When you use # before a word, it becomes a tool that helps everyone on Instagram, Twitter, Tumbler (and sometimes Facebook) find tweets and posts that use that same hash tagged word, even by people they don’t follow. They simply click on the hashtag to see all mentions of it. By using #NPDD and #purebreddogs in your posts on May 1, you enable all of us to find each other and admire your work. It also helps us “trend,” and all that “trending” means is that a topic has become very popular, and it’s what people are talking about.

The @ symbol is used to “tag” or notify someone that there’s a post or picture they should check out. If we were to post a picture of a Chow Chow, and wanted Martha Steward to see it, (because she’s a Chow Chow fancier) we might write, “Hey @marthastewart, check out this #chowchow picture of you!” The picture we used here, by the way, is from Martha Stewart’s Instagram page.