Hashtags: Extremely Useful Way of Spreading the Pro-Life Message

By Luis Zaffirini

If you are anything like I was a few years ago, you will probably find yourself asking, "What is a hashtag and what does it have to do with being pro-life?" As I discovered in the past year, the answer to the second question is plenty, given how prevalent the use of Twitter has become.

So what in the world is a hashtag, as opposed to, say, a dishrag? For our purposes there are two meanings/uses.

A hashtag is an identifying word to indicate a status update on Twitter. The hashtag is prefixed with the symbol "#".

Let's say you are being updated via Twitter about the latest news on NRLC's convention which is being held next month in Pittsburgh. In this case you learn that the schedule for the convention is now available online. The full identifier is….
NRLC 2010 Schedule now online! http://ow.ly/1Jag9 #nrlc #prolife.

The terms "#nrlc" and "#prolife" at the end indicate that what you are receiving is an update.

But Hashtags work as more than identifiers. In the world of Twitter--which is awash in information both powerful and completely useless--they organize information in a way that makes it easier for the reader to find what is important to them.

Once you understand that #nrlc will take you to a mother lode of pro-life information, you have found a shortcut in a world awash with information.

Ultimately, this is a cheap, easy, and very quick way to spread the right-to-life message and news to as broad an audience as possible online. Look for #nrlc in Twitter, click through to read, forward and send along [retweet] to those who are following you.

Please send your thoughts to daveandrusko@gmail.com.