Hashtags

What is a hashtag?

A hashtag is a keyword or a phrase used to describe a topic or a theme.  Twitter users put hashtags in their tweets to categorize them in a way that makes it easy for other users to find and follow tweets about a specific topic or theme.

According to Daniel (2017), to create a hashtag, you have to put the pound sign (#) before the word or phrase and avoid using any spaces or punctuation (even if you’re using multiple words in a phrase)

For example: #WeddingsByPixelsKenya

A hashtag automatically becomes a clickable link when you tweet it. Anyone who sees the hashtag can click on it and be brought to a page featuring the feed of all the most recent tweets that contain that particular hashtag.

What does a hashtag do?

A Twitter hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream, which you can find by searching the hastag in Twitter Search or by using a third-party monitoring tool such as HootSuite.

So, if Twitter users who are not otherwise connected talk about the same topic using a specific hashtag, their tweets will appear in the same stream. In that way, Twitter hashtags solve a coordination issue and facilitate a conversation.

Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics; topics so many people are talking about that they are a “trend.”

Twitter Hashtag Best Practices

It’s great to use hashtags, but it can be easy to make mistakes if you’re still new to the trend. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Use specific phrase hashtags to hone in on a particular topic.

Going too broad with a hashtag like #Weddings may not get you the engagement you’re really after.

A hashtag like #WeddingOffers will not only include less irrelevant tweets, it will also turn up better-targeted users tweeting or searching for that specific topic.

Check If It’s New

After you decide on a keyword or a phrase, search for it. Visit Search.Twitter.com and enter your preferred hashtag in the search box. Did you get any results? Is someone else already using that hashtag for their event or campaign?

If there is a lot of conversation around it already, you might want to revisit your decision and pick something that isn’t as frequently used. In that way, you will reduce the chances of people who are not a part of your target audience entering/diluting the conversation you want to take place.

Avoid using too many hashtags in a single tweet.

With only 140 characters to tweet, cramming multiple hashtags into your tweet leaves you with less room for your real message and just looks spammy. Stick to 1 to 2 hashtags at a maximum.

Twitter’s best practices suggest you not use more than two hashtags in the tweet, because this can dilute their usefulness for other users, and make it a royal pain in the eyeballs to read.

Only use hashtags that are relevant to the topic you’re tweeting about.

Pick Industry or Brand Keywords

Hashtags can also help communicate a message to those not actively searching for them. For example, if someone you’re following is tweeting about an event using a hashtag, you will still be able to see their updates in your main Twitter feed without accessing the entire hashtag conversation. In other words, you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of what they’re tweeting about and quickly connect the content of the tweet to the hashtag they’re using. And if the hashtag reflects an industry or branded keyword that is interesting to you, you might be inclined to check out the rest of the conversation happening around that hashtag, a win for the marketer who created it!

Keep your hashtagging relevant to what you’re tweeting about.

If you’re tweeting about the weddings, you wouldn’t include a hashtag like #TanoTena unless it was somehow relevant. Make sure your tweets and hashtags have context if you want to impress your followers.

Promote the Hashtag by Incorporating It into Other Marketing Channels

A hashtag is only useful if people know about it. So, to start generating conversations through your hashtag, start adding it your existing resources and channels. Add the hashtag to the social media sharing links included on landing pages.

Don’t Hijack Hashtags for Sensitive Situations

Hijacking hashtags designed for serious and sensitive issues can lead to some pretty bad consequences.

For instance, associating #WeddingOffers with #MosesKuriaMustGo

Below is Twitter’s official stance when it comes to hashtag abuse. As you can see, there’s more at stake than just PR backlash … “The following behaviors and others like them could cause your account to be filtered from search, or even suspended:

• Adding one or more topic/hashtag to an unrelated tweet in an attempt to gain attention in search.
• Repeatedly tweeting the same topic/hashtag without adding value to the conversation in an attempt to get the topic trending/trending higher.
• Tweeting about each trending topic in turn in order to drive traffic to your profile, especially when mixed with advertising.
• Listing the trending topics in combination with a request to be followed.
• Tweeting about a trending topic and posting a misleading link to something unrelated.”

Hashtag existing words in your tweets to save room.

If you’re tweeting about weddings and you already mentioned the word “weddings” in your tweet text, then there’s no need to include #weddings at the beginning or end of your tweet. Simply add a pound sign to the word within your tweet to keep it simple and save more valuable character space.

Use Twitter trending topics to find hot and current hashtags.

In the left sidebar of your home feed on Twitter.com or in the search tab of the Twitter mobile app, you’ll see a list of trending topics that are a mix of hashtags and regular phrases according to your geographical location.

Use these to get in on conversations that are happening at the current moment.

Keep it Short

Be sure to keep your hashtag short and easy to remember. Remember that Twitter users are only allotted 140 characters in each tweet, with or without a hashtag. By keeping the hashtag brief, you’ll save your audience some room to include more commentary about your content.

 

Once you get used to seeing and using hashtags on Twitter, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them. This is one big social media trend that isn’t going to fade away anytime soon!

Campo Rage

In campus, there is an unseen book of slogans and mantras that guides comrades and influences how they think and what they do. You will never have anyone to do an orientation about it but in time you just get absorbed into the frenzy and conceive that madness that is passed on from generation to generation. Here is the piece of the madness
Comrades Power
It is believed “as inscribed in the book according to the gospel of comrades” that comrades’ power is the next superior power after God’s. This is the guiding factor when you see those university babies engaging the policemen in the streets with Courage as if they have been fed the ’holy water’ of the majimaji rebellion making them immune to bullets. This will explain why University of Nairobi peeps have the guts to hold daylight demonstrations the fact that Central police station is a stone throw away notwithstanding. It is the base that cements the solidarity of comrades. Trust me even the most frail and fragile person you know will advance to confront armed policemen when ‘comrades power spirit is in control’. It is not witchcraft; it is science that the level of madness is directly proportional to the disruptions caused provided the ‘comrades power’ spirit is kept constant. The way these campo babies behave while in the influence of ‘comrades power’ might make you think when the universe was being created God said ‘comrade’s power’ and bam! There was light!
A comrade is always right
Whether it is tweeting using a piano, cooking using heat from a torch or any other stunt that might seem impossible to you, provided it is a comrade doing it, then it is outwardly right! A comrade is an intellectual mogul who is never wrong at any time. So when the lecturers mark comrade’s answers wrong, it is not the comrade who is wrong; it is the lecturer who failed to understand the intellectual theorems of the comrade. You hear these campo babies speaking you will think that Aristotle and Pythagoras were intellectual impostors who knew nothing! In-fact, it is said that comrades do not attend classes. They go for a vetting committee to vet the intellectual capabilities of the lecturer!

COUNTERFEITS IN CAMPUS

Well if you thought that it’s only certificates that are fake is campus, let me give you the gist of the matter. Campuses are the home of fakes! Forget the tales you hear about River road, we have shams for everything from Internet bundles to models!

MBs Mwitu

This is one of the things that still baffle me. A campo guy will have have no money, unpaid debts an all other signs and symptoms of poverty but they will have 16 GB worth of bundles on their phones. Where these ninjas get these bundles from, God only knows.

The lot will have the worst phones with cracked screens and all, but wait till you realize that the bundles they have will sustain a busy cyber café for weeks! These mobile bundles charlatans will soon take over! They sell  4 GB bundles for as low as Sh. 200!  If this is not witchcraft, then I need someone to really explain to me how on earth these ninjas cook bundles!

Models Mwitu

If you thought the mobile bundles witches are the pinnacle of counterfeits, you have not met this legion of wannabes masquerading under the title of ‘models’. A slogan in campus goes ‘the girl in front is always a model’.

We have more models than doctors in this country just because you are wondering which way this generation is headed. The principal applied here is very simple. Once she takes a professional picture, bam! There goes the model! The situation is made worse by every Tom, Dick and Harry who can afford a professional camera calling themselves photographers.

These models mwitu need to understand one thing. Real models are dressed by the best designers in the world in outfits that carry real price-tags . Not those faded ngara mitumbas and those red muthurwa leggings that make some look like a pair of pliers! They need to understand that real models are delicate ladies with class and style not real ninjas who creep to Gikomba to buy mitumbas (old clothes of some dead blonde in Georgia) so as to disturb people on Instagram with those captions and hashtags #ModellingThings #Lovephotography #I’mAmodel

Girl, does your mother who paid your fees in Kisii University to pursue a certificate in Disaster management know that you are a qualified model on Instagram? Does your room-mate at Kisii who took a picture of you in the hostel know that it was Photoshopped and uploaded on Facebook with the caption “My photographer and I at a photo shoot in Karen’?

Story by

@michael_muraya

BLIND DATE PART NINE

BLIND DATE PART NINE.

Which University has The Most Beautiful Ladies in Kenya? You will Be Shocked

Campus Post

By Peter Nyk
When I received that call from my friend James last week on Thursday, I thought he was inviting me for the evening prayer, but to my surprise, he uttered those words I wouldn’t expect from him. “Multimedia university has got the most beautiful girls in Kenya.”
These words took me by surprise,because James is that one guy I have nicknamed Canon because of his staunch inclination to preaching the gospel and educating the flock on “the way of life”. I had to take a few seconds to recollect and get the appropriate response; so as not to let him down. I was a bit relieved because he was not the first to tell me about it.
James has been in a mission of preaching in various universities and his area of concentration has been going from one university to another, congregation to another and from one door…

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Signs That He is Into You

In this day and age where klandes, and one night stands or being chipod are quite common, you need to know where you stand in a guy’s life. Here are a few tells that he might just be in it for the relationship and not just to hit it and run. My take on Glamour’s insights;

1. He does it your way
When a guy does things the way you prefer to have them done, then it could be that he really digs you. This shows that he’s considerate about your preferences and does not want to annoy or upset you.

2. He texts you back in two seconds (and not just for sex)
When you text him and he does not take three hours to text you back then he was definitely thinking about you. If he only responds quickly when it’s around evening or Friday night and the weekends, then you’re probably he’s booty-call and is just looking for his fimbo to chapa.

3. He’s known to treat you like a lady
When a guy likes you a lot they do things they normally would not do for other lalles such as opening doors, and walk you from work to your matatu stop, walks with you from school and even drive you to your place without you asking. He will not complain about it when you ask either.

4. He likes you better as is
A guy who likes you in your natural element is one who values the person you are and not how you look by his side. I’m not saying that you should look like an ol skool mboch, but even at your simplest of get ups, he should be appreciative of your beauty.

5. He takes one for the team
Sometimes, you just have to go and meet your girl up, give an ear or advice on her situation and it just happened that you are already on a date with bae. If he’s into you he wouldn’t mind sparing a few minutes of your time together for you to take care of your girl then get right back in to it.

6. He wants to please you in bed….
This here’s for grown folks only! What gets you off is what gets him off. Relationships are about pleasing the other more than you want to be pleased yourself. You dig?

7. …and he’s romantic in bed too
If he’s in and out and then silence and crickets follow, or worse still, comes the snoring then signs are he already got what he wanted from you. And that, sadly, is just that! If he’s really into you, he will ensure you’re aiit, a little pillow chat.

8. He likes to show you off
He is proud of your achievements, doesn’t matter if they are greater than his. He even helps you develop ideas of expansion or improvements. When you meet his pals, they already know about you and they probably know some not-so-private anecdotes about your relationship.

9. He believes in your dreams
A guy who’s in to you knows that for you to be happy, then, your goals in life are a big part of that. They will always urge you on, even if it’s just an mpesa shop, by giving you support and ideas on how to expand and help you achieve success in your passion.

10. He makes an ass of himself
It does not matter whether publicly or in the privacy of just the two of you, but a guy will do almost anything to make you smile. Haven’t you seen those couples where the guy can’t dance to save his life, but coz his mamaa has pulled him out, breaks into uncoordinated bouts of seizures and everyone has a good laugh?

11. He indulges you
A guy who goes out of his way to get you comfortable sure as hell, 100% likes you a lot. If he gets you breakfast in bed, or won’t stop looking until you get to a restaurant that serves exactly what you like, that may be a keeper.

12. He DIYs
If he cooks for you, sometimes he feels like he could help out with your nail polishing (even though, he can’t, you just let him do it anyway), he cooks a meal for you once in a while or he even tries to create his own type of greeting card, that’s is one guy who can’t help the way he feels about you.

People do differ in how they express themselves. Just because a guy will do one or some of the above does not automatically mean they are the right one. Even when they don’t, it does not mean they are not thinking of you in the serious-relationship-type way. Some people were just raised that way.

By Thomas Rajula

The Struggle in campus!? Do Our Parents Really Know?

Legally, at 18 years of age one is considered an adult, but in reality sometimes, age does not necessarily reflect maturity. Many young adults feel prematurely thrown out to the world, especially when they join university

When children get to the university level, some are left to fend for themselves. Parents only foot tuition fees and let the child deal with the rest; including upkeep and other costs that cannot be avoided.
I waited tables
For Isaac Muturi, a second year Multimedia University student, life at campus is not a bed of roses.
“At the beginning of this semester, I left home with sh20,000, just like the semester before, and the one before it. It is on this paltry sh20,000 that I have to survive for the entire semester. It was unbearable in my first year,” Isaac says.
He says after clearing tuition, his father did not find logic in giving him money for upkeep. “I have siblings to consider as well and a large family that depends on him.
My requests for financial assistance ended in a lecture on the current economic crisis. I was stuck with course works and projects that required documentation which involved a cost, yet I had no money,” he says.
“I made a couple of friends from well-to-do families on whose accounts I survived, but not long after, the guilt caught up with me, I felt I had over imposed my plight on my friends.
I felt the need to find a way of supporting myself. I got a job as a waiter at a restaurant in Karen, but inadvertently this also marked the struggle to strike a balance between school and work,” he adds.
At this point, Isaac says he appreciated his crisis and his parents resolution, but he could not help but wonder whether he deserved more from them. When you ask if things would have turned out differently if his parents were more involved and committed to his academic advancement, Isaac says:
“I can only say I would have loved it that way.”
Isaac has a year and a semester left, but he is afraid without improvement in his facilitation, he cannot dismiss the possibility of an extra year to sit for his cumulative retakes.

Jennifer (not real name), a student at Nairobi University, school of education says on several occassions, she wakes up and the only thing she is sure of are the lectures and the distance she has to walk from Ngara to her faculty.
Sugar daddies cross my mind
“I get there late almost every day. Many of my friends have chosen to find sugar daddies to help them out. I would be lying if I said that idea has not crossed my mind. Sometimes when things go out of control, I feel like I am out here on my own. But I constantly remind myself that no condition is permanent and that this too will pass,” she says.
“Feeding myself is what worries me most. Having two meals a day is a blessing, having three or more is a luxury I often forfeit. Sometimes I eat on credit.
I have done away with things like plaiting my hair since I cannot afford to maintain it and I have streamlined my expenditure to align with my academic aspirations. The support I get from my parents is not consistent, sometimes I go weeks minus money for upkeep and when it comes I am already deep in debt,” she adds.

– See more at: http://gen3rationy.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-struggle-in-campus-does-our-parents.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#sthash.XX7zt6Wg.dpuf

I miss my childhood

Arrest and charge me, Raila Odinga dares President Uhuru Kenyatta over insecurity claims

krazyinsidekenya

Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) leader Raila Odinga has dared President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration to arrest and charge him, if the Government has any proof of his culpability in current run away insecurity.Enraged by President Uhuru’s remark that the attacks in Lamu were linked to opposition’s political activities, and the sensational claims by Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa that he had evidence linking the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to the ongoing killings, Raila has challenged the government to either act or stop maligning his name.“We have said before, and we are saying it again – if we are responsible for the current anarchy then arrest us,” dared the former Prime Minister with reference to CORD co-principals, former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and Senate Minority Leader Moses Wetang’ula.In an interview with TheStandard on Sunday, Raila views the President’s sentiments as repeated ‘unsubstantiated wild claims’ alongside Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole…

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Actress Nancy Nyambura aka JASTORINA is DEAD

krazyinsidekenya

Kenya has lost a talented actress Nancy Nyambura known as jastorina the funny house help on Citizen Tv program jastorina, she also stared on another citizen tv show mashtaka, she died of meningitis our condolences to her family and friends and especially her two sons who have lost a brave and loving mother, she has won a KALASHA AWARD last night, below are comments from her fb page

Lincy Drake MollieSad after winning An award jana .R.i.pJastorina Mbosh.5 mins·FriendsLike·Comment·Share·More…Zippy LowkyAm Still In Shock That Your GoneJastorina Mbosh… May Your Soul Rest In Eternal Peace… You Will Live To Be Remembered…A Great Actress You Were…. R.I.P…We Love You But Our God Loved You More..R.I.P17 mins·Ruiru·PublicLike·8 Comments·Share·Tag Photo·More…Lincy Drake MollieSad after winning an award jana.R.i.pJastorina Mbosh.21 mins·FriendsLike·Comment·Share·More…Yvonne Vivi IvynWhat am I hearing abtJastorina Mboshsomeone tell its a lie she is alive….na kwani alikua msick nini.?26 mins·PublicLike·Comment·Share·More…Hillah DentistMy friend and workmate won jastorina…

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