Remington Begg
It's no secret that Twitter is a powerful tool for interacting with your fans and building relationships with current and future customers. One of the most popular features of Twitter is the hashtag, and many businesses have taken advantage of the hashtag in their marketing campaigns.
Although this sounds like an awesome way to get people to engage with your brand on social media, it's important to remember than it can go terribly wrong. Even with the best of intentions, marketing campaigns can blow up quickly. Hashtags can be hijacked, attempts at humor can backfire, and misusing a hashtag can invoke instant outrage.
We've put together a list of five businesses, government entities, and artists who experienced a major hashtag fail on Twitter and what your business can learn from their mistakes.
1. McDonald's – #McDStories
Back in 2012, McDonald's launched a Twitter campaign using two hashtags, #meetthefarmers and #McDStories. The first hashtag didn't really do much, but the second went viral – and not in the way McDonald's hoped. While McDonald's was probably hoping that people would share their heart-warming stories, what they got were people sharing horror stories instead. McDonald's "took down" the hashtag after two hours, but the damage was already done.
Marketing lesson: While #McDstories was a good idea in theory, it backfired in practice, mostly because the hashtag was too vague and naïve. People love to complain – especially on social media. If you're going to invite people to share their stories, just know that you're also inviting people to bash your brand.
2. Susan Boyle – #susanalbumparty
Another hashtag fail from 2012, the hashtag #susanalbumparty was created to promote the album party for Susan Boyle's new album, "Standing Ovation." Although the words "Susan Album Party" made sense for this sort of event, they read quite differently when crammed together in hashtag form. We're not going to spell it out for you, but you get the idea. Susan Boyle's team deleted the tweet, but not before it was retweeted multiple times.
Marketing lesson: When creating a tweet for your business or event, be mindful of how the phrase reads both with and without capitalization in order to make sure it doesn't have an unintended meaning when the capitalization is removed.
3. DiGiorno – #WhyIStayed
In 2014, a video surfaced of NFL running back Ray Rice assaulting his wife. Both men and women took to Twitter using the hashtag #WhyIStayed to start a conversation about why they chose to stay with an abusive partner in an effort to bring light issues surrounding domestic abuse. Unfortunately, DiGiorno Pizza didn't seem to get the memo and posted the tweet below.
Needless to say, people were furious and even offended by DiGiorno's tweet. People were appalled that the company was using such a serious situation to advertise their pizza. DiGiorno quickly apologized and said they didn't read what the hashtag was before posting, but by that point, most people didn't seem to care.
Marketing lesson: Before using a hashtag generated by someone else – especially one that's trending – make sure you look into why that hashtag was created and how it's being used.
4. Celeb Boutique – #Aurora
It seems that 2012 was a bad year for brands on Twitter. In July of that year, a gunman open fired at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and injuring 50+ others. The shootings generated widespread coverage, and many people took to Twitter to share their firsthand accounts of the shooting using the hashtag #Aurora.
Celeb Boutique, an online store based in the United Kingdom, wasn't aware of the situation happening overseas and posted this tweet using the hashtag #Aurora:
They tweeted an apology claiming that they didn't know what the Twitter hashtag was about since they're not based in the United States. But, did people really buy the apology? It's unlikely.
Marketing lesson:The lesson here is pretty similar to the lesson from DiGiorno's #WhyIStayed incident. Do your research, and never make excuses for why you made a mistake.
5. NYPD – #myNYPD
In 2014, the New York Police Department (NYPD) asked Twitter users to post personal photos with NYPD officers. Sounds harmless enough, right? For a while, it worked pretty well – until people starting filling the hashtag with photos of alleged police brutality.
Marketing lesson: Be careful what you ask for. Even the best intentions can backfire on you. Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst. And most of all, know how you're going to respond if things don't go the way you planned.
Hashtags can be incredibly valuable for businesses that do it right, but they can be detrimental if you're not careful. Just ask any of the businesses above. Learn from their mistakes, and you'll be well on your way to using and creating remarkable hashtags for your brand.
