Hashtags are everywhere these days so you probably know what they are and how they work. But, just in case you haven't used them before, we thought we'd share this quick, handy guide on #Hashtags so you can get hashtagging straight away.

Hashtags were invented by an employee at Twitter as a way of creating topics, categories and conversations for people to join. They have since become an integral part of the way we interact and start conversations online.

At Disciple, we have hashtag functionality in all of our apps to add another dimension to community interaction.

So, here’s a quick guide on how to make the most of hashtags in your Disciple-powered communities.

What is a hashtag?

A hashtag is essentially a clickable, searchable keyword or phrase that is created by typing the # symbol at the start of a word or short phrase that contains no spaces or punctuation.

Here’s an example: #HashtagsAreAwesome or #DiscipleIsAwesome 😉

Typing your word or phrase as a hashtag automatically turns that word or phrase into a topic or category and is added to an index of all the other times that hashtag has been used.

This means that clicking on the hashtag will show you all the other people in the app who are talking about the same topic as you and they’re saying about it.

How do I use hashtags in my community?

There are three ways to use hashtags in a Disciple-powered app:

• To start a new hashtag, just type the hashtag symbol (#) before the keyword or phrase that you’re posting to the app. As you start typing your hashtag, the app will suggest existing hashtags that you may want to use or you can just keep typing to create your own.

• To view a hashtag conversation in the app, tap on the bold hashtagged word in your or anyone else’s post. This will bring up an index of all the times that same hashtag has been used by anyone else in the app.

• To search for an existing hashtag, tap on the magnifying glass symbol in the top right corner of your Disciple app screen. Type a word into the search bar to see all of the existing hashtags that contain the word you searched for. Click on any of these search results to view the index for that hashtag and see the full conversation.

Tips and tricks for using hashtags:

Hashtags cannot contain spaces or punctuation. The hashtag function will only be applied to the letters directly following the hashtag symbol - #

Here’s an example of a hashtag that will work:

#HashtagsAreAwesome

Here are some examples of hashtags that won’t work:

#Hashtags Are Awesome

#Hashtags.Are.Awesome

You can include as many hashtags as you like in a post to your community. Just make sure they all follow the guidelines in step one!

Try to keep your hashtags short, snappy and catchy! The catchier your hashtag, the more likely people are to join your conversation.

Here’s an example of a catchy hashtag:

#GoHashtags

Here’s an example of a bad hashtag:

#WowThisHashtagIsSoLongItWillTakeAgesToTypeAndWillNeverCatchOn

Using capital letters at the start of each word in your hashtag will make it easier for people to see what you’re saying. A lot of people like to just use lower case in their hashtags, but we think that #HashtagsAreAwesome is much easier to read than #hashtagsareawesome. But hey, it’s your hashtag so do your thing!

So, there you go, that’s our #Hashtag101. We hope you’ve found this helpful and interesting. If you have any questions or points of view, please feel free to let us know in the comments section below. Just make sure you include a hashtag… 😉