Contributed Article: Is the #hashtag dead for marketers?
It's been awhile. Bad blogger. Here are some words I penned for
on the venerable #tag. I was tasked with creating as case for its demise. While I feel there's still room for the properly applied #tag, the task was to come out on the negative.
My full article is
, which also includes a pro-hashtag counterpoint. Note, this is behind a firewall.
Enjoy on, gentle reader. More to come in 2016...
Hashtags have jumped the shark. They have moved from a means of gathering disparate discussions around a topic to a punchline.
Brands often find well-constructed hashtags become the playthings of haters and trolls, while most people use them as a form of Internet humor. It’s time to move on.
Let’s look at the facts. Marketing on Twitter is littered with hashtag
(sorry – couldn’t resist). Naïvely, some brands assume a hashtag will guarantee the ability to shape social conversation. Not so.
In 2012, McDonald’s
became a target for haters, who happily shared their horror stories. #
went live the day after the fleet was grounded, generating vitriol – not the desired brand love. The NYPD’s
trended nationally, but did so for the wrong reasons. And the less said about Susan Boyle’s
, the better.
Still, there have been successes. Hashtags can create engagement, categorize discussions, garner clicks. But in a reflection of traditional media’s sense of "if it bleeds, it leads," the vocal minority love finding and exploiting flaws in brand hashtags.
We have to work out if the risk of attempting to create a conversation around a core phrase outweighs the benefits. And before we use them, run them past teenagers to see if they can find innuendo (they probably can).
There are other indicators of the hashtag’s demise. For example, Twitter has called the # symbol "arcane," and improved search functions in social networks are increasing their ability to categorize and group conversations. Realize that success isn’t just in getting clicks but in being relevant.
And brand love for hashtags is hurting this once-valuable feature. The overuse of hashtags is leading to a backlash whereby they are increasingly seen as representatives of brand noise and not compelling content.
There’s an imbalance – brands are hoping people will rally around a strapline versus playing a meaningful role in community-generated conversations. This surely is the key. Listen and join when appropriate. Add value to the conversation.