Pope Benedict XVI began tweeting in December 2012
I am relatively new to Twitter, a microblogging social network site. In plain English, that means you have 160 characters in which to say, or tweet, what’s on your mind. Pope Benedict joined Twitter in December 2012 and has since been regularly tweeting questions, thoughts, messages of encouragement and prayers to his 1 500 000 followers, and anyone else who searches for Pope Benedict or @Pontifex, as he is known on Twitter.
Since joining Twitter, I have come across two symbols, which are widely used. Firstly, the ‘@’ symbol is used to call out a username, when recognising people in re-tweets and messages referring to them.
Shout out to Pope Benedict by using @Pontifex in your tweet
Another commonly used symbol is the hashtag, the ‘#’ symbol. This is used before a keyword or phrase in order to categorise a tweet and help it appear in a search. Popular hashtagged words and phrases become trending topics, appearing in the sidebar as a window of what people are tweeting about at that moment. As I type this, the Dublin trends are #Grammys, #BAFTAS and #6Nations.
One thing that puzzled me was the question of which hashtags to use when I tweet. Where can I find a list of ‘Catholic hastags’? I never found one, but, for newbie Catholic Tweeters, I have compiled my list below!
Using a few hashtags where appropriate will mean that your tweet appears in a search and, if enough people use a hashtag at one time (e.g. an event such as Vigil4life), the hashtag show up in the sidebar of Twitter in that country as a popular topic of conversation.
In his message for the 47th World Communications Day, Pope Benedict said
The ability to employ the new languages is required, not just to keep up with the times, but precisely in order to enable the infinite richness of the Gospel to find forms of expression capable of reaching the minds and hearts of all.
One simple way we can do this is by making our tweets identifiable to those who are searching.
Below is a list of the Catholic hashtags I have come across the most. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Please feel free to chip in with any that I have missed out!
General
#Advent, #Bible, #Catholic, #CathYM, #Christian, #Christmas, #Church, #Cross, #Easter, #Eucharist, #Faith, #Feastday, #Lent,
#Resurrection, #Truth, #YearofFaith
Prayer
#Adoration, #BlesstheLord, #ComeHolySpirit, #DeoGratias, #Prayer, #PrayForPope, #PrayForUs, #Rosary, #Stormheaven
Prolife
#40daysforlife, #Marchforlife2013, #Prolife, #Prolifearmy, #Vigil4Life
Evangelisation
#Evangelisation, #Evangelization, #Knowwhatyoubelieve, #Newevangelisation,
Marriage
#Marriage, #Onemanonewoman
People
#Christ, #God, #HolySpirit, #Jesus, #Mary, #Saints, #Trinity
Misc
#CathMedia, #Excited, #Thingscatholicgirlssay
Catholicism Rocks 