#HashtagsHere #HashtagsThere #HashtagsEverywhere

A few weeks ago, a client asked me what the best practice is when it comes to using hashtags. After looking into how we’ve used hashtags at The Orchard and digging up some good examples I’ve witnessed, here are the key takeaways I’d like to share… 

#WhatIsAHashtag

The definition according to Twitter:

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

For example, “Headline acts announced for #Glastonbury2014.”

#HowToUseHashtags

No spaces should be used when writing/creating a hashtag. It doesn’t matter if your hashtag contains multiple words, you can still group them together. If you want to differentiate between words, use capitals instead, e.g. #RapGod. Uppercase letters will not alter the search results, so if you search for #RapGod you’ll get the same results as #rapgod.

Don’t overuse hashtags, use a maximum of two or three in your posts. Use too many and your followers may think you are spamming.

Try to keep the hashtag short, for example, you can shorten #TheMarshallMathersLP2 to #MMLP2.

You can define your hashtags by using directories like tagdef.com. In addition to giving your hashtag a definition and listing, tagdef also allows you to search for the meaning of existing tags like #oomf.

Numbers are supported e.g. #Glastonbury2014. However punctuation marks are not.

Hashtags can occur at the beginning, middle or end of your post.

#SupportingPlatforms

Some of the social media platforms that support hashtags include:

Twitter: Twitter is where the concept of the modern hashtag began. Twitter hashtags are mainly used to denote specific topics of conversation, the “Trends” sidebar of your Twitter feed curates a list of hashtags you might be interested in, based on your tweets. Clicking on a hashtag word in any message will show you all other tweets marked by that keyword.

Facebook: Facebook added hashtag support in June 2013. Hashtags on Facebook aren’t used as much as they are on Twitter. Nevertheless like Twitter, using hashtags on Facebook turns topics and phrases into clickable links in your post. When you click a hashtag, you’ll see a feed of posts that include that hashtag.

Instagram: Hashtags can be used to accompany photos shared on Instagram and help you discover new accounts and gain followers.

Vine: Hashtags on Vine are used to complement your videos to maximise sharability.

Google+: If you click on a hashtag in Google+, the search results will include the original hashtags as well as posts with similar tags and keywords.

Tumblr: Tumblr has a specific “Tag” section where you can add tags. These tags work in the same way as Twitter hashtags, organising post by topics, but the hash symbol is inserted automatically.

Pinterest: Pinterest hashtags can be used to mark and search for content.

… Continue Reading

Freeloader Friday: Reggie and the Full Effect, Ejecta, Rational Youth, Nancy Sinatra, Wanda Jackson, Joanna Gruesome, CYMBALS, Kenna, The Black Angels, Black Star Riders, Hebronix & My Midnight Heart

Freeloader Friday friends, brace yourselves. And maybe even pace yourselves. Because this week has more amazing free streams than I can handle (well, almost). So, I’ll be brief and let you get to the meat of it fast. Here are my quick words of introduction:

While you’re checking out the album from Reggie and the Full Effect on AltPress, I highly recommend reading this interview with James Dewees, the man behind the band.

Be warned that the artwork paired with Ejecta‘s full album stream is totally NSFW — but you can like, open it up in a new window, hit play, and minimize it super fast so you can still enjoy the awesome tunes.

Artoffact Records is about to unleash not one, not two, but three old school 1983 Rational Youth masterpieces, including two live albums and one ‘rarities’ one, which is streaming in full over at Slicing Up Eyeballs.

Get the first taste of Nancy Sinatra‘s first album in four years, and be prepared for something new and unusual from the woman behind “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” She may be taking on classics, but she’s worked them, baby.

Speaking of classics, Wanda Jackson takes on Jack White‘s “In The Cold, Cold Night” in a tribute album to the ever-awe-inspiring multi-talented musician. The stream is available below, and for kicks, you can check out this live 2011 performance with both Wanda and Jack on Letterman.

Go Indie-Pop with Joanne Gruesome‘s cover of Galaxie 500′s “Tugboat,” then Electro-Disco-Rock with CYMBALS and “Funk, R&B and sex” (Noisey’s words) with a Kenna remix featuring Childish Gambino.

Close with some visually stimulating videos, including a Clockwork Orange tribute from The Black Angels, some Classic Rock-gone-personal from Black Star Riders, action figures having the time of their lives in Hebronix‘s latest, and a badass anime vid from My Midnight Heart that’ll leave you wanting more.

Enjoy, my friends!

Reggie and the Full Effect: Full album stream via AltPress
No Country For Old Musicians out November 19 on Pure Noise Records

Ejecta: Full album stream via Pitchfork Advance
Dominae out November 19 on Driftless Recordings

Rational Youth: Full album stream via Slicing Up Eyeballs
Magic Box out November 19 on Artoffact Records

Nancy Sinatra: “Holly Holy” track premiere via USA Today
Shifting Gears out December 3 on Boots Enterprises

Wanda Jackson: “In The Cold, Cold Night” track premiere via Rolling Stone
Rockin’ Legends Pay Tribute to Jack White out November 19 on Cleopatra Records

Joanna Gruesome: “Tugboat (Galaxie 500 Cover)” track premiere on Pitchfork
Weird Sister out now Slumberland Records/Fortuna Pop!

CYMBALS: “Erosion” track premiere via Dummy
The Age of Fracture out January 27, 2014 on Tough Love Records

Kenna: “Relations (Remix feat. Childish Gambino)” track premiere via Noisey
Land 2 Air Chronicles II: Imitation Is Suicide – Chapter 1 out now on Dim Mak Records

The Black Angels: “Black Isn’t Black” music video premiere via Rolling Stone
Indigo Meadow out now on Blue Horizon

Black Star Riders: “Kingdom Of The Lost” music video premiere via Classic Rock Magazine
All Hell Breaks Loose out now on Nuclear Blast

Hebronix: “Bad Days” music video premiere via Stereogum
Heb-Hex out November 26 on ATP Recordings

My Midnight Heart: “Chest of Hearts” music video premiere via SPIN
Chest of Hearts EP out now on MNRCH

State Champs All About the Fans in New Hashtag-Driven Music Video

Pop-punk band State Champs recently unveiled a creative new video for the song “Simple Existence” off their debut album The Finer Things, which hit stores 10/15 on Pure Noise Records.

The video was deftly put together by Orchard intern Mark Ciampittiello using a mix of images from the band’s Instagram account and fan-submitted images and comments. The band launched the collaborative “contest” earlier this fall and asked fans to share their idea of #thefinerthings across all social media for a chance to have their images included in a video.

We used Tagboard to collect the submissions and included all of the best ones for the finished product. Check it out below!

If you like what you hear, catch State Champs on tour with Chunk! No Captain Chunk! and COUNTERPARTS.

Experience Def Leppard’s Hysteria On Repeat

For the “Rock Brigade,” “It Don’t Matter.” Def Leppard continues to go “On Through The Night,” saying “Hello America” and hello to the rest of the world.

If Def Leppard is not on the road, it is only to refuel for their next string of gigs. The legendary band played a series of shows in the U.K. through December of 2011 with Motley Crue and Steel Panther. A few months later, in the Summer of 2012, they were on the road with Lita Ford and Poison throughout the U.S. for over 40 dates. Most recently, Def Leppard played a residency at The Joint in Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to celebrate their hit album Hysteria. Fans had the opportunity to relive mega-hits such as “Love Bites,” “Animal” and “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” The “Viva! Hysteria” concert series ran from March 22nd to April 13th and was a huge success.

To commemorate the series, Def Leppard has released an exclusive live album/movie pack by the same name. The film was shot during one of the concert performances, and was screened in select theaters around the world. The whole thing is quite an experience, and to back it up, the record killed it on the charts, making it the band’s 16th charting album:

• #24 on the Billboard Top 200
• #24 on the Billboard Current Albums chart
• #3 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart
• #4 on the Billboard Hard Rock Albums chart
• #9 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart

Enjoy the show, my friends, and Viva! Hysteria.

Catch An Orchardite Or Two in “Covering Coven”

Who could have imagined that from the minds that brought us everyone’s favorite high school musical dramedy Glee was something far more twisted, terrifying and truly controversial? In 2011, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk introduced horror fans to an entirely new and progressive idea not really seen before on television as they dreamed up American Horror Story, now one of FX’s fan favorites.

In its first two seasons, the visually spellbinding anthology series covered everything from hauntings, alien abductions and brutally graphic murder depictions to touching on the more real and relatable issues of true American horror including teen violence and school shootings, suicide and self mutilation, adultery, drug addiction, homosexual discrimination, experimental torture, rape and mental illness among many others. Fast forward to this year where we head to New Orleans to explore an aspect of American folklore and reality — witches — as leading ladies take front and center and we are introduced to our Coven. With an all-star cast peppered with familiar faces in completely different roles including Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson joining the likes of new additions Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett, the fight between the power of witches and the ritual behind voodoo is captivating and not to be missed!

Now, we here at The Orchard have noticed a trend: with great television, there is now often a great recap series to accompany it. The Walking Dead has Talking Dead, Breaking Bad had Talking Bad, and now the newest season of FX’s American Horror Story: Coven, has Covering Coven. “The Recap” has come a long way since its meager beginnings of fans just blogging about their favorite shows purely because they wanted to. Now you have TV stations dedicating at least half an hour of precious airtime to a recap show and writers being paid to give us their opinion. And it’s not just the network television stations picking this up — YouTube is filled with fan-produced recap shows that generate quite the following.

Shock Till You Drop, a top horror web publisher, also took notice of this trend and has enlisted five women to do a weekly recap of Coven, including yours truly — along with Perri Nemiroff, Sasha Capelli, and Alexis Saarela. We must say, we were a bit skeptical when first asked to do this. Why would people care about our thoughts and theories on the show? Well, the numbers don’t lie. With the first episode in our series generating just over 1K views, it shows us that fans really do want to see if their theories match with ours, or if we can blow their minds with different insight into the show. Covering Coven also takes on a new approach to the recap show: a 5 person Google Hangout. So instead of having one person sitting in front of their webcam droning on and on about the show, our show is a conversation focused web series that runs 12-15 minutes max and hits all the juicy points in the show, as well as the subtleties that you may have missed when just watching it yourself.

There are 8 episodes left in this season, so it’s definitely not too late to start watching! Tune in to FX tonight and every Wednesday at 10pm EST to see what your favorite witches are up to, then look out for the latest episode of Covering Coven each Thursday afternoon on the Shock Till You Drop YouTube Channel.

If you still aren’t convinced that this show is for you, check out our first episode (massive spoiler alert!) and you just might change your mind:

- Megg Hochbaum and Allison Ullrich