I realize I am communicating with a fairly small group that is currently active on Twitter. Nevertheless, by the end of PLANET’s Renewal and Remembrance and Legislative Day, a few more PLANET members will have learned more about Twitter and especially how Twitter hashtags work to bring a group together.
A Twitter hashtag is always the # symbol followed by a series of alphanumeric characters with no spaces. This tag is unique to a conversation, project, or an event. It brings everyone together into a shared online conversation. The way this works is when you are Tweeting about Renewal and Remembrance and Legislative Day – you will want to append all of your Tweets with the hashtag #RRLEG09. You can use upper or lower case letters – it doesn’t matter. Of course, for the 09 – numbers are numbers.
To see the Tweets of everyone involved with #RRLEG09, Go to Tweetchat.com and log in with your Twitter ID and password. You will be asked which chat room you wish to enter. Enter the hashtag (this time without the #) to enter the RRLEG09 room. I will Tweet right after I make this post to kick things off. This will build the conversation prior to the event, and continue even beyond the closing ceremonies. Those Tweets will stay aggregated and available online for viewing for approximately one week before they drop off.
The cool thing about hashtags is you can feel like you are part of the event even if you are not able to attend. This is one of the qualities of social media – merging a virtual experience with reality. For those of us that will be on-site, this will enhance our experience by keeping us connected. You can respond to your PLANET friends from your favorite Twitter platform or directly from Tweetchat.com.
This is exciting for me personally because even though I’ve been a PLANET member for nearly 15 years, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to attend Renewal and Remembrance and Legislative Day. You can be sure I’ll be taking photos, shooting video, and capturing the activities in additional blog and social media posts.
I look forward to seeing you all there!
