This Week - A Trending Halloween Hashtag

This week, I would like to talk about something that, while not ground-breaking, shows how Twitter is being used these days. Because today is Halloween, there is a hashtag trending on Twitter right now, #ScaryStoriesIn5Words, and people are tweeting about things that they may fear without admitting it, in 5 words or less. Click here to learn more about this trend and see some samples of what people have tweeted with this hashtag. This sample includes a tweet from Charmin, taking advntage of the popularity of this hashtag for marketing purposes.¶ While this practice is commonplace, this particular case shows the power of the hashtag very well. Because it is a Halloween-specific hashtag, it probably will not be trending tomorrow because the halloween excitement will have died down by then. However, it is interesting to see how people are taking advantage of the trend right now. There are 14 or 15 tweets mentioned in the article.¶ Seeing how businesses are taking advantage of a hashtag that will probably only trend for a day got me thinking about how I want to promote myself. I have a more personal blog where I talk about different issues ranging from political and social things to issues relating to new media and accessibility for blind and visually-impaired users of technology. I link to the post I made here about MasterCard’s new card with a fingerprint sensor in my post here about the accessibility implications of both Apple Pay and the new card.¶ If my other blog becomes popular, I might post questions on twitter and start a hashtag people can use to show that what they are tweeting is in answer to my original question. This could help get people talking about what I’m posting and sharing their opinions freely. Have a happy Halloween!