Those who follow @GlobeStcom on Twitter (and if you don't, what are you waiting for?) may notice that a lot of messages include #CRE at the end. This marks them, obviously, as commercial real estate-related. Depending on the Tweet, it can be advantageous to add a second tag, such as #multifamily, #NYC or #distressed. This inclusion anticipates who may be searching for specific messages and hopefully brings the right messages more directly to the right Twitter user. At RealShare, all tweets from the conference included #apte12. Individuals present who were directly tweeting had the opportunity to mark their messages with this tag. Others who wanted to follow the discussions could search for this particular "#" and see real-time updates on panels, scheduling and anything else that conference attendees wished to share.

So how can professionals utilize hashtags to their advantage? Why would anyone in commercial real estate be interested? One answer comes directly from RealShare and the use of "#apte12". Anyone unable to attend a specific event can look and see if organizers chose a special hashtag to provide real-time updates as to the action. This also happened with the recent MBA CREF conference. "#CREF12" was the associated hashtag to the proceedings. Twitter users hoping to relay information from the talks, or even mark articles and coverage could then use the special tag.

In other words, when it’s not possible to travel to each event, there’s no reason why you still can’t glean a strong sense of the experience from Twitter by following remotely (as unlikely to some as that may seem).

It's interesting, really, how a simple "#" can suddenly acquire the potential for influence and power when used just the right way.

If you use Twitter, how do you select hashtags? Have you ever followed an event remotely after learning of a particular “#” and associated phrase?