The power of the #hashtag

{ 05/04/2011 @ 3:51 pm } · { Social Media, Social recruiting, Videogames }
{ Tags: Social Media, Social Recruiting, Twitter, Videogames }

Now you know we love a #hashtag or two. Not just because we like making them up (even though we do), but of what they can achieve. In early April, one caught our Twitter eye – #ims211. It all began with this tweet below:

Sent by a professor of an Interactive Media Studies course (IMS211), in Southwestern Ohio, trying to demonstrate to his class about how gaming fans, developers and journalists can connect online. Thinking that his little experiment would get probably 10-20 responses (primarily from his own followers). He got far more than he expected. Over the initial 24 hours, over 3000 tweets were on that hashtag, 3 lists were created containing a total of 1500 Tweeters using the tag and people from all over the world and the gaming industry got involved. From developers to community managers, from indie studios to multinational publishers, from marketing companies (yes, we were there under our @andsomegamers guise) to students – everyone was talking and getting connected.

From students asking advice about breaking into the industry to studios offering jobs, the original tag has now transformed into much more than a ‘greetings’ tag. What that initial, and subsequent, interest has also spawned is a website, a charity T-Shirt, a community of games people and a possible Tweetup at E3 in the near future.

This whole ‘event’ proved one thing – you can never really predict what results Social Media will give you. That’s why it should be a constant experimentation. After all, there are no set rules or formula of how to use ‘it’. But when it works, it certainly can achieve something.