The story of the #svpt hash tag
Photo: imapix
Twitter use among Swedes has exploded during the first weeks of the new year. I don't think anyone could name a single reason for the sudden increase, but a likely combo of reasons is Obama's campaigning, old media coverage of Twitter's importance during events such as the Mumbai attacks and a general maturing of the Swedish social mediasphere.
A fourth reason may be the hashtag #svpt (an acronym for "svenskar på Twitter" = "Swedes on Twitter"), instigated by Billy McCormac. A lot of people have found the hashtag useful to promote themselves and to find fellow Swedes to follow, and it has probably meant an easy way to quickly find a lot of interesting people.
Lately, however, hundreds of tweets every day have been marked with #svpt, making it hard to use. This has lead to several tweeters discussing the hashtag's terms of use. Should it be in Swedish or any language? When should you use it?
My personal view is that #svpt could be used in any language, and that it should be used as a way of saying "hello, here I am, fellow Swedish tweeters", rather than something you mark every single tweet with. I think the hashtag loses its purpose if it is over used.
I am certain there are other opinions on this issue, so please let me hear yours in the comments on how this (and other hashtags) should be used.
Oh, and do follow me on Twitter: @oahnve.
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Comments to this article
I also thought the idea of #svpt was to "show yourself". Don't really now what kind of tweets that would apply as suitable for the #svpt-crowd and not suitable. For me it feels strange writing in Swedish all of the sudden since I mostly have non-Swedish followers. The language should not be the issue but why you should use it. I'm guessing it's to get more followers.
Thanks for your thoughts, Linda! Will definitely check out #ULRNM.
I think also the use of hashtags is really new to big parts of the Swedish twittersphere, and in due time people will see the reason why their topic specific posts should be tagged with different hashtags than the very general #svpt.The hashtag is new as you mention, even though people should recognise the use of # from Jaiku's channels
I think it will be a "show yourself" tag at least in this initial stage of SVPT usage expansion. People might probably even stop using it since we become too many, don't you think? Depends on how strong twitter will be vs. bloggy and Jaiku (wever will happen with the latter?)
More hashtags will come with more users.
Agree with @Lindapierre that language doesn't matteroh, and here I am on twitter: @mstrass
Continued discussions on Twitter have shown that there are indeed different opinions on what #svpt is for.
One way of using it is as a snapshot of what Swedish twitterers are saying at the moment.
Another point made is that the terms of use will develop itself according to what the community. I agree completely with this but still think it is interesting discussing the subject.Hej,
In my specific case I'm not a swede, but I'm moving there this year, so I've been recommended by a friend from Malmo to follow and interact with #svpt in order to make more connections and make my way back into Sweden easier. Either if it's just to say HI or publish Swedish related thoughts, I think it's useful. Of course I get very lost when the tweets are mainly in swedish, but I'm also trying to learn the language, so which better way? I've been called a spammer, though, once I posted 3 times, in different hours - trying to reach other readers- a suggestion for connecting on my Linkedin. So I've been a bit lost on how Swedes using #svpt actually look at me in this whole thing and to upcoming immigrants who are interested in Swedish culture.Thanks for your comment, Maisa! Interesting to hear your experience. I think though that the comment doesn't represent the Swedish twittersphere.
#svpt is completely unstructured at the moment due to the large amount new tweetizens using it for different reasons, and I think you should give it another shot connecting with Swedes :).
There are many different ways to use hashtags, I'm actually writing an article about it right now for the next issue of Urban Lifestyle Report - New Media. :) We decided to try some "hashtagging" ourselves and created #ULRNM if you want to suggest what we should write about. That's another way to use hashtags. Also of course, follow me on Twitter @lindapierre