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, Manilatara.delrosario@dlsu.edu.ph
bCollege of Computer Science, BS - Information Systems
De La Salle University, Manila
erika.mariano@dlsu.edu.ph
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
mailto:shirley.dita@dlsu.edu.phmailto:shirley.dita@dlsu.edu.phmailto:shirley.dita@dlsu.edu.phmailto:shirley.dita@dlsu.edu.phmailto:shirley.dita@dlsu.edu.phmailto:shirley.dita@dlsu.edu.ph -
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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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-, 76+,?
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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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3.2.3 Related Studies
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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$%
!&
'&'%
(
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%(
#(
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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.
3.3.2 Related Studies
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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*+
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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
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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.
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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? *
top related