if you're not into it, there will still be some thoughts and ideas in here for you!

Yesterday was Friday, which means, if you visit Twitter, you'll likely see a lot of this:

#FF

My first week of joining I was so confused! What in the world was this referring to, and why were so many people's names included with this mysterious term? I soon found out that this meant "follow Friday", in which users suggest other users to follow. What a nice idea now that I understood!

There are still plenty of terms and ways of doing things that I don't get, but let's talk about that #tag today. Twitter tags are preceded by this: #. Easy enough. But what about the tags themselves?

tags

My mom loves labeling things. She enjoys putting sticker tags on things that I really don't think need to be labeled. I, on the other hand, resist marking things that probably should be tagged. It's true for tangible items around me, my blog posts, and now Twitter.

To the best of my understanding, tagging on Twitter is like what my mom does. It's putting a label on a container so you can find the contents easier. Even if the container is clear and you can easily see what's inside!

For example, I could tweet this:

Watching videos to perfect my bullion stitch!

And add this tag at the end:

#embroidery

That makes sense, because the tag describes what the tweet is about, right? But I could tweet the exact same thing and add this tag at the end:

#embroiderygeek

Is that tag necessary and helpful? Um...probably not. I feel like those tags are just there for the fun of tagging.

Like with sticker labels, I'm bad at using tags in either way! Only recently have I made an effort to label my blog posts so they can be found easier. This kind of organization (for fun or practical purposes!) does not come naturally for me!

How about you? Do you label or tag things? Do you have any tips for me to get better at this? Is there something that I'm missing when it comes to tagging?

I do have some ideas for tags that would potentially have a group of us stitchers sharing some specific kinds of things and tags would make it a lot easier. Watch for more about that next time around!

12 comments:

  1. I have come to find that tagging, at least in my feed, is more for fun and sometimes even the sarcastic mark at the end of the tweet. I think how you explained it is how it's meant to be used but I think it's morphed into more of a witty ending to tweets. In my opinion, it's overused and sometimes just plain doesn't make any sense!

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  2. It is also used for searching common tweets. For example, if you searched #embroidery you'll see these tweets: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23embroidery

    You may see some groups using it for group chats (like Indie Biz chat), tracking conversations about the same thing (I use #30Lists when talking about 30 Days of Lists), or joining in on worldwide conversations such as Comic Con (#sdcc) or the World Cup #worldcup.

    But I agree, some hashtags are totally used for what you would normally say under your breath or as an internal monologue. It's fun but can get out of hand ;)

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  3. THANK-YOU M! granted it's my own fault for not looking into it, but just yesterday i was thinking "what the f is ff? and what ARE hashtags??" but didn't really take it any further. i'm still a little confused but far more informed than i was before! :)

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  4. new to twitter, joined this week. so thanks!!!

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  5. I'm a tagger and a labeller!! I've worked as an image researcher in my teens for Getty images so I am a master of keywording! I try to always label or tag with relevant words and most likely search terms. There's a great tool through google about keywords and things for your blog and that. x

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  6. I don't know about twitter because I don't use it, but I like tags on blog posts. If I'm reading someone's blog and they're talking about a project that's halfway through or something, it's great to be able to find the previous posts so easily

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  7. You know, my account used to be private, but ever since i went public with it, my hashtags don't work in the public stream. I always feel left out with hashtags. *SIGH* i hope one day twitter will fix this for me!

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  8. I love tagging things. I'm re-organizing my blog righ now taking away a few categories and turning them into tags, and I looove clicking on a tag that says "embroidery atc" to see what comes up, or even "art every day 2008" to read all the posts on that subject. on twitter it is helpful if you search or follow a tag you can find people interested in the same thing you're into even if you don't follow them (yet). Or I've been to events where they have a specific tag for that day so you can see who is tweeting about what's happening, it's very useful in that way! :-)

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  9. I'm horrible about tagging things! After seeing the comments I realize how helpful tags really are. Thanks!

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  10. Kam brought these up earlier, but I love these hashtags for weekly group chats #indiebizchat, #setupshop, & #crafterminds.

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  11. Thank you for clearing this twitter tag thing!! I was wondering about the #FF but to embarrassed to ask, LOL. Just recently I found out that DS, DD and DH means Dear Son, Dear Daughter and Dear Husband - Oh, I often times feel really stupid in the universe of Social Media!

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  12. Those are new to me, Eva! Thanks! I had to ask my brother what a DM (Direct Message) was.

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