Who would have thought that we’d have a “controversy” over the Twitter hashtag for the Cattle Industry Convention? Really? Well, it might not be a full blown controversy but it’s at least interesting. The official hashtag is #CIC12. Makes sense. The CIC is not just one organization. You’ve got the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the American National CattleWomen (ANCW) and Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB). To create a hashtag that only highlights one of them doesn’t seem fair and isn’t really descriptive of the event itself. I’m hoping it’s not being done to irritate or exclude the other organizations that participate in this industry event.

But apparently a number of folks are using #NCBA12 and have been questioning the decision to have the official hashtag be #CIC12. If I remember correctly, the NCBA letters may have been used in a previous convention. But that was then. We’re talking about now. A time when we’re seeing much needed unity within the industry and these organizations. So let’s use #CIC12. Okay.

The beauty and sometimes frustration of the web is that we’re all free to do what we want though. So you can use whatever hashtag you want. I’ll be following #CIC12 though and would recommend you do too.