Like many Windows IT Pro and Business Technology readers, my relationship with Twitter began with a fair amount of trepidation. I already devoted enough time to Facebook and LinkedIn, I thought. So why should I spend the extra time to learn yet another new social media platform?
Almost three years after creating my Twitter account, I’ve learned that this popular microblogging service can be an invaluable tool for just about anyone. As a journalist and blogger, I use Twitter to interact with readers, follow industry trends, and share my latest blog posts and articles. For the IT professional or IT executive there are perhaps even more good reasons to use Twitter, since the Twittersphere has emerged as an excellent resource to get help with technical problems, collect advice from your peers, and meet like-minded IT professionals.
IT Hashtag Guide
One of the most effective ways to use Twitter is to leverage hashtags, which are Twitter keywords – preceded with a hash symbol – that help group relevant topics and discussions together. For example, if you’d like to post something on Twitter about problems you’re having with Microsoft Office, adding the hashtag #msoffice will likely give your tweet more visibility to people that might be able to help you with your problem.
Hashtags make it much easier to search for and find Tweets about a specific topic. For example, I frequently search for the Twitter hashtag #sysadmin using Twitter search, which makes it easy to see what the IT community is talking about on Twitter at any given moment. (See example #sysadmin search results below.)
In order to help you get the most out of using Twitter as a platform for IT pros and executives, I’ve compiled a list of some of the most commonly used IT-related hashtags. Using a Twitter hashtag that I don’t have on the list? Add a comment to this blog post and I’ll add it.
#cfo – Chief Financial Officer
#cio – Chief Information Officer
#cybersecurity – A computer security hashtag
#DevOps - Development Operations
#helpdesk – Help desk
#hyperv – Microsoft Hyper-V discussion
#infosec – Portmanteau for information security
#exchange – Microsoft Exchange
#msoffice – Microsoft Office
#powershell – PowerShell
#security – A common hashtag for security topics, but also includes non-computer security topics
#sharepoint – Microsoft SharePoint
#sqlserver – Microsoft SQL Server
#sysadmin – System administrator; for Tweets related to system and IT administrators
#vmware – VMware virtualization topics
#win7 – Windows 7
#windows – Microsoft Windows
#wp7 – Windows Phone 7
Have any hashtags of your own to share, or have some other tips about getting the most out of Twitter as an IT professional? Let me know what you think by commenting on this blog post or following the discussion on Twitter.
- Follow Jeff James on Twitter at @jeffjames3
- Follow Windows IT Pro on Twitter at @windowsitpro