Are hashtags worth the effort?

I’m not hash tagging anything anymore. Half the time when I do so on instagram it fails to post the comment and I’m left with a #silentsunday post, leaving the reader to guess what the picture is all about, so I stopped doing that and instead joined in with #mysundayphoto with Darren @onedad3girls where words are permitted. Now you’ll notice I’ve included 2 hashtags in the opening paragraph after stating I won’t be using them anymore, but what I’m referring to is the random hashtags such as #travel, #traveltuesday #ttot and various other ones #teens #teenagers and the twitter parties sponsored by various companies usually led by a mums group or a company promoting their products.

Why? Because rarely anything comes of it, I write travel blogs, holidays with teens, solo travel, parenting tips, volunteering and charity work, I hashtag, I link up, I RT others, I interact, I engage and then there’s a monthly round up or an analysis of the twitter party, Do I get mentioned? Does anyone RT me? Does anyone link back to my blog post? Ha, rarely, if ever.

Other than #mysundayphoto, hashtags don’t actually work for me. I can follow a conversation, see RT’s from others and interact and engage with individuals without having to promote mums groups, companies or products. If I’m interested in a subject I see hashtagged, I rarely click on the hashtag to find out what other people are saying about it, I’ll google the subject and check the official news sites anyway as I want facts, rarely opinions, although I have plenty to give.

So from now on the only hashtags you’ll see from me are ones where I’ve asked to be involved, ones where I want to promote the work of others such as #SSB2014 the Santa Shoebox project that I’m a coordinator for or if I’ve entered a competition for where a hashtag forms part of the rules and any campaigns I'm involved with such as SAB18Plus.