The Evolution of Hashtags- the Rise, the Need and the Future

While you're adding a # on every social media post, have you ever wondered why you're adding it? We did! That's why we went on a binge overnight research on the concept, history and the evolution of #hashtags. From our understanding- though they seem like they've been here forever, hashtags are not that old!

History of Hashtags

Hashtags were designed and introduced to the world by a product designer named Chris Messina in 2007.

They were first used only in October 2007 by Nate Ridder, a resident of San Diego, California! He started sending out his posts on Flickr with #sandiegofire to inform people about the ongoing wildfires at the time. It was referred as 'hashtags' by initially by a blogger- Stowe Boyd in August 2007 and fast forward to 2009, Twitter had formally introduced the concept with hyperlinks!

Are Hashtags as contemporary as we claim? This is the shorter version of the trend setting hashtags, but can you recall a more popular (questionable) usage of the symbol? Think phones, think dial pad! Yes. They were also introduced in the telecommunication companies in 1970s as touch-dial tone. Hashtag symbol was also used in the late 1900s as a part of coding and programming, but it never made it out of there until 2007.

Although popularly known as 'hashtags', the technical term for # symbol is an 'octothorpe'

The introduction by Twitter was all it took for the buzz and in no time hashtags were carriers to what was/is known as 'trending'.

Other uses of the # symbol? We know when we look at the symbol, it's out first instinct to call them 'hashtags', yet, they are also a number sign, the symbol known as 'pound'- (example-#3 pencil). It is even used by musicians, recall the piano notes of that very talented cousin of yours!?

Need of Hashtags

1. Hashtags have undoubtedly brought an order to the social media and algorithms world. It brings ease in the chaos of a million users and their posts for us to find the category and theme that resonates with us.

2. For businesses, influencers and marketing departments, it has brought a revolution in the world of campaigns. In fact, hashtags have jumped out of the digital world and into the world of ink and paint (see images below).

3. Hashtags have also formed an integral part of various recent social movements like #metoo and #blacklivesmatter

If you are looking for the perfect strategies to use hashtags, leave us a comment below and subscribe to the blogs for all future updates!