#BlogTitle #TwitterHashtags

If you've ever used Twitter then you've probably heard of hashtags. If you haven't, they're basically tags preceded with a # that you put in a Tweet. There are all different kinds of hashtags, if you can think of it then it's probably a hashtag. As for their purpose they have several but one of the main ones is to allow easy following of subjects or events by going to a hashtag's page where it lists all of the posts that use the particular hashtag. Hashtags are also used to find trends in Twitter activity by checking the most used hashtags, and therefore the most common topics of conversation.

Hashtags are actually a surprisingly good way of spreading something fast. Once a hashtag catches on it tends to circulate surprisingly quickly. Many companies have made use of this before as a powerful marketing tool. For example #MakeItCount was a hashtag used by Nike to spread its viral add campaign that encouraged athletes to "make it count" in 2012. This was extremely effective and is known as one of the greatest hashtag marketing campaigns so far.

Unfortunately hashtags can also backfire and become a PR nightmare. One of the funniest accidental hashtag fails was the one created to promote Susan Boyle's album party: #susanalbumparty. That's susan-album-party. It's so bad that it's hard to tell if it was intentional or not. The person creating the hashtag was clearly either one of the best or one of the worst PR people ever. Regardless, it managed to draw an incredible amount of attention and ended up achieving the initial aim of the hashtag by creating a lot of publicity for Susan's album party, even if the attention was not generated in the way originally intended. Another similar example of this kind of hashtag backfire is when the company Research in Motion posted job advertising tweets with the hashtag #RIMjobs.

Hashtags can also backfire in a different way. McDonald's seemed to think it would be a good idea to ask people to share fond memories of their fast food using the hashtag #mcdstories. Unfortunately they mostly ended up getting horror stories of bad service like old food and hair in burgers. Hashtags that backfire in this way are commonly known as bashtags and are almost always the product of a company with bad customer service attempting to get good PR from their (unfortunately unsatisfied) customers.

I suppose hashtags are like any powerful PR tool, they have great potential but also carry great risks. They have great versatility and can be used to spread both the important and the mundane, unfortunately it's usually the mundane. Such is the mentality of Twitter.


Sources and related links:
http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2012/11/5_twitter_hashtag_fails_susanalbumparty_waitrosereasons_childrenslaughterhouse.html
http://geniastevens.tumblr.com/post/49300855808/4-successful-hashtag-campaigns-marketers-should-read