Hashtags are our friends!

Why use Twitter Hashtags?

Twitter hashtags are created by putting a “#” in front of a word or phrase, without spaces. The idea behind hashtags is to get people using the same one when talking about a specific topic: using #momblogsociety to form a discussion around Mom Blog Society, for instance. They were created organically by the Twitter community to better categorize tweets.

Some things to know:

Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category.
Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet.
Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

4 Reasons to use Hashtags

1. They organize your tweets:  For example, when I retweet something from Mom Blog Society, or follow a MBS member, I put #momblogsociety at the end of my post to put it into a category.  Anyone searching for Mom blog Society can type it in the search bar and find all tweets relating to MBS!
2. They help target your audience: By putting hashtags on our tweets from MBS, it will show our audience that we are tweeting for a specific audience.
3. They will get your more retweets:  One of the blogging tribes I belong too uses the hashtag to make it easier to search for new tweets at the end of the day and with a few clicks, they can retweet them.  This gets your post out to many more people!
4. They will get your more followers: By using Hashtags, you put your tweets in front of people who are interested in them, which often leads to an increase in followers. The more targeted and accurate your hashtag use, the more targeted followers you’re likely to accumulate.

For more info, please visit:
http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-101-why-use-hashtags_b2571
https://support.twitter.com/entries/49309-what-are-hashtags-symbols