Hashtags, in my mind, could be one of the coolest features on twitter. For those who don’t know, a hashtag is a simple way of organizing and searching topics and tweets on Twitter:
A hash tag is simply a way for people to search for tweets that have a common topic. For example, if you search on #LOST (or #Lost or #lost, because it’s not case-sensitive), you’ll get a list of tweets related to the TV show. What you won’t get are tweets that say “I lost my wallet yesterday” because “lost” isn’t preceded by the hash tag.
So how exactly can this make ministry conferences even more awesome than they actually are?
Connection
The reason I consider this amazing feature to be one of the coolest is its ability to connect people better.
While at any conference you can quickly see what others are saying and doing with a simple search. For example, the Orange Conference, which was last week in Atlanta, had the hashtag #orange10 gave conference goers (and those who couldn’t make it) the ability to stay up-to-date with conference info, ideas, thoughts, breakout and mainstage coverage, and other random information.
Not only is the Orange Conference taking place this week, All Access 2010 and the Q Conference are also taking place (hashtag #qideas and #allaccess2010). The cool feature about these hashtags is the ability to be in three places at once. You are now able to virtually attend each conference through the hashtag stream of each conference and find out what is happening.
Mobile Devices
This is especially pertinent to smart phones and twitter apps.
The ability to connect others in attendance is highly valued. Hashtags are leading to more conversation and networking because of the ability to find people at conferences that are using twitter to communicate. Hashtags are like that friend that introduces you to one of their friends. Its a medium to a great relationship.
Not only can you be introduced on your phone you can meet each other in person and then search for a restaurant to eat at and take the conversation past 140 characters.
Hashtags and smart phones continue to lead the way at conferences on sharing information quickly and easily.
Andy Darnell says
Great post Kyle. I love the ability to follow in on conferences using the hashtag. I haven’t checked the analytics from my first night at orange, but I assume that I lost a number of followers. That may be the best and most unexpected reasoning for hashtags at conferences as it can clean your follower list a little 🙂
By the way Kyle. Nice way to purposefully leave behind all those 8Bit business cards all over the place upstairs in the arena!
Kyle Reed says
Thats the way I role 🙂