THATBlog

The origin of the hashtag is well documented. When Twitter was born in March of 2006, they faced true hardship in entering the social networking atmosphere. Facebook had been dominating the way our society chose to connect online, and without any real visual capabilities, I’m sure I wasn't the only one that thought Twitter was entering the ring with a heavy weight champion, about to fight a fight that couldn't be won.

The fight for the social network crown wages on.

But when something works, you can’t ignore it. Enter the hashtag… now serving you on networks outside of Twitter. The social atmosphere is cluttered with different platforms all competing to be the best. The hashtag caught on quickly and today is used widely on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, Google+ … etc & to be continued!

Hashtags make so much sense, so why aren’t you using them?

TRENDING - THE WEDDING HASH

A few weekends ago, I attended a wedding for a dear college friend. Our group has all since spread out across the country, and we really only see each other for big events, like weddings. Sometimes we go weeks without talking, and sometimes it’s for months. You could say directly “sharing” isn't really our strong suit. We all use social media, but this was the first time we decided to use it together with what is known as the wedding hashtag.

In my opinion, a wedding hashtag should have the bride first, groom second.

We created a wedding hashtag so we could easily follow each other for the weekend. Travel updates, reunion photos, and priceless dance floor videos. After all the memories for the weekend were up and easily accessible through the wedding hashtag, several of my friends asked me, “Why haven’t we done this before?”

The W Hotel in NYC, now offering a social media concierge for weddings.

Well the W Hotel is now providing a solution to make sure couples tying the knot have a night that is the most social event of the season. For just $3,000 you and your spouse can have your own personal social media concierge at your wedding. Live tweets, bothering your guests to use specific hashtags and helping to capture moments you can see the very next day, no waiting on the photographer!

I wrote this blog for two reasons:

1) I am most likely too passionate about hashtags and getting everyone else on board.

2) It’s wedding season.

Uh.. wedding season!

My baby brother, and by baby I mean full size adult but always a baby in my eyes, is getting married in just two weeks! The wedding is not taking place at the W Hotel, but you can bet money that my future sister-in-law has her very own social media concierge, ME!

You can apply what you’ve read here to any event, not just weddings. Hashtags are an easy way to find everything in one place. Almost every social network has integrated the hashtag into their platform BECAUSE they are so easy to use. So if you’re still hesitant, try it out on a small scale. Grab a few friends that you actively engage on social media and try it out. Pick something unique so no one else is posting with your hashtag, and experience how easy and fun it is to create your own collaborative “stream” with a group. Try it! Then comment below and thank me :)