About This Document
This document summarises the ways in which hashtags can be used and encourages Morris Federation sides to provide their side’s hashtag in their profile in the Teamfinder service as well as using hashtags to help others find media resources and discussions about traditional dance.
What is a Hashtag?
A dictionary definition for ‘hashtag’ is “a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign (#), used on social media websites and applications to identify digital content on a specific topic.“
Example of Hashtag Usage: Finding a Side
Figure 1 provides an example of a hashtag based on a side’s name – in this case Haymarket Rapper use the (obvious) hashtag #haymarketrapper
Google ranks results using many signals, including relevance to the query, the content and context of the page, links between pages, quality and other factors. Links remain one signal, but Google’s ranking is not simply a measure of a site’s popularity.
Developments in Google Search, including increasingly sophisticated natural-language and AI-based systems, mean that Google is much better at finding relevant information from ordinary natural-language queries. For example “Find details of Haymarket Rapper”. Although Google recent developments in discovery (especially since the release of Google Gemini) mean that hashtags are not as important as they used to be hashtags are still relevant for discovery in many social media services and can also be useful in Google for search terms which are ambiguous.
Hashtags remain useful labels for teams, dance traditions, events and campaigns, particularly on social media. They can also form part of the indexed text available to search and AI systems. However, they are only one signal: clear names, descriptions, captions, surrounding text, links and other contextual information are normally more important for discovery.
How Hashtags Can be Used
This document summarises two main uses for hashtags: (1) finding information about a (known) side and (2) helping people find resources when searching or browsing.
1A. Find (managed) information for a side
You want people (especially potential new recruits and those looking for a morris side for their event!) to be able to easily find up-to-date information about your side, including photos and videos. So you’ll need to make use of a highly ranked website for which you can update the information and add media resources.
You’ll want this resources to be ranked higher than any out-of-date information sources (e.g. an old website you can no longer update or a profile on a festival website which is not updated); social media sharing service (which may only host small number of photos and videos of your side but or contact details) or popular social networking services such as Facebook or X/Twitter (as you know that some people have reservations about such services and won’t use them).
The Morris Federation’s Teamfinder service can provide a robust solution as:
- Teamfinder pages may rank highly in relevant Google searches, although rankings vary by query, page and other factors and Google’s ranking systems change over time.
- You can manage the information you provide.
- You can add photographs and videos of your side (and as the morris and traditional dance tradition is primarily a visual experience, you should really make use of this feature!)
You do not need anyone’s permission before adding a hashtag to your profile but it is suggested that you check that your hashtag does not conflict with other uses (e.g. the names Old Speckled Hen and Loose Women are used by a brewery and a TV series) so it may be advisable to include descriptions such as ‘morris’, ‘border’, ‘sword’, etc. in your hashtag.
1B. Aggregate discussions and resources about a side
If people (including your side members) have taken photos or videos of your side they will often share these media resources on service such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, etc. You may find that variants of your side’s preferred hashtag are used, so finding what people have said about your side and the photos and videos they have taken may be time-consuming. However if you promote your hashtag it may become more widely adopted.
2A. Find resources for a topic
As well as finding out about your side, people may post resources about the more general topic of morris dancing, sword dancing or whatever – especially if they don’t know the name of sides they’ve seen. People may also search or browse for more general descriptions such as ‘morris dancing’, ‘rapper sword’ or ‘border morris’, while hashtags such as #morrisdancing, #rappersword and #bordermorris can be useful labels, particularly within social-media services.
Note suitable hashtags for rapper sword highlight limitations of hashtags as #rappersword appears to be popular for images about rappers words (rapper as in ‘a person who performs rap music’.
When posting resources about your side it is therefore suggested that you include a suitable descriptive hashtag as well as your side’s hashtag.
2B. Serendipitous discovery or use for emphasis, as a joke, etc
In addition to using hashtags for your side’s name and descriptions of what you’re doing and where you’re doing it, hashtags can also be used in other ways and may provide scope for creativity.
As an example, a prize-winning rapper sword dance performed at the DERT competition could be described as:
The #oldblacksallykingsportmen #spectacular #prizewinning #rapperswordance at #dert
But dropped swords at the same event could be described in an ironical fashion:
The #oldblacksallykingsportmen #spectacular #rapper dance featured the largest number of #dropped swords #ever
For services such as #TikTok use of hashtags is particularly prevalent. For example the TikTok video by @Tommy.Bassett includes the following hashtags (note the ability to follow links to related TikTok videos is available by clicking on the links below:
#morrisdancing #abbotsbromley #creepy #thaxted #spooky #violin
Here #violin provides additional factual description of a dance performed to a solo violin and #creepy and #spooky depicts the atmosphere.
Conclusions
In 2022 when this document was published we gave the following advice:
If you use Google to search for #NorthgateRapper, #HaymarketRapper, #WyldMorris, #RivingtonMorris, #MisfitMolly, #EborMorris, #BlackhorseandStandardNWMorris, #ShrewsMmorris or #NewcastleKingsmen you should find the side’s Teamfinder profile, normally at the top of the search results. This suggests that as part of your side’s recruitment and marketing activities updating your Teamfinder profile so that it contains a hashtag for your side should be a priority, alongside updating your description and adding photographs and videos.
However, by 2026 Google Search and other discovery services make much greater use of natural-language and AI-based systems to understand words, concepts and context. Users therefore do not normally need to search using hashtags to find relevant content.
Hashtags remain useful for discovery on many social-media services and can also form part of the textual information indexed and analysed by search systems. They should therefore be regarded as useful labels rather than as special instructions to Google. Clear names, descriptions, captions, surrounding text and other contextual information will normally provide stronger signals about the meaning of the content.
As an example of the value of using hashtags in searches consider their use hashtags for finding sides which have taken part in small campaigns or one-off events such as
- Find molly dance teams featured in #MorrsFed50
- Find rapper sword dance teams which support #MorrisForAll
We welcome feedback on this document. In addition we would like to hear from morris, sword and other traditional dance sides who use IT and would be willing to share their experiences. Would you like to contribute a case study?
Status of this Document
Document published: 23 Aug 2022
Updated: 4 Sep 2026 to reflect enhancing searching provided by Google Gemini
Licence for this Document
This document is available with a Creative Commons Sharealike (CC-BY) licence. In brief, this means you can copy and make changes to this document provided you give acknowledgements to the author/publisher. A suggested wording for acknowledgements is:
This document is based on the "Guide to Using Hashtags for Morris Sides" document by Brian Kelly, Comms and IT volunteer with the Morris Federation.
#MorrisFedITResources #MFITResources
