You may have noticed in Twitter “Tweets” people put a # sign in front of words.  For example:

@emeraldfrogmkt Can direct mail ever be “green”? http://bit.ly/aoE9l4 #in #directmarketing

The hashtag has evolved by Twitter users and is not an official function of Twitter itself. However, it is widely used and sorts out Tweets into categories that people can search for and find your Tweet. You will notice that in the example above we have linked the Tweet to the direct marketing category and also to display on our LinkedIn profile (#in)

Take a look on Twitter at the trending hashtag categories on the right hand side of the screen. If you can say something relevant to the most popular categories then you stand more chance of your Tweets being read and picking up more followers.

Click for more information about hashtags on Twitter.