Wow! I thought G Plussers Knew This

Wow! I thought G Plussers Knew This
Automatic hashtags was one of the first things I learned when I first came to Google+.
Thanks to Kristin Drysdale for highlighting automatic hashtags!

#hashtags   #automatichashtags  

Originally shared by Rick Eliason

Tip 21/50: Enable Automatic Hash-tagging
Hashtags have a fascinating origin (http://bit.ly/19IQadN) and were most notoriously used on Twitter but have now migrated to Facebook and Google+ too... and for good reason. But did you know that Google+ automatically assigns hashtags to your posts to make them more findable?

Of course you can assign your own custom hashtags to your posts (which we will talk about in a moment) but by default, Google+ will add suitable hashtags. To ensure this feature is switched on simply go to your settings (click the drop-down menu on the left-hand side and click Settings), from here scroll down towards the bottom and make sure "_Add related hashtags from Google to my newly created posts_" is ticked. This will extract keywords from your post and turn them into searchable hashtags - but only if you have this feature switched on - else you will need to remember to create your own!

To see or remove automatically assigned hashtags, simply hover them (top-right of your newly published post) and click the X. To disable automatic hash-tagging, go back to your settings and untick the box. 

Ronnie Bincer has a great FAQ on Google+ hashtags here (https://plus.google.com/+RonnieBincer/posts/focQkGJGgg9) which I thoroughly recommend reading, but in essence hashtags have two main uses;

1. Findability - Hashtags allow people to find content and G+ posts easily by searching for common hashtags such as #googleplustips or #photooftheday . Authors can assign these "keywords" so that their content can be easily discovered within Google+. To find posts and content on your favourite subject simply search for themes/keywords within the search box immediately preceded by the # symbol (e.g. #surfing ). Try other hashtags or refine your search to find more suitable content.

2. Categorisation - Authors can group posts of a certain subject together by creating custom hashtags within posts. These can be anything you want them to be (for this G+ tips series I have used #googleplus50  - 50 G+ tips if you were wondering). This means that when a search is performed for that hashtag, the posts with that particular hashtag will be returned making it easy for others to find related content - in this case, the rest of the series. 

This is just one of many Google+ tips, you can find more tips like this from the #googleplus50 series here: http://www.rickeliason.com/things-to-do-on-google-plus/

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► If you want to expand on this with an additional point or idea, please comment below so others can learn from your awesomeness!

► Additionally, if you want to contribute tip I haven't yet covered in this series, please feel free to ping me and I will credit you if I use it!

#googleplus50 #googleplustips #googleplustip