We’re avid users and fans of the #edchat hashtag on Twitter. (If you’re new to hashtags, twitter, or social media, click here to get a quick tutorial) While we love sharing information, ideas, and other thoughts with fellow #edchat followers, we don’t spam the hashtag. It would be easy to do so since hashtags are not monitored by anyone at Twitter HQ and can be started by just about anyone.

We’ve actually seen a lot of “hashjacking” (our word, kinda silly) today and other days as twitter users desperately attempt to get the attention of others in order to 1) attract followers or 2) sell a product.

Hashtags have been steadily growing in popularity as they are easy to follow, use, and monitor.In that vein, we thought it might not hurt to put down the DOs and DON’Ts of using the #edchat hashtag (or any hashtag for that matter):

DO

• Do share related content on #edchat (links, news items, pictures, anything RELATED to education)
• Do ask questions and respond to fellow #edchatter questions (but don’t feel the need to include the hashtag in your reply tweet if it’s not helpful to others)
• Do use the hashtag to organize your Twitter stream. (we have a live stream page devoted to #edchat that many have found useful for monitoring the steady flow of tweets)
• Do tell your friends about the #edchat hashtag. (the more the merrier as long as they understand these best practices
• Do use #edchat to find interesting Twitter users. (don’t constantly retweet one user’s tweets though, it looks like spam)
• Do use programs like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to monitor #edchat. (it’s easy, free, and a great way to edit retweets, find new users, and just enjoy Twitter more.)
• Got more? Feel free to add by tweeting us and we’ll update this page!

DON’T

• Don’t reuse the #edchat hashtag on retweets or @ replies. (It takes over everyone’s stream = bad!)
• Don’t use the #edchat hashtag to talk about unrelated things. (#edchatters are a smart bunch [teachers!] and know where to find other stuff, we use the hashtag for a particular purpose.)
• Don’t spam. (don’t do it, you won’t gain any followers and your message will fall on deaf ears)
• Don’t mention a lot of people in your tweets just so they’ll see it. (Just mention the original tweeter. [thanks Colin in the comments!] True #edchatters can simply put the hashtag in the tweet; they don’t need to @ mention 4 people so they see your link to your blog)
• Don’t use the #edchat hashtag to market things. (Even if education related, it is rare that a marketer succeeds by invading this relatively closed community)
• Got more? Feel free to add by tweeting us and we’ll update this page!

Example

Say I want to write a tweet about a great resource I just found that I think teachers and higher ed professionals would love:

Everyone will be able to see my tweet but what if I wanted a specific group, like the EdChat community, to be able to find it easily? Using a hashtag simplifies this.

Now everyone searching for #edchat will be able to see the article. If people find the article interesting and want to tweet about it they only need to include the tag at the end of their tweets and everyone will be able to follow the conversation surrounding the article.

Hashtags are generally placed at the end of a tweet. Like keywords, you can attach multiple tags to your tweets. Hashtags are sometimes abbreviated (#followfriday or #FF) for ease of use.

Want to have more DOs and DON’Ts added? Let us know by mentioning @edudemic in your tweet and we’ll update this page!