I wanted to keep 3S_stories . . . → Read More: Hash it out – My next great Twitter adventure]]> When I started 3S stories on Nov 17,2008, my goal was to tweet  a short-short-short story five days a week for a year. With the exception of a couple weeks holidays, I pulled it off. I learned a lot about editing, about impact, and more importantly, about the social value of Twitter.

I wanted to keep 3S_stories a pure fiction venue. But the social  nature of Twitter wouldn’t allow it. I found myself getting LOL replies, and laudatory DMs, and retweets that increased my followers by ten or 15 people a week. I replied with thank yous, responded in kind by retweeting my faves. Before I knew it, I was part of a community; sharing jokes, having conversations, doling out support and advice and receiving the same in return. I don’t have the most followers but the ones I have, I like.

Which brings me to my Twitter meme/goal/conspiracy for 2010: The Hashtag.

The hashtag functions as a sort of collective bookmark on Twitter. It’s that addendum to a tweet marked with an ‘#’.  They allow  tweets on a theme or topic to be archived and easily searched. You can see examples under Trending Topics on the right hand side of your Twitter page.

Here’s some example I contributed to the Dec 31st #BadDoctorWhoSynopsis:

Other examples from  November:

3S_stories@JodiMacArthur Captain Ahab’s Seafood Palace? Christine’s Drive-In ? Fried and Freshly Juiced? The Crepes of Plath? #literaryrestaurants

JodiMacArthur@3S_stories: That’s ridiculous. How about. Lord Of The Fries?

Chris Farley was my Sensei, David Spade my sparring partner. #iamabadninja

Uniform accidentally bleached, I am limited to missions in the Arctic.#iamabadninja

Fleeing pursuer I forward roll over parked car, get hit by passing city bus.#iamabadninja

Get the idea?

Hash tags provide context. They leverage the social aspect of Twitter and invite participation, which is a direction I want to go with 3S_stories.

Will you join me in creating random acts of creativity?  All that’s required is that you be brief, be relevant, and interesting. You can do that, can’t you?