Instagramming has certainly taken off, especially for those of us with a love for capturing images to tell a story. Instagram say ”It’s a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your photos with friends and family. Snap a picture, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram.” So, we do. Sometimes with purpose, or mission.

In this instance, the Texan Allen R. Bussell, decided to visit Adelaide for many reasons, foremost, we have known each other since social media began, ie a long time. My first memories of Allen are from Plurk and his well-known user name of @nthused.

Geographic locations no longer stop us from generating connections. They simply enhance what we already do as humans – interact and engage. The most prolific of us communicators seek out alternate ways to do so when we can’t always “be out” in person. We talk, share, laugh and chatter online.

Allen took the brave move to come for a 2 week holiday and visit those people he had connected with. We planned and visited as many of Adelaide’s leading tourist type locations as we could jam in and also a few hidden “in the know” ones as well. Of course he’d made a heap of Adelaide friends online, – including Richard Pascoe of Adelaide Tech Guy fame and on-air presenter from his favourite Adelaide radio station, 5AA. He listens to 5AA online at Midnight (I know – go figure). He explained it helped him with the aussie ways, slang and language. So, he gets an interesting side of our life here. Interesting that we have a Texan listening to our radio via online (and yes, there’s a whole story just in that too).

Both being onliners meant we shared many funny moments, completely in-sync. Mainly, everywhere we went we have to “check in” and/or then “instagram”. Of course every moment was captured immediately through instagram and the new tourist hashtags were born; in particular the #texantouristguy.

You have most likely seen #hashtags used everywhere these days. Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and many other social sites use hashtags to create instant connections with other users through these words. Some words are simple and make sense ie #unearthing, while others have grown and started their own following and popularity, such as #foodporn and #cloudporn on Instagram.

• People use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) to categorize.
• Clicking on a hashtagged word in a social media message on Instagram, Twitter etc, shows you all others marked with that keyword. Its an easy search function.

Hashtags are also used to crowd-source information, create excitement, inspire conversations, and share knowledge and resources to a broader audience. So, when we consider an online strategy for example, we think about how the hashtag will serve or help, and, what the intention is behind using the hashtag. In the instance of the Unearthing Ideas daily word challenge for example, it was to inspire creative thinking. In the instance of the Port Mall Shopping Centre Market Days, it was to collate the group of photos for easier processing at the end of the day as much as promotion /awareness!

For our #texantouristguy, it was merely to have fun and collect a set of photographs. Some are included below… but to enjoy the full results via statigram, click here: http://statigr.am/viewer.php#/search/#texantouristguy

It was a fun journey.

 

[originally posted on http://www.unearthing.com.au]