A big part of what we do at Swift is interpretation. Not necessarily from one language to another; rather, we distill and craft brand language for a variety of media channels—the most challenging of which is Twitter.

You see, Twitter is kind of like Project Runway for writers. Picture Tim Gunn explaining that your mission is to explain a brand new, groundbreaking, innovative, fabulous, trust-us-it’s-life-changing product…in, oh, 140 characters or less. Not 140 words. Characters. Luckily, Swift staff writers love a good challenge; we’re all about the putting the proverbial puzzle pieces into place. Brevity is a good thing. As Shakespeare said, it’s the soul of wit.

But here’s a neat sociological side effect: For example, the hashtag: what was once a way to catalogue a trend or word for searchability has actually infiltrated the Swift water cooler conversation. For brands, hashtags are a great way to assign a tagline to campaigns. For people, they’re a handy way to serve up a punchline—somehow, #somethingwrittenalltogether takes on a certain hilarity. Plus, it easily translates into conversation. Witness:

LAURA: Hey SG, how was your weekend?

SG: I ran four miles. And fell. Hashtag FAIL.

We’ve even created a hand signal to go along with it—think air quotes but better. Here’s how it works: make a peace sign. Swipe the two fingers down, then across, as though you’re drawing a hashtag. This can be demonstrated while saying “hashtag,” or live on its own…it’s up to you.

#hashtagsarefun

#wethinkwearetotallyfunny

#welovewhatwedo