There was a meme of a hashtag that people started using (mainly Nashvillians) to refer to the flooding. “theothersituation2010â€. This morning Kate tweets a bit of information that none seemed to think of.
RT @kateo: Nat’l media researching Twitter for stories: try using hashtags #othersituation2010 #thesaturation2010. #NashvilleFlood
The people looking for information on this emergency would have no way of finding it when this totally non-descript hashtag is being used, especially if the words Nashville and/or flood were not also used.
This is what happens when we try to be clever. It’s fine for “inside information†type tweets to use cutesy phrases as hashtags, but here it basically rendered useless whatever legitimate information you might imagine you would be giving to anyone not “IN†the little circle. Sorry to be so harsh, but I was even scratching my head at “theothersituationâ€. I can only guess. Is it “other†than the oil spill; some other “situationâ€? What?
Also, none of the tweets that used #theothersituation without also including “Nashville†and “flood†were found in the Mashable story (RT @mashable Nashville Flooding: Twitter and YouTube Tell the Story [V.. http://bit.ly/bnoaHa #disaster #flood #nashville //via @davedelaney) about Twitter and YouTube telling the story of the flood.
I would say that unless your tweets are meant to be targeted at a group of people who are “in†on your meme, then be descript. Many people have already given up on hashtags because of how useless they have become. Sorry to be so harsh, but this time it went just a bit too far.
(Also, it was a bit too long for the Twittersphere, don’t ya think? At least “NashvilleFlood†is useful, identifying info, worth using up character space)
Good post, Dale. This may be a sign Twitter is reaching saturation. Hashtags are useful, but only when used usefully!
Thanks Jeremy.
Not sure Twitter is reaching saturation, but the use of “nondescrip” tags sure kept a large number of “searches” from turning up tweets that came from a lot of Nashvillians, and a good number of Social Media aware folks. The Mashable article (and who knows how many others) naturally did a listing of misc tweets about the flood by using search listings, which excluded any that didn’t include the words “Nashville” or “flood” or maybe they just went with a hashtag of “#NashvilleFlood”. I’m all fine with using hashtags in humorous ways, or when I’m aiming my tweet at an inside group of friends, but when we are dealing with matters of such impact and its important to “spread the word”, this usage is counter-productive if we want the tweets to be known outside of our circle who know what the tag means.