Thanks, Paddy. Since I don't care to have "conversations" with a bunch of strangers
I can skip adding hashtagging to my list of skills.
There are a lot of reasons to use hashtags beyond conversations with strangers. Finding out about news events and getting help in the event of disasters is one of them.
Twitter in particular has become amazing, breaking new news stories faster than any other social media and way faster than traditional news sources, largely because people can send posts to Twitter just by sending a text message from a cellphone. It doesn't even need to be a smartphone. So people can post and update news events even if the Internet is down.
The Moscow riots were reported on Twitter using the #moscow hashtag even though police did everything in their power to stop news from getting out. During Hurricane Irene, people used the hashtag #irene to communicate with family members, report news, and ask for help. People have used hashtags to organize counter-protests against the Westboro Baptist Church when they tried to disrupt funeral services for US soldiers.
I have used hashtags to communicate with friends and family. A couple of months ago, my girlfriend Maxine and I spent three weeks in the desert on a camping trip. During those brief moments when we had cell phone service, we used the hashtag #2cb1v (2 Chaosbunnies, 1 Van) to let our friends and family know where we were and that we were okay.
One of the businesses I own was a finalist in the New Ventures British Columbia business startup/venture capital competition. We used the hashtag #nvbc to communicate with other competitors, angel investors, and venture capitalists, and we're now in the NVBC VAP accelerator.
When my partner/coauthor Eve Rickert and I were on our book tour in the US and Canada, we used the hashtag #MoreThanTwo (the name of our first book) to communicate with fans, arrange last-minute readings and events, announce the schedules for the events, and so on. When our van broke down on our way over the mountains in Canada, we put out a call for help using that hash tag, and not only did our fans respond, in less than 24 hours they worked together to raise enough money to pay for repairs!
The hashtag #infosec is a good place to keep updated on new computer malware, high-profile attacks, threats to computer security, and new developments in antivirus and antimalware technology.
