You’ve probably seen it tacked on to the end of a tweet, or rounding out a caption on Instagram. Short, sweet, easily searched and meant to keep us all up to date on the latest news and how-tos, #WCATL is the official WordCamp Atlanta hashtag.
But what exactly is an event hashtag? Is there a proper way to use it? A best practice?
What is a hashtag?
We’re sorry if this is seems rather obvious to any of our regular attendees, but better safe than sorry. A hashtag is a word or short phrase, prefaced with the number or pound sign, that allows social media users to search a specific theme, topic or – in our case – any post pertaining to an event.
Plug that hashtag into the search field on your favorite social media platform and you’ll see any posts which contain the hashtag. Some social media platforms are more hashtag friendly than others. They’re especially popular on Twitter and Instagram. We’re using the #WCATL hashtag prominently on both of those platforms
Hashtags & Community
We want our attendees to come away from Wordcamp with a lot more than an increase in their design or development knowledge. We want you to come away feeling like part of our active and engaged community.
Using the #WCATL hashtag before, during and after the event helps keep the community thriving. It’s a great way to participate in the continuing conversation.
Where & How To Use #WCATL Online
The WordCamp Atlanta community is especially active on Twitter and Facebook at present. We’re actively using the hashtag on Twitter and on our new Instagram account. We’ve started a twice-daily search using the hashtag on Facebook and Google+, so if you’ve mentioned the event on either of those social media platforms, we’ll see it.
Have questions leading up to the event? Pop #WCATL into a tweet and an event organizer, speaker or repeat attendee will see it and one or more answers will come your way.
We absolutely love it when you share your excitement during the event, too. We will be monitoring the hashtag closely all three days, though it’s best to ask time sensitive questions of a volunteer, as the hashtag use is hot and heavy during the event, and we can’t guarantee we can respond to each use with a response.
We want to see your event photos. So add that hashtag when you share them to your Facebook and Instagram feeds! Seeing your smiling faces and knowing you’re enjoying the event makes all of the planning and preparations so very worthwhile.
Keeping Up With New Connections!
The event hashtag doesn’t go away after the last session closes. It’s a powerful tool for keeping up with all of the wonderful people you meet at the event and it’s also a great way to share what you learned with those who weren’t able to attend.
Event organizers and the social media team will certainly keep using #WCATL to share videos, articles and more and we hope you will, too.
Let’s start the conversation now!
We can’t wait to see you in less than two weeks. Let us know what you’re looking forward to most! Share your pre-event thoughts with us by tacking #WCATL to your tweets and other social media posts. We’ll look for them and for you, online!