A hashtag is a keyword or phrase prefixed by a marker that categorizes social media content and helps people discover it through topic searches. Use one when you want to reach people—and sometimes bots or newsletters—following a technology or trend, rather than notify a specific person. section 15.2.2
Use the search-before-you-post test:
- Search the hashtag first. Confirm that people use it fairly often and that it does not also represent something unrelated or sketchy. section 15.2.2
- Choose a hashtag for topic visibility; choose an @ handle when you want an account to receive a notification and possibly reshare the post. section 15.2.2
- Use official conference hashtags when promoting a talk so organizers can find and reshare related posts. section 16.5
A technology post
An announcement for a Zig blog post could mention @FakeDB for a possible reshare, add #Postgres to reach people tracking Postgres developments, mention @ziglang prominently, and append #ziglang for topic visibility and newsletter discovery. A conference announcement might similarly use the event’s official hashtag, such as #CoolCONF. section 15.2.2 section 16.5
