Hashtag Nightmares

A hash tag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic(Dictionary.com). Hash tags have become a major part in almost every social media network, and it is even used by individuals occasionally to help express feelings. There are many personal reasons why people may use hash tags in their conversation, some of them being that they want their tweets to be seen by a larger amount of people not simply their followers. Hash tags are used not only by individuals on their personal accounts but are a large part of marketing and are used to advertise corporations,  and promote new products, and events.

Hash tags have made the world more connected and have made it easier for a community of people to become more connected. Having people so connected can of course be a positive thing, although with the positive effects of something this large, there are some negatives that come along with it.  Some say that any publicity is good publicity, but that may indeed not be the case. McDonalds recently launched a campaign that encouraged people on social media to hash tag #McDStories, this hash tag was meant to get people talking about McDonalds and sharing lovely stories and experiences that have come from visiting their restaurants. This new buzz about McDonalds got the world talking about their bad experiences at McDonalds, and the corporations publicity was mainly negative, and the new hash tag #McDHorrorStories actually became trending.

There is a lesson to be learned from McDonalds, although it is good to get people talking about your brand, if that talk is bad it can back fire big time and be a nightmare for a company. McDonalds has learned their lesson the hard way, hash tags need to be strategic and cannot give haters an easy way to bash the company. Hash tags must be specific and aimed at a certain group, to avoid the negative comments of those who disapprove of the brand. Hash tags may be an easy way to get people talking about a brand or event, but much research must be put into creating a successful hash tag. Research must be done to investigate what hash tags have been successful in the past for companies, and what hash tags have created negative publicity. Also hash tags must be creative, unique, and must also offer the customers some type of benefit that instills trust into the company. If McDonalds instead of allowing, and welcoming people to way whatever they felt about their company was aimed in a direction such as #ilovemcdbecause, or #mcdrocks, would have been much more successful and kept much of the negative publicity away.

Hash tags have become a major part of everyday life, in fact it would be difficult to go an entire day without seeing a hash tag somewhere. Along with every type of marketing strategy, there are risks that come along with using a hash tag to promote conversation but there are things that a company can do to avoid some detrimental mistakes such as the McDonalds hash tag nightmare.