How To Follow A Conference Using A Hashtag

03 Jun 2010

When I first started using Twitter back in early 2007 at the SXSW Interactive Conference, I was able to keep up with the latest regarding what was going on at the conference; what my friends were doing; where they were in Austin or even find them in the convention center. I had about 60 people I was following at that point and it made it really simple to follow along. At that time there were only about 40,000 total users of the service and it was a small community. Now with millions of users of the service I would need the abilities of a superhero to follow every tweet and be able to see what is happening at every event.

With the development of the hashtag — a # sign followed by a descriptive acronym — I am able to follow along with a conference and my friends who are attending. In the most recent case and a good example for all in the nonprofit and cause world is the Cause Marketing Forum taking place in Chicago. Our very own Chris Noble is attending as well as presenting at the event, so to get a good flavor for what is happening follow him on Twitter at @cfnoble. Chris is doing what we call “live tweeting” an event which gives his followers a snippet of information about what he finds interesting or worthwhile as it’s happening. I call it giving us the 140′s, referring to the 140 character limits of Twitter.

Chris Noble is using the hashtag #CMF10 which describes the acronym of Cause Marketing Forum and the year of the conference. Another example we would be when we all go to BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas this fall we will be using #BWE10 and in the Spring next year at SXSW Interactive we will be using #SXSW11. These are some of the more popular conferences, but it is sometimes difficult to find hashtags for all the events. Some have any number of combinations and it is good to find out if an event has an official hashtag. Many events put it on their websites and you can get the information on what hashtag they are using.

Finding and following a hashtag is simple. You can go to the search page of Twitter, and type in the hashtag you are looking for and it will provide you with an up-to-the-minute real time stream of the people who are using that hashtag. For example, I have typed in the search box the the hashtag for the Cause Marketing Forum:

Now the result page will appear and a list containing all comments using that hashtag will appear, starting with the latest tweet. Many people are now live tweeting events and this is a great way to get those little snippets of information or nuggets of gold from the conference if you are not able to attend.

This is also a great way to find like minded people on Twitter who are at the event and might have similar interests as your own. Using hashtags to find a friend is also a great way to increase your own community. If they are attending and live tweeting an event you wanted to attend, chances are they may also be a good person for you to follow. I’m off to scan more information about the #CMF10 and see if I can make a few friends.

[Note: you can see a few hashtag comments in our #CMF10 Tweetroll featuring the Social Media Meets Social Marketing Panel.]