Popularity in #Hashtags

8/13/2019 Popularity in #Hashtags

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Popularity in #Hashtags

Tara Margarita Del Rosarioand Erika Marianob

aCollege of Business, BS - Advertising Management

De La Salle University, [email protected]

bCollege of Computer Science, BS - Information Systems

De La Salle University, Manila

[email protected]

Abstract.This paper discusses the perceptions of De La Salle Universitystudents on hashtags in the social media platforms, Twitter and Instagram.The research will concentrate on the actual uses of hashtags of DLSU students,and what these students believe is the most used hashtag on Twitter andInstagram today. It will also consider various external studies on similar topicsto further analyze the results. This report aims to discover whether DLSUstudents think hashtags are being used as an outlet of popularity, rather thanits intended purpose of gathering related posts.

Keywords:Hashtags, Twitter, Instagram, Trends, Tweet

1 Introduction

Twitter and Instagram are two social media networks that differ in functions,

but have very similar purposes. Twitter allows you to tweet out your ideas

and thoughts; similar to a status update. It also allows you to tweet photos,

videos, share links and even retweet (RT) or favorite someone elses tweet.

Twitter is made more useful on a daily basis in applications on smart phones

-- you can even tweet via SMS. Instagram on the other hand is solely a

photo application that is made for iOS and Android devices, wherein users

post one photo at a time. The photos also have the ability to show their

location, add filters or effects and gain likes and/or comments. What these

two social networks have in common is the ability to tag people, and the
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ability to add hashtags. The purpose of a hashtag is to be able to categorize

posts in various social networking platforms for people to find specific posts

-- basically tagging your posts with common topics with the use of a pound

or hash symbol (#). For example, posts about the recent festivities in Cebu

City during Sinulog 2013 would have the hashtag #Sinulog2013. This paper

will concentrate on the hashtag uses on Twitter and Instagram; where the

hashtag use of this generation is being used the most. Since the creation of

hashtags, it has slowly risen and boomed just as much as social networking

has -- it is being used in every way imaginable, even in ways that were not

intended. This brings up the question, are they still necessary if hashtags

have evolved into something different?

Both social networks have something in common that makes the use

of hashtags more effective -- limited posting. Twitter has a limit of 140

characters per tweet, and Instagram is a one-photo-post system. This allows

posts and ideas of users to be posted in a more concise manner, also making

posts more specific and more relevant to hashtags. Mose precisely, Twitter

has a feature called Trending Topics, which basically is a list of the top 10

topics, or hashtags, that have been circulating around Twitter. Trending

Topics can also be filtered out through location -- there is an option between

your specific country or world wide. The list is located at the side of your

Twitter home page, and on the Discover tab on iOS or Android devices.

Twitter also has a search engine where you can search for hashtags and it

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will display all tweets with that hashtag. As for Instagram, there is an

Explore tab that helps users search for hashtags, and when clicked, each

hashtag will display a page of all the photos with this, most recent photos at

the top.

The fact that Twitter and Instagram have other features that involve

hashtags, proves hashtags to be helpful for users to discover and explore

similar posts; posts in events they may have missed or important news, but

the use of hashtags in media today are saying otherwise. This research will

discover the perception of hashtags and if they are still fulfilling their

purpose or if users are abusing their abilities.

Social media has been a common topic for research and literature

since Facebook and Twitter emerged; Instagram has only began to grow in

the likes of Facebook and Twitter in the last year. However, there were more

works related to controversies regarding whether hashtags benefit the topic

of interest that is being tagged, or the user in terms of advertising

themselves. One article titled Suggesting hashtags on Twitter, contains

experiments, discussions, diagrams, studies and more; about twitter

hashtags. By looking closely at how Twitter works, they noticed that users

may categorize their topics by using hashtags with any word or statement.

However, the trouble here could be hidden in the freedom users are given

when creating their own hashtags. The article suggests that it could be

improved by having proposed an automatic suggestion tool, wherein a given

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Tweet will return a short list of relevant hashtag suggestions (Mazzia &

Juett).

Moving to newspaper articles, How To: Use Twitter Hashtags for

Business contains information on literally what its title suggest -- how to

use hashtags to benefit a business. Hashtags are used simply on how to

connect related topics. Therefore, it would be convenient for users to find

additional tweets on a certain subject. Hashtags are also used by conference

and event organizers to keep a single stream for the events tweets.

Hashtags were popularized in 2007, wherein San Diego wildfire used

hashtags to identify similar topics of the natural disasters (2009). Author J.

Catone also tackled on how people can utilize existing hashtags for

marketing strategies. He claimed the following statements: (1) Hashtags

have become vehicles for spam, (2) people should never use hashtags to

tweet unrelated topics, and (3) never flood tweets with the current popular

topics, or trending topics, just to appear on search results for popularity

(2009). This article would be perfect support for the research paper as it is

in line with our main objective. Cantone continues to discuss how to start

your own hashtags. Once youve figured out how to use hashtags, use and

promote it. But make sure your tweets that use hashtags add to the

relevance of the topic or help make it worthwhile (2009). As Twitter and

Instagram users ourselves, we have also learned how various people use

hashtags -- our peers, school or office official accounts, and celebrities. With

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these few articles and our own experiences, we have gained information that

could help us have more knowledge on hashtags and the perspective of

others as to their purpose in Twitter and Instagram, as well as help our

research find answers.

The first aim is to find out the perception of hashtags since their

emergence to find out if majority students believe hashtags to be useful for

their intended purpose, or otherwise. All of this will be done in relevance to

De La Salle University - Manila (DLSU) students and their opinions. Hashtags

are used in social media; its purpose is to find related topics that people

could find interesting as stated previously. However, hashtags users today

use them not only for tagging, but for comedic purposes and for attention.

The second aim is to discover how hashtags are used by Lasallians -- what

hashtags are used for what purpose? What do Lasallians use hashtags for?

With the participation of at least 100 DLSU students, -- who are Twitter and/

or Instagram users -- this paper will state how hashtags are being used by

DLSU students and in what quantities. From this, it could also portray

whether hashtags are useful for them as a tagging system, or as an outlet of

popularity. This will be done by giving them choices of different hashtag

categories and they will choose which ones are relevant to their Twitter and

Instagram uses. The last aim of the paper is to pinpoint the most popular

hashtags being used now. Twitter shows the top 10 Trending Topics, but are

these accurate, or are these solely in the Twitter world? Are these worldwide

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or Philippine wide hashtags similar to what Lasallians think are the top

hashtags? What are the top hashtags used on Instagram? Are they different

from Twitters top hashtags? Finding out the top used hashtag(s) will assist

the paper in analyzing how hashtags are used in the majority in the opinions

of the DLSU students -- for their intended purpose, or for popularity/

attention.

2 Methodology

This portion of the paper will help provide information needed to validate the

results of our research on hashtags used in Twitter and Instagram. This will

be done by first, describing the participants of the study and details on why

and how they were chosen. Second, enumeration and explanation on the

materials used to gather these results, and third, the procedure at which the

survey was distributed and how the computations and graphs were solved,

leading up to the presentation of results.

The target participants of the research include any undergraduate

students from De La Salle University - Manila (DLSU). However, these

Lasallian students must have a Twitter and/or Instagram account. Otherwise,

the study would not be possible, seeing as knowledge of hashtag usage by

themselves and their peers is a key prerequisite to taking part in this study.

College students are at the peak years of the information age and have

integrated technology into their daily lives. Because of this, the study will

have more accurate results, seeing as these students are in the center of the

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social media, and can relate to the research entirely. We will select the

students randomly, without any regard to their age, college or gender. There

will be no reference or bias towards these because a student from the

College of Liberal Arts may have very different results compared to a student

from the College of Engineering. Random sampling will provide a more

general coverage of results from the majority of Lasallians studying in Taft. A

minimum of 100 students will suffice to obtain the information needed from

the surveys to continue our research. Going past this quota however, will of

course be much more beneficial, as there are __ students currently enrolled

in DLSU.

One main instrument will be used for the attaining information for the

research paper; a survey will be conducted, where in copies will be

distributed into the public of DLSU students. This will be done in two

manners; an online questionnaire through Google Docs that will be spread

across Facebook, Twitter and any other social media platforms possible. The

second approach for distributing the surveys will be to distribute them into

our classes, giving a possibility of around 40 hard copy results per class. The

online questionnaire however is much more preferred because submission of

the form cannot be done if all questions are not answered, or if any are left

blank. Students may become lazy whilst taking the survey on paper and

disregard the instructions. Preceding the first questions of the survey, each

participant will first be asked if they own a Twitter and/or Instagram account

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to make sure the results will be of use. Other aspects of attaining

information will be from mere observation of hashtags we come across

during the usage of Twitter and Instagram, or possibly short interviews

pertaining to specific details of the study.

The series of steps for distributing the survey, is basically, as

previously stated, online and physically on campus. On Facebook, there are

dozens of groups dedicated to the different organizations, political parties,

batch levels, and colleges of DLSU. A link to the survey will be posted in

each of these groups with a short description to make sure participants of

the survey have a Twitter and/or Instagram account. Since the DLSU

students were chosen specifically to have a Twitter and/or Instagram

account, it would be wise to use an online system to distribute the survey

rather than a hard copy. Another way of distributing the survey would be to

have the mobile link prepared on an iPad/iPhone for anyone to quickly

answer on-the-go -- sending the link via chat applications such as iMessage,

WhatsApp or Viber would also be a way of acquiring participants, seeing as

many students spend a lot of time on their smart phones. Since Google Docs

offers us simple statistics automatically calculated from our survey results,

the physical copies of surveys must be be put into the online database -- this

will be done manually, and carefully by us. After all the data from the

surveys are combined, our results shall be shown with matching tables and

graphs for different categories of interest, as well as a given conclusion from

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the information gathered from the graphs. Since we have a few open ended

questions for the purpose of allowing more of the Lasallians opinions to be

heard, these values will be manually tallied, put into a table -- which will

also be included in the results -- and made into a graph on Microsoft Excel.

The following results were in relation to the survey answers of 219 De

La Salle University students ranging from all 7 colleges available in the

University -- College of Business (COB), College of Liberal Arts (CLA),

College of Science (COS), College of Engineering (COE), School of Economics

(SOE), College of Computer Science (CCS) and College of Education (CED).

The majority of the results came from CLA; 79 out of 219, or 36% of the

survey respondents. After CLA, respondents from COB and CCS made up

23% and 24% of survey respondents, respectively. Subsequent to that, COE

took up 8% of respondents, COS had 5%, SOE had 3% and CED only had 1

participating student. Out of the participants of the study were 118 or 54%

female, and 101 or 45% male, making the study almostequal in terms of

the respondents gender, even if it was not a primary concern, but this equal

ratio proves our unbiased results. The students ranged from the ages of

16-23, in correlation to ID numbers of De La Salle ranging from this years

freshmen batch of ID number 112, up until the upper batch students of ID

number 107; the Universitys ID numbers are parallel to the year the student

graduated high school -- ID 112 students graduated in 2012 and ID 107

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students graduated in 2007. Majority of respondents however, were aged 19

years old (25%), with ID number 112 (28%).

3 Results and Discussion

This section will discuss the results retained from the survey 219 DLSU

students have answered. Responses to that research questions stated in the

Introduction will be addressed here and individually compared to external

sources with similar or contrasting results.

3.1 Perception of DLSU Students on Hashtags

This study on hashtags of Twitter and Instagram first aims to discover the

perception of hashtags of De La Salle University Students. Through our

personal experiences through both social networking platforms, we have

seen that since hashtags emerged, their purpose may have slightly been

altered. The perception of hashtags of DLSU students will support this

observation through the results presented here.

The definition of a hashtag according to dictionary.com is: noun1. (on

social-networking Web sites) a word or phrase preceded by a hash mark (#),

used within a message to identify a keyword or topic of interest and facilitate

a search for it. According to the Lasallian students that have participated in

the study, they more or less agree with this statement due to the fact that

the most common definition chosen from the list given was for adding tags

to posts; 117 out of 219, or 53% of respondents (Figure 1.). Other choices

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included: for popularity (more likes and followers), for trends (fashion

#ootd), for promotional reasons/marketing strategy, and others, where they

were able to give their own definitions.

Figure 1. Categories of hashtags

3.1.1 Usefulness of Hashtags

An important aspect of the perception of hashtags to DLSU students is

whether or not they find hashtags useful to them at all. From the results

seen in Figure 2, majority of Lasallians believe hashtags to be useful.

Another significant question asked was if DLSU students think hashtags have

improved their Twitter and/or Instagram user experience. Seen in Figure 3,

the results are very similar to Figure 2being a positive result again, with

only a 3% difference.

54%

6%

24%

10%6%

For adding 'tags' toobjects in the postFor popularity (more likesand followers)For trends (fashion #ootd)For promotional reasons/

marketing strategyOther

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Figure 2. Usefulness of hashtags

Figure 3. Improved use of Twitter and Instagram with hashtags

!"#

%

YesNo

!"#

%!#

YesNo

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Figure 4. Hashtags being abused for popularity

Seeing as most Lasallians find hashtags useful, it can be inferred that

most of the results from the survey should be positive, in a sense that

everything goes in line with what hashtags are meant to accomplish.

However, this accomplishment of purpose can be questionable in terms of

whataccomplishment is being made. Upon taking the survey, participants

get a feel of our study over all, so for the final question for the survey, we

asked the students if they suppose that hashtags are being abused for

popularity, and a massive 89% of them answered yes, seen in Figure 4.

This result shows us that, in relation to the opinions of DLSU students,

hashtags are useful and improve their experience in the social media, in

terms of popularity.

89%

11%

YesNo

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In conclusion to these results, hashtags are being used more currently

for the purpose of popularity, rather than for their original one. The

perception of hashtags to DLSU students does not go in line with the

intended objective of a hashtag being used in social media. It is also

concluded from the various results, that Lasallians believe hashtags have in

fact progressed to follow another purpose. Along with being asked if

hashtags positively contribute the experience of a user on Twitter and/or

Instagram, participants were asked why or why not. Disregarding answers

that became void due to inappropriate or irrelevant nature, majority of

students either say hashtags are: 1) fun to use and read since they are able

to express themselves better or 2) help connect users and posts with their

similar interests.

3.1.2 Related Studies

Does the rest of the world agree with, or have similar opinions to DLSU

students given here? Patrick Murphy of the online blog called

business2communitydefinitely had a similar opinion about hashtags saying,

The hashtag has grown beyond the social media engagement tool it was

designed to be(Murphy, 2012). He began his article by stating the

excitement of the social media community when hashtags first emerged, but

continued on with expressing that hashtags have taken a dark turn(2012).

He also claims that hashtags [have] never really fulfilled the marketing

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role(2012), that they were made for. In addition to the claims made by

business2communityfrom Murphy, Jon Mitchell of an online blog called

readwriteposted the article What Is the Point: #Hashtags?in mid 2012.

Similar to Murphy, Mitchell first discusses how intriguing and ingenious

hashtags were to Twitter in 2009, but Then something terrible

happened.(2012). A portion of the ingenious nature of hashtags on Twitter

were how the Trending Topics displayed the most used hashtags-- they were

meant to give everyone a live feed, or sense of what the world was talking

about at the moment. According to the article, Trending Topics began to look

something like this: #ThingsISed2UrMamaLastNight or

#ReplaceMovieTitleswithPoop. Although these seem like negative facts, as

time progresses and as Twitter is improving their Discover section, they

have managed to more diligently filter out topics. This is possible because

the Discover section for each Twitter user is different; they are compared to

similar topics the user normally tweets about. Since hashtags started on

Twitter, it was more relevant to compare the first aim of the study with

sources related to Twitter.

On Instagram however, Paul Steinbrueck of Empire Avenue Tips blog

claims hashtags on his photos have double his likes and followers (2012).

Although he does discuss how hashtags are meant to tag certain objects in

your Instagram photos, he does this in an enumeration of tips for Instagram,

on how to generate more attention for your posts. Steinbrueck even ends his

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article with this: Have you found they increase likes, comments and

followers? Got any other hashtag tips?(2012). Jason A. Howies article

(2012) on the online blog aptsonicdescribes different hashtag definitions

and also defines #instagood as a way to find noteworthy users; again,

concentrated on popularity (eg. likes, followers, etc).

3.2 Usage of Hashtags by DLSU Students

To uncover the actual use of hashtags by De La Salle University students is

the second aim for this research -- what hashtags are used for what

purpose? What do Lasallians use hashtags for? -- as stated in the

introduction.

In order to pinpoint DLSU students main uses of hashtags,

participants were asked to choose between 9 different categories of

hashtags, as shown in Figure 5. Students were permitted to select more

than one option, for the reason that, students may use hashtags for more

than one occasion or purpose. In which case, a bar graph will be used to

show which category of hashtags are more often used compared to the

others. In the table illustrated in Table 1, the break down of the 6 categories

-- excluding For the sake of doing it because everyone else uses hashtags ,

For friends w/o Twitter/Instagram accounts and I dont use hashtags--are

shown with the given examples from the survey; hashtags used in these

situations.

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to posts with hashtags, that are about events, school, or have comedic

purposes, are indeed useful to them.

3.2.1 Quantity of Hashtags used

To further understand how Lasallians use hashtags, the second point for this

aim is the basic fact of quantity of hashtags per post -- how many hashtags

are appropriate for a single post on Twitter and/or Instagram? According to

findings as illustrated in Figure 6, 202 out of 219, or 92% of respondents

keep their hashtags minimal; 1-3 per post. The other hashtag amounts

provided as choices in the survey was either enough to tag related things

to the post, 4-10 or as many as I can think of, 20+, which only got 15

and 2 respondents respectively. An exploded doughnut graph was used for

this particular finding to better exhibit the drastic majority in the choice for

very minimal, 1-3 hashtags per post.

Figure 6. Uses of hashtags

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3.2.2 How often Hashtags are used

How people use hashtags depend on the nature of use, quantity of what is in

use, and how often it is being used. The third supporting factor to find out

how DLSU students use hashtags is their regularity of use on the actual

social media platforms, Twitter and Instagram -- this was also the opening

question for the survey. Results show that 138 or 63% of Lasallian survey

participants use their Twitter and/or Instagram accounts everyday. Judging

by the two social platforms actual purposes, this daily use portrayed by the

DLSU students is very understandable; the two social networks allow daily

updates and live feeds from you and your friends/followers. Figure 7

illustrates the majority of students who use their accounts daily, in

comparison to the percentage of those who use their Twitter and/or

Instagram every other day, every week, or not often.

Figure 7. Frequency of hashtag usage

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The news blog The Atlantic states that 177 million tweets are sent per day,

and 16.1% of Twitters community is from the Philippines. Their statistic

finds also include that the typical Twitter user is most likely a female, in her

20s and a college student, making our study extremely relevant. According

to the official Instagram press center, there are 40 million photos per day,

8500 likes and 1000 comments per second, after being launched in October

2010 (2013). For a more local scope, there was a study on Instagram usage

in the Philippines done by Jason Cruz in January 2013 through an online

survey conducted on Survey Monkey with 100 individuals. Cruz claims that

Instagram is mostly used 1-4 times a week. Although the study done by

Cruz may not be reliable, the purpose for his study was to inform brands and

organizations, seeing as they might want to venture into the Instagram

world for marketing purposes. Cruzs study has also given us insight on the

opinions of other Filipinos and still seems to match with the results from

DLSU students.

In order to distinguish the perception of others on how to use hashtags

compared to DLSU students in the Philippines, searching for how-to articles

seemed very appropriate; more-so, if it were an article from 2009, when

hashtags were just beginning to rise in social networking on Twitter.

Elizabeth of online blog Tech for Luddites basically explains the definitions

of a hashtag, as well as how to track topics -- The first thing I would do is a

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basic search on the term itself (Elizabeth, 2009). This is all very basic stock

knowledge on hashtags. Since the article is more of a tutorial, comparing the

uses with what the Lasallian students suggested are more of in the examples

given by Elizabeth, and her examples include TV shows, news, and

promotional hashtags -- all similar to ones discussed previously that

Lasallians agree with. Although the most popular hashtags for Lasallians

would be trend related, this would not be possible since hashtags for trends

did not exist in 2009.

In comparison to the article on Tech for Luddites, Lauren Dugan of

mediabistroonline, states that a hashtag is really just a way of

categorizing your tweets so that they are part of a narrowed conversation

and theyre easier to find (Dugan, 2011). Dugans article Twitter 101: Why

Use Hashtags? concentrates for 3 main areas about hashtags: 1)

Organization, 2) Help to target your audience, 3) Get you more followers.

Similar with Tech for Luddites, the article on mediabistrocover the basic

knowledge of hashtags with points 1 and 2 -- organizing posts with specific

hashtags and reaching the target audience using the relevant hashtag(s). In

point 3 however, it directly relates to the opinions of Lasallians -- more

followers or popularity. Up to this point, majority of our results show that

many DLSU students use their Twitter and/or Instagram accounts daily,

using hashtags more commonly for events, school or comedic purposes, with

very minimal or 1-3 hashtags per post and this goes into relation with

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Dugans article on mediabistro, stating that one main reason why people use

hashtags is to earn more followers.

3.3 The Most Popular Hashtag

The last aim of our study was to find out what hashtag is the most popular in

DLSU students uses. This will further clarify the perception and uses of DLSU

students, in relation to the first and second aims.

The top grossing hashtags suggested by DLSU students, #OOTD

(Outfit Of The Day) and #YOLO (You Only Live Once) had 41 and 30

respondents respectively. Although these numbers seem like a small

percentage compared to the other 178 or 189 students that answered the

survey, these two hashtags were the most consistent of all entries. Majority

of entries consisted of different hashtags varying between these categories

with their specific hashtags as shown in table on Table 2, excluding others.

The pie charts illustrated in Figure 8includes all 4 categories in relation to

each other, as well as an additional pie chart -- Figure 9 -- with the various

hashtags categorized under others.

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Table 2. Breakdown of various top hashtags

DLSU Hashtags Comedic Hashtags Instagram Hashtags

#Animo #chos #instagood

#DLSU #bv #instadaily

#itsmorefuninDLSU #FML #igmanila

#DerechoSantugon #AngGwapoKo #igers

#GE2013 (GeneralElections)

#LOL #selfie

#MLS #sorrynotsorry #throwbackthursday / #tbt

#finals #FDaPolice #instafood

Figure 8. Top hashtags suggested by DLSU students

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Figure 9. Expanded pie chart of Others from Figure 8

There was an abundance of responses for the suggestions of what the

top hashtag is; currently 38 responses to be exact. Of the 38 responses,

there were also some responses that had a couple suggest the same

hashtags. On Figure 8, we can see the bigger portions of the pie chart, with

the values 5, 7, 8 and 9 as the biggest portion. Respectively, these hashtag

suggestions were: #hashtag, happiness hashtags (#LIFEISGOOD,

#masayanaanglahat, #HappyKid), None (no response), food hashtags

(#food, #foodporn), #summer, #nowplaying, and the most popular

response in others was I dont know.

DLSU related hashtags basically consist of students portraying school

spirit, promotions of DLSU parties, promotions for the recent student

!

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government election, and the ever-infamous MLS (MyLasalle) portal -- where

students check their grades, enroll for their classes, etc. -- since the website

tends to crash. Comedic hashtags consist of some inappropriate language,

as well as Filipino slang like chos, or even just the simple LOL (laugh out

loud). From other different responses, we can see that some Lasallians

spend more time on Instagram than on Twitter since Instagram is solely for

photos; 7% of suggested top hashtags were Instagram only hashtags. The

tag #ootd is more used in Instagram because of the use of a photo, but it is

also possible to Tweet a photo as a twitpic. Others also did not give their

own suggestions for top hashtags, but rather check what the Trending Topics

on Twitter were at the moment, which is irrelevant to this research since the

target was the Lasallians opinions.

3.3.1 Most Popular Hashtag Category

Figure 10. Expanded pie chart of Others from Figure 8

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In Figure 10, we can reconfirm that the hashtags #OOTD and #YOLO

are indeed the most popular hashtags, in the opinions of Lasallian Twitter

and Instagram users. Survey participants were asked to choose one

category from the choices -- seen in Figure 10-- and the favored choice with

45% of respondents was the category Trends. The results can be validated

again with this, seeing as OOTD and YOLO are under the Trends category.


As discussed in the introduction, the Trending Topics on Twitter display the

top 10 grossing hashtags circulating the Twitter community. However,

through personal experience and individual interviewing, the Trending Topics

on Twitter fluctuate too often and do not reflect substantial accuracy within

the Lasallian community. The study also relies on Instagram for results, and

the survey is the only source for this information; since Instagram does not

have a feature similar to Twitters Trending Topics. In order to properly study

the results of DLSU students, we have researched what other sources

believe the top hashtags on Twitter and Instagram are in a worldwide scope.

According to the official Twitter blog, they have found and categorized the

top hashtags of 2012. The 9 categories are as follows: 1) Conversation

Starters, 2) Politics, 3) Sports, 4) TV, 5) Movies, 6) Music, 7) Food, 8) Tech

and 9) Countries. Looking at the suggested top hashtags, only the category

conversation starters have common results with the DLSU students.

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According to the Twitter blog(2012), the number one hashtag for

conversation starters is #nowplaying. This hashtag is used when people are

listening to music and tweet out the song they are listening to and include

the hashtag #nowplaying or #np for short. There is also a variation of it

called #nowwatching, which is basically what movie the user is currently

watching. However, the #nowplaying hashtag was only suggested by 8 out

of 219 students that were surveyed. Another hashtag stated in the blog that

was similar the respondents entries, #throwbackthrusday is the 9th out of

10 top hashtags under conversation starters -- this hashtag is for posting

about things from the past, hence throwback. But again, only 4 out of 219

respondents answered with #throwback, #throwbackthursday, or #tbt. Most

of the hashtags stated in the Twitter blog did not even appear in the survey

results of the Lasallians.

Since Instagram is for photo posting and therefore is a completely

different platform from Twitter, it is understandable that the top grossing

hashtags will be completely different and/or have different meanings. The

online blog readwrite has a post on the top 10 hashtags of Instagram. In this

case however, these are the top grossing hashtags of 2013 -- more accurate

in comparison to this study. According to John Paul Titlow writing for

readwriteblog (2013), the number one hashtag on instagram is #love. In

our study, only 3 people out of the 164 students answered with #love as

what they believe is the most common hashtag. Statistically, it shows that

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this one participant of the research could be correct, assuming Titlow of

readwriteblog is a reliable source. However, the majority of the Lasallians

that answered the survey disagree.

In accordance with the top hashtags obtained from this survey, they

both do not relate with the official Twitter blogor the readwriteblog. The

term YOLO was coined fairly late in the year 2012 and may not have

appeared in the latter of the year in the Twitter world and therefore could

not have been included in the top hashtags. As for Instagram, YOLO still did

not show up as a result as one of the top 10 hashtags, but a photo shown in

the web article shows the word #YOLO -- it may have just missed the top 10

list. OOTD was coined in the fashion online community and is more suitable

to Instagrams photo posting platform. OOTD can also be OOTN (Outfit Of

The Night) and the hashtag #wiwt (what I wore today) is often included in

similar posts. Although it was used fairly often, it still did not appear on the

Twitter blog or readwrites list of top hashtags.

Reasons for the vast differences in opinions and/or statistics of top

hashtags may partly be due to the Filipino culture and or trends in the

Philippines -- they may not be the same worldwide. The official Twitter blog

and readwrite blog are both American based, and consequently have

different values, humor, culture, etc. Although their results may be in a

worldwide scope, the western culture takes up more of the latter of both

Instagram and Twitter.

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3.4 Future of Hashtags According to Lasallians

As an end to the survey, an additional question was asked that is a more

opinionated question and a more analytical part of the study that has not

been included in our aims, but rather as a point of interest. The question

was: Will people ever stop using hashtags? There is no possible way to

answer this, but according to the opinions of Lasallians, 79% of them think

hashtags can potentially go on forever, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11. Hashtags existence in the distant future

Along with the close-ended yes or no question, the students who

participated were given a chance to share their opinion as to why or why

not. Again, voiding any responses due to an inappropriate or irrelevant

nature, the opinions given were all quite similar. Although there are other

social networks that have experienced this social networking death, --

!"#

%

'()

*+

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Myspace is an example, since they were the Facebook of their time, but now

are only being used for Music promotions by aspiring artists/bands --

Lasallians believe hashtags have become too much of a trend, that theyve

integrated themselves into all types of marketing strategies, hashtags have

established themselves an entity of their own in social networking, as well as

the mere fact that it has become a habit to use them in the information age.

Opposing opinions however, think that hashtags are just a fad and will die

out eventually, like all other fads in society.

4 Conclusion

Through external research and surveying, this study concludes that hashtags

are being used today for reasons involving popularity, more often than they

are being used for their intended purpose. This has been concluded through

the three main aims of this paper: (1) The perception, (2) The usage, and

(3) The most popular hashtag according to DLSU students. The discussed

results were then compared with related studies, and have found both

similar and contrasting findings. It is concluded that majority of Lasallians

find hashtags useful and improve their social media experience, DLSU

students use hashtags mostly for events or for school, very minimal

hashtags are used per post, with most of them using their Twitter and

Instagram accounts everyday. The top hashtag suggested by the students

was #YOLO, with #OOTD not far behind, and the most popular category of

hashtag suggested was trends. These suggestions further prove that

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hashtags are more used for popularity purposes, as well as the fact that

195 students out of 219 responded yes to whether they think hashtags are

being abused for popularity; the other 24 that responded no, maybehave

been part of the 6% of respondents that believe the definition of a hashtag

is to use it for popularity (Figure 1). In addition, majority of DLSU students

also believe hashtags will potentially go on indefinitely, since they have

evolved on their on. To conclude, the perception of DLSU students on

hashtags revolves around the fact that they are not solely used fortagging

posts and/or categorizing tweets or photos. Instead, they have become a

way tomarket ones self -- for ones self.

References

Cruz, J. (2013, January 16). Slideshow: A snapshot of instagram usage

statistics in the philippines. Retrieved from http://jsncruz.com/

instagram-usage-statistics-philippines/

Dugan, L. (2011, July 22). Twitter 101: Why use hashtags?. Retrieved from

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-101-why-use-

hashtags_b2571

Howie, J. A. (2012, June 29). The meanings of instagram's top hashtags.

Retrieved from http://aptsonic.com/meanings-behind-instagrams-top-

hashtags/

Jackson, N. (2011, July 6). Infographic: Who is using twitter, how often, and

why?. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/

archive/2011/07/infographic-who-is-using-twitter-how-often-and-

why/241407/

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http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/infographic-who-is-using-twitter-how-often-and-why/241407/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/infographic-who-is-using-twitter-how-often-and-why/241407/http://aptsonic.com/meanings-behind-instagrams-top-hashtags/http://aptsonic.com/meanings-behind-instagrams-top-hashtags/http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-101-why-use-hashtags_b2571http://jsncruz.com/instagram-usage-statistics-philippines/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/infographic-who-is-using-twitter-how-often-and-why/241407/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/infographic-who-is-using-twitter-how-often-and-why/241407/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/infographic-who-is-using-twitter-how-often-and-why/241407/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/infographic-who-is-using-twitter-how-often-and-why/241407/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/infographic-who-is-using-twitter-how-often-and-why/241407/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/infographic-who-is-using-twitter-how-often-and-why/241407/http://aptsonic.com/meanings-behind-instagrams-top-hashtags/http://aptsonic.com/meanings-behind-instagrams-top-hashtags/http://aptsonic.com/meanings-behind-instagrams-top-hashtags/http://aptsonic.com/meanings-behind-instagrams-top-hashtags/http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-101-why-use-hashtags_b2571http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-101-why-use-hashtags_b2571http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-101-why-use-hashtags_b2571http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/twitter-101-why-use-hashtags_b2571http://jsncruz.com/instagram-usage-statistics-philippines/http://jsncruz.com/instagram-usage-statistics-philippines/http://jsncruz.com/instagram-usage-statistics-philippines/http://jsncruz.com/instagram-usage-statistics-philippines/


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Mitchell, J. (2012, May 17). What is the point of: Hashtags?. Retrieved from

http://readwrite.com/2012/05/17/what-is-the-point-of-hashtags

Murphy, P. (2012, November 29).Are hashtags actually a useful social media

engagement tool?. Retrieved from http://

www.business2community.com/social-media/are-hashtags-actually-a-

useful-social-media-engagement-tool-0344623

Steinbrueck, P. (2012, February 2). Instagram 3: The power ofhashtags.

Retrieved from http://empireav.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/

instagram-3-the-power-of-hashtags/

Systrom, K. (2013). Instagram press center. Retrieved from http://

instagram.com/press/

Titlow, J. P. (2013, January 25). Top 10 most popular tags on instagram.

Retrieved from http://readwrite.com/2013/01/25/top-10-most-

popular-instagram-tags

hashtag. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from

Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/

hashtag

Trends. (2012). Retrieved from https://2012.twitter.com/en/trends.html

The twitter hash tag: What is it and how doyou use it?. (2009, February

18). Retrieved from http://www.techforluddites.com/2009/02/the-

twitter-hash-tag-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-use-it.html

Appendix

Twitter & Instagram Survey

(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?

formkey=dDNhLXZPVXlQNHVvai15V2NRUGJaNHc6MQ#gid=0)

This survey is to help our research paper for ENGLRES, regarding the use of

hashtags on Twitter and Instagram. Please be reminded that only De La

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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNhLXZPVXlQNHVvai15V2NRUGJaNHc6MQ#gid=0https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNhLXZPVXlQNHVvai15V2NRUGJaNHc6MQ#gid=0https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNhLXZPVXlQNHVvai15V2NRUGJaNHc6MQ#gid=0https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNhLXZPVXlQNHVvai15V2NRUGJaNHc6MQ#gid=0https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNhLXZPVXlQNHVvai15V2NRUGJaNHc6MQ#gid=0http://www.techforluddites.com/2009/02/the-twitter-hash-tag-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-use-it.htmlhttp://www.techforluddites.com/2009/02/the-twitter-hash-tag-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-use-it.htmlhttp://www.techforluddites.com/2009/02/the-twitter-hash-tag-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-use-it.htmlhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hashtaghttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hashtaghttp://readwrite.com/2013/01/25/top-10-most-popular-instagram-tagshttp://instagram.com/press/http://empireav.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/instagram-3-the-power-of-hashtags/http://empireav.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/instagram-3-the-power-of-hashtags/http://empireav.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/instagram-3-the-power-of-hashtags/http://www.business2community.com/social-media/are-hashtags-actually-a-useful-social-media-engagement-tool-0344623http://www.business2community.com/social-media/are-hashtags-actually-a-useful-social-media-engagement-tool-0344623http://www.business2community.com/social-media/are-hashtags-actually-a-useful-social-media-engagement-tool-0344623https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNhLXZPVXlQNHVvai15V2NRUGJaNHc6MQ#gid=0https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNhLXZPVXlQNHVvai15V2NRUGJaNHc6MQ#gid=0https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNhLXZPVXlQNHVvai15V2NRUGJaNHc6MQ#gid=0https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNhLXZPVXlQNHVvai15V2NRUGJaNHc6MQ#gid=0http://www.techforluddites.com/2009/02/the-twitter-hash-tag-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-use-it.htmlhttp://www.techforluddites.com/2009/02/the-twitter-hash-tag-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-use-it.htmlhttp://www.techforluddites.com/2009/02/the-twitter-hash-tag-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-use-it.htmlhttp://www.techforluddites.com/2009/02/the-twitter-hash-tag-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-use-it.htmlhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hashtaghttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hashtaghttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hashtaghttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hashtaghttp://readwrite.com/2013/01/25/top-10-most-popular-instagram-tagshttp://readwrite.com/2013/01/25/top-10-most-popular-instagram-tagshttp://readwrite.com/2013/01/25/top-10-most-popular-instagram-tagshttp://readwrite.com/2013/01/25/top-10-most-popular-instagram-tagshttp://instagram.com/press/http://instagram.com/press/http://instagram.com/press/http://instagram.com/press/http://empireav.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/instagram-3-the-power-of-hashtags/http://empireav.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/instagram-3-the-power-of-hashtags/http://empireav.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/instagram-3-the-power-of-hashtags/http://empireav.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/instagram-3-the-power-of-hashtags/http://www.business2community.com/social-media/are-hashtags-actually-a-useful-social-media-engagement-tool-0344623http://www.business2community.com/social-media/are-hashtags-actually-a-useful-social-media-engagement-tool-0344623http://www.business2community.com/social-media/are-hashtags-actually-a-useful-social-media-engagement-tool-0344623http://www.business2community.com/social-media/are-hashtags-actually-a-useful-social-media-engagement-tool-0344623http://www.business2community.com/social-media/are-hashtags-actually-a-useful-social-media-engagement-tool-0344623http://www.business2community.com/social-media/are-hashtags-actually-a-useful-social-media-engagement-tool-0344623


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Salle University students that are Twitter and/or Instagram users will be

answering this survey. All answers will not be held liable to you and all

identities are kept completely anonymous.

* Required

College: *

COB

CLA

COS

COE

SOE

CCS

CED

Gender: *

Female

Male

Age: *

Year in ID Number: *

example: 109

How often do you use your Twitter / Instagram accounts? *

Everyday

Every other day

Every week

I don't use them often

Choose the best answer for what you believe is the definition of a

hashtag from the following: *

For adding 'tags' to objects in the post

For popularity (more likes and followers)

For trends (fashion #ootd)

For promotional reasons/marketing strategy

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Other:________________

In what kind of situations would you use hashtags? *

you may choose more than one option

For school (#MLS, #UnivWeek, #happythursday, #itsmorefuninDLSU)

For events (#Malasimbo, #Sinulog2013, #FistPump, #SHM)

For news / traffic (#MMDA, #Skyway, #MayorLim, #maypasokba)

For comedic purposes (#YOLO, #lasing, #whathappenedlastnight,

#conyoproblems)

For trends (#instagood, #ootd, #ootn, #10FactsAboutMe,

#ImTiredOfHearing)

For friends without Twitter/IG accounts (#name/s)

For the sake of doing it because everyone else uses hashtags

For more likes, comments and followers (#followme, #followback,

#5PeopleToFollow)

I don't use hashtags.

How many hashtags would you use on your posts? *

Very minimal, 1-3

Enough to tag related things to the post, 4-10

As many as I can think of, 20+

Do you think hashtags are useful? *

Yes

No

If Yes, which of the following reasons best describes why hashtags

are useful? *

Catches public attention regarding the latest trends

Updates people on the latest current events

Helps to market certain products / services / events

Gives people a new form of communication / connection (comedic

hashtags, like inside jokes)

*Choose this option if you answered No

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Which category do you think hashtags are the most visible? *

Hollywood

Music

News

Sports

Gossip

Trends

Comedic purposes

Events

In your opinion, do hashtags improve the experience of using

Twitter and Instagram? *

Yes

No

Why or why not? *

you can make this answer as brief as you like!

In your opinion, will people ever stop using hashtags? *

Yes

No

Why or why not? *

you can make this answer as brief as you like!

Would you agree that some people abuse hashtags for popularity? *

popularity like asking for likes/followers, etc.

YesNo

If you were to choose one hashtag that you believe is the most

popular/most used at the moment, what would it be? *

Popularity in #Hashtags

Documents

Transcript of Popularity in #Hashtags