The Tale of Two Hashtag Fails
Provided below are two examples of social media campaign fails that unfolded before millions of people’s eyes given the wide reach of audiences on social media today. While traditional marketing efforts allow you to control the message through one-way communications, social media creates a dynamic and two-way conversation from one to many, which can quickly spiral out of control. For this reason, before launching a social media campaign, the creator should think about the potential unforeseen consequences (e.g., hashtag hijacking or trolling or simply viewer backlashes from different groups).
1. #myNYPD
During difficult times for the New York Police Department, their Public Relations firm decided it was a good idea to launch a new campaign with the hashtag #myNYPD to showcase photos of civilians with police officers.
The NYPD and their PR firm anticipated positive sentiments that the majority of people would share to prove that the police are not faceless overlords, but rather individuals that are a part of the community. However, the timing and audience assessment conducted (if it was conducted at all) could not have been worse. The NYPD was facing heavy accusations of police brutality and civilian/police relations were not very positive in public opinion. The topic itself had become very divisive, so most people were pro- or anti-police with very little middle ground. This created an audience environment that was ripe to use this hashtag as a platform to promote their message. As psychology tells us, negative messages often resonate and are remembered for longer than positive messages, so anti-police photos and messages were sent in by the hundreds.
What started out as an idea to help save face for the NYPD during rough public relations times, turned into a platform for their opposition to use to rally together in their disapproval. This could have potentially been prevented by pressure testing this idea various different police officers and citizens of NYC. I believe upon talking to a police officer about the general sentiment that they heard about themselves and the number of photos taken of them from camera phones on a daily basis would have proven that this hashtag could take a turn for the worst.
2. #PricelessSurprises
MasterCard’s PR firm developed a campaign for the MasterCard focused on the hashtag #PricelessSurprises, which asked journalists to use the hashtag in order to gain access to cover the Brit Awards, since MasterCard was the major sponsor. Clear and distinct guidelines were given to the journalists, but this severely backfired on MasterCard.
By crafting the type of messaging that MasterCard wanted its audience to send, it felt inauthentic and led to a backlash. Not to mention that any primary audience analysis with journalists should have determined that trying to limit or tailor what they are going to say is a risky proposition, since they stand for freedom of speech and could easily create a large dissatisfaction for your campaign given their large reach to secondary and tertiary audiences.
The hashtag itself even lends itself to some “surprise” tweets or messages!
