While this feature might not be unique to Radian6 (it could also be attempted in Techrigy/SM2 and some of the other social media monitoring platforms) I find Radian6 better for this particular application.

Let’s say you want to know all the conversations happening around a subject like …… Social Media Week NYC

Here’s the extracted “hashtags” that were used  – I pulled them from the River of News Widget.

And look what happens when I pull the twitter conversation around a hashtag ..
Take #geekspazz…   RT @Mashable Next Week: Mashable NextUp NYC, The Future Journalist [Social Media Week] http://bit.ly/bIgPQz

Take #hazel2010 …  coincidence that @hazeliz birthday is the same day that social media week starts in NYC? I don’t think so.

Take #Sociability_Me …   Next Week: Mashable NextUp NYC, The Future Journalist [Social Media Week]: Less than 100 tickets re… http://bit.ly/bIgPQz #Sociability_Me

The value of this exercise – whatever meaning is associated to a hashtag – will be focused on the topic profile.  For example, if I monitor the SuperBowl this weekend – which I might do – and pull all the twitter conversations out from Radian6 – I can then see how the hashtags are used in relation to the Superbowl.

And the question is .. what does that do for me ?  Could be nothing – could be alot – because something about the hashtag puts context into the conversations – gives them meaning outside themselves and ties them to a larger meme.

Just a thought – now it really is time to go to bed – been up posting for almost 5 hours non-stop.

And here’s the spreadsheet if you want to play with this idea a little more – tell me how I might have improved it more … Twitter-Hashtag-Radian6 example – Social Media Week NYC