Everyone loves social media (well maybe not all of you, but enough of you!), but one of the most common complaints is "I don't know what to post!"
Sure, you can post about that amazing bowl of oatmeal you just ate. Who doesn't want to tap into your hands-on knowledge that 'raisins, not the brown sugar, really make the oatmeal *a meal*!'
But after you've posted about your oatmeal, now what? It's 3-4 hours before you eat again. You can't wait that long to engage with your friends and followers.
This is where Hashtag Games come into play.
Hashtag games are the greatest things you probably didn't even realize are 'a thing.'
Hashtag games are live events that take place on Twitter, created by individuals who want to share their hashtag with the world. People drop their hashtags on Twitter and the fun begins!
Think of the hashtag as the premise/topic. It is a call to action, and a challenge to add your creative idea to that hashtag. Hashtag games generate 1,000s of tweets (sometimes 10's of thousands) focused on that topic.
It's an amazing experience. The beautiful part is you don't need to have a huge following to get tons of retweets and favorites. Players of the game search the hashtag to keep up with the funny and thus you're exposed to a whole community of people playing the same game as you.
For example, #ScaryVacationStories was a game created by @BreezyPuffs for her Hashtag Shenanigans weekly game that set the tone for participants to share a scary vacation story.
The beauty of the premise and the tag is that you can interpret it however you wish. You could have shared an actual experience, or as @robind1208 did above she pulled in a popular cultural reference for her tweet.
Every Sunday @HashFakeFacts challenges their followers to just make stuff up. How fun is that? It's the perfect opportunity if you know nothing to finally excel. For #NationalParentDay they challenged Twitter to come up with #FakeParentFacts.
@shelikesitloud and @smileybridge are both hilarious tweeters - just don't take parenting advice from them! As you can see, making up fake stuff is fun, just don't make up stuff about James Woods and you'll be fine.
Hashtag games can also give you an outlet to comment on current events. @MrTommyCampbell recently created and co-hosted with @SinCityChiGirl the very popular #WhenTrumpIsElected. They challenged their followers to imagine a world with Donald Trump as president. The results were spectacular.
Hashtag games are played throughout the day, everyday. @TheHashtagGame is a great resource for hot hashtag games as they happen.
Checkout hashtag games, they are so much fun to play and I guarantee you'll be making excuses to sneak away to the bathroom just so you can send that perfect tweet during work hours.
Jeff Dwoskin is a professional comedian, avid tweeter, and co-founder of Hashtag Roundup
Follow Jeff Dwoskin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bigmacher