Several folks who regularly visit The Terminal also keep track of what we say via our Twitter profile. They may notice that we use #bham to highlight those tweets that we think will be of interest to people here in Birmingham, AL. The thing is, all of us who use the hashtag are part of a much larger online family – a virtual secret handshake that may just help connect us with folks we wouldn’t normally think about.
Besides those here in central Alabama, #bham is also used by Birmingham, MI; Bellingham, WA; and some portions of Birmingham, UK. That last one is most interesting as while many there have turned to #brum instead, Wikipedia decided to make a decision on the issue themselves.
Some have turned to #bhm as an alternative, one that makes a great deal of sense considering the its the city’s official IATA airport code and our NPR affiliate’s call letters. It’s also (among other things) the rail code for Birmingham, England’s New Street Station (leading to a lot of tweets including it during their morning and evening rush), Black History Month, the initials used to reference journalist Bambang Harymurti.
Just don’t be surprised by who responds to you when using these tags – and where they’re from.
Screenshot from hashtags.org
