I am not one to be easily discouraged or defeated and so I am continuing my campaign to get Livingston, Montana to utilize Twitter and all that it has to offer! Last year we tried out the hashtag #livingstonroundup and did get a little action going around the festivities. This year, I have been working with the wonderful organization Western Sustainability Exchange. They are the people who bring us amazing Farmers Markets every Wednesday throughout the summer. To help them get the word out about the Farmers Market and also to help all of us who enjoy the market keep each other informed, we are going to start using the hashtag #livingstonfarmersmarket.

For those of you who are not familiar with hashtags, here is an explanation of them direct from the source, Twitter.

Twitter says…

Definition: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

Using hashtags to categorizing Tweets by keyword:

• People use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search.
• Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets marked with that keyword..
• Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end.
• Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

This was taken directly from the Twitter.com help center. Click here to read the rest of the article.

How do you apply this to your life and help out Western Sustainability Exchange? If you have a Twitter account and you attend the Livingston Farmers Market, start tweeting about what you see going on there. Tell the rest of us what band is playing, what food is available, what amazing handmade items you have found. And in those tweets use the hashtag #livingstonfarmersmarket. Or do a search for the hashtag on Twitter and you will see what everyone else in Livingston is tweeting about this week’s market. Help spread the word and we’ll see you at the Farmers Market!