What Is a Hashtag?

A hashtag is a type of label or metadata tag primarily used on social networking websites and microblogging services� It makes it easier for users to find content of the same topic� Hashtags are created by inserting the hash character (#)¹ in front of a word or unspaced phrase�

The tagging system was initially popularized by Twitter², and later taken over by Instagram, Facebook and other social networking websites as well� Now hashtags trend beyond social networking sites and digital communication into other media like television, print and they even appear in spoken conversations� The expres-sion itself has not only become a verbalized form in orality but has also triggered changes in nonverbal communication: the hashtag sign can be shown by using the index and middle fingers from both hands laid over each other, rather than saying “hashtag” (Parker 2011; Kamer 2013)� Because of its widespread use, the word hashtag was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2014�

Metadata (in a relationship with images) has the “ability to append linguistic signs to an image (or other data object), to facilitate its classification, archiving, retrieval and indicate provenance (authorship, ownership, conditions of use)”

(Rubinstein–Sluis 2013)� Searching on a hashtagged word on a social network-ing website will display all content so labelled on that website� With this sortnetwork-ing and searching function, however, hashtags not only connect different content or thematic blocs, but also connects users having similar fields of interests (“hashtag 1 In the English language, the # symbol is the number sign or the hash as Northern Americans call it (not to be confused with the sharp sign ♯ in music, the abbreviation No� or the pound sign in North American English)�

2 Its first appearance on the microblogging site Twitter is commonly associated with Chris Messina (W1), who used this sign in a message in 2007 the following way: “how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups� As in #barcamp [msg]?” [23 Aug 2007]�

serves as […] a symbol of membership of a community,” Yang et al� 2012)� It is often used as an instrument by social movements (for example, with the hashtag

#bringbackourgirls Nigerian students directed attention to the fact that 270 girls were kidnapped from their school in 2014)� Hashtags are important for social sci-ences too, as they make it possible to search and analyse opinions from different individuals about an event (Rambukkana 2015)� Marketing professionals have also recognised the potential in hashtags (Ting et al� 2015: 16): they can use these labels to measure the effectiveness of promotion in social media�

In addition to its above-mentioned basic functions, hashtags are also used to abbreviate messages and to add some kind of a stylistic touch to what is being said�

“Hashtags are deictic, indexical – yet what they point to is themselves, their own dual role in ongoing discourse” (Rambukkana 2015)� The metacommentary writ-ten after the hash can be used to indicate the user’s attitude toward the hashtagged content (an apparently serious text can be made funny or ironic by adding the right label to it; cf� Parker 2011)� In its broader sense, the hashtag may be taken as the marker of epistemological modality in relation to the text�³

Hashtags go unregistered and uncontrolled, so users can create as many tags as they want and use them the way they want to� Still, there are collections of advice on how to make hashtag campaigns� According to Cohen (2015), a good hashtag (that is suitable for marketing purposes) is unique, distinctive, easy to remember but not too general, short but meaningful, not too abstract and includes no slang elements� It is often advised that the initials of multiple word hashtags should be capitalised� Users should also make sure that there is only one way to spell out their hashtag (“if a hashtag can be misunderstood, it will be misunderstood,” e�g�

#SusanAlbumParty vs� #SusAnalBumParty; Slegg 2014) and check whether it has been used earlier for other purposes (Hill 2012)�

Certain tags most likely go hand in hand with others� Co-occurring, multiple hashtags are called in this paper hashtag chains (on the relationship of hashtag chains and phrasems cf� Veszelszki 2016)� Analysing various contents shared on Instagram (Cohen 2015), the highest interaction is triggered by 11 or more hashtags, so on this platform the more hashtag someone uses, the more efficient he or she will be in building community� Hashtag chains typically relate to the most popular topics of amateur photography (travel, touristic sights; food and drink;

fashion; selfie ‘self-picture’and work), and their structure prototypically follows

3 For example: “I can’t decide which series to watch this evening. #firstworldproblems”� The expression “first world problem” is a self-ironic reflection on the fact that for the user the mentioned issue is the greatest problem in life�

#time, #truth, #tradition� An image-text relationship on Instagram 141 the user name, text, hashtags order: It’s a classic mille feuille but with a twist…

the fl avors of bananas! #recipeoftheday #syntaghthshmeras #millefeuille #napoleon

#dessert #sweets #deliciousrecipes #recipes #food #foodlover #foodblogger #foodtricks

#instafood #instagood #instadaily #instalover #instamood #foodpics #bananas� Or:

Cica szelfi #selfi #selfie #szelfi #cat #macska� As the second example shows, hashtags are often made of spelling variants or synonyms of the same word� Using multiple hashtags in the middle of the text makes comprehension quite difficult (e�g� Very

#cute #lovely #kitten #cat #kitty! I so #love it!)�

Based on empirical research, hashtags are classified into three main groups (Csire 2015; with my own observations and examples):

1� Like-hunter tags are added to images to boost the number of views (e�g�: #fol-lowme, #likeforlike; #instadaily, #instalove; #photooftheday)� They do not form an integral part of the image, their only aim is to obtain new likes and followers and that way they lead to a certain microcelebrity which “is a mind-set and a collection of self-presentation practices endemic in social media, in which users strategically formulate a profile, reach out to followers, and reveal per-sonal information to increase attention and thus improve their online status”

(Marwick 2015: 138, according to Senft 2013)�

2� Thematising tags usually relate to the topic of the photo, how it was made (black-and-white, no-filter [#nofilter]), its atmosphere, or sometimes the persons on the picture (#girls, #friends, etc�), objects (#food, #cake) or events (#wedding, #confer-ence), so this way they contribute to the searchability of similar contents�

3� Contextualising tags complete posts with the user’s emotions, mood or the circumstance of taking the photo, such as: #cominghometothis, #annapostedit,

#grüsseausdertaiga� Such hashtags are much more characterised by uniqueness:

they do not want to enhance searchability but to add extra verbal information to the visual content� For this reason, they are one-time, non-recurrent texts�

As one of the main functions of hashtags is to facilitate searching, their presence is relatively constant on the internet� This stability⁴, however, can only be true

4 Examples of this fixed form include: #mik (acronym of Hungarian Instagram Commu-nity), #yolo (you only live once), #swag, #sundaymorning; #bestoftheday, #picoftheday,

#worstnightmare, #grexit� The same need for stability may motivate the usage of joker suffixes, such as -porn and -gram (deriving from the word Instagram): coffee porn, foodporn, wordporn, lobster porn; latergram, travelgram, foodstagram; as well as pre-fixes, such as insta- (also deriving from Instagram): instafood, instatravel, instagood, instamood, instadaily, instasize, instahun, instanight (on further linguistic characteris-tics of hashtags: Thode Hougaard 2014)�

to like-hunter and thematising hashtags, because contextualising hashtags are unique and casual�