Follow the hashtags on Twitter

Last night during the GOP debates I was reminded just how great the hashtag (#) subject feeds are on Twitter. There are a lot of different ways to use Twitter for reading and broadcasting tweets. Everyone has their favorites, weather you are on your computer, laptop, iPad, or smart phone. Here is the Tipb blog’s Top 5 Twitter app alternatives for iPhones. I use the Echofon on my iPhone. Here is ZDNet’s Top 7 Android Twitter apps. Here is Wicked Sago’s picks for the Top 5 best Twitter apps for your iPad. Do you want to expand your profile, schedule your tweets, tweet in different languages, or take a quick glance at your 2500 friends at once? Try these 5 recommendations from Geeks. I don’t have 2500 friends yet but I do like the Twitter for Busy People.

I find the hardest thing on Twitter is actually following a conversation or always feeling like I am missing half of the conversation. Your Twitter feed only shows what the people you follow are tweeting. You see tweets from those you don’t follow if someone retweets (RT) from their feeds. So that’s why I like the hashtag (#) feeds so much. It is like a community in itself and you don’t have to be following anyone. It pulls together everyone talking about the same thing. Just add the hashtag to your tweets and you are included too. And once you hangout in a hashtag, you will find some natural leaders there too.

There are plenty of health care hashtags to check out, here is a list of the tags and their definitions and a Twitter account for the Healthcare Hashtag Project. And here are my picks for top 5 hashtags that I like to hangout in.

1. #EHR – Electronic Health Records
   See the details and analytics.
2. #HITPOL – Health Information Technology Policy
   See the details and analytics.
3. #HEALTHiT – Health Information Technology
   See the details and analytics.
4. #MEANINGFULuSE – Meaningful Use, HITECH
   See the details and analytics.
5. #ONC – Office of the National Coordinator
   See the details and analytics.