For the uninitiated, a hashtag is a way of marking Twitter content as being related to something that you think others might be interested in or search for, like this: #hashtag #socialmedia #blog. Sometimes they grow organically, sometimes people or companies start them with the deliberate aim to spread a message.

#Hashtags #Are #Great

Hashtags are one of the really useful features on Twitter, and were invented by users who wanted a way of categorising content.

But you need to be very careful in using hashtags from a company viewpoint - there are at least two different types of Hashtag Hijacking that you need to be wary of. Thankfully, avoiding one is entirely under your control, and avoiding the other is merely a question of common sense. Read on…

Hashtag Hijack Type 1

Habitat in the UK hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2009 for using a ‘marketing’ technique that basically amounts to spamming. They simply tacked the most popular hashtags of the day to their promotional tweets. This tactic is dubious in the first place - untargetted, irrelevant, annoying - but where it can really backfire is when the trending topics of the day are serious political issues like the Iran elections…

Habitat claimed the activity was unapproved, but the damage was done.

Astonishingly, the fashion brand Kenneth Cole did something similar in 2011, but deliberately!

Afterwards Mr Cole apologised and said it was an attempt at humour…

• The lesson? Just don’t do it!

Hashtag Hijack Type 2

While Type 1 can be avoided by just not doing it, this is an easier mistake to make. This is when other people hijack your hashtag! Some brands have attempted to build them into marketing campaigns without appreciating the total lack of control that comes with them.

Today’s cautionary tale comes from Qantas. Right in the middle of a fraught period in the airline’s history, with a high-profile and unpopular industrial dispute grounding planes and stranding thousands of passengers, the geniuses in Qantas marketing launched a campaign where people were asked to use the hashtag #QantasLuxury.

Well, the hordes of disgruntled customers took to this with gusto! The hashtag was used for a mass of complaints and insults, with such responses as

“#qantasluxury is chartering a Greyhound bus and arriving at your destination days before your grounded Qantas flight”

“#qantasluxury is more than 3mins notice that the whole airline is on strike”

And those are just the repeatable ones.

With what I presume is typical Aussie humour, the Qantas official Twitter feed today had this deadpan gem:

“at this rate our #QantasLuxury competition is going to take years to judge.”

However they try to put a brave face on it, this is a PR disaster of the highest order. Only time will tell if they will recover from it.

• The lesson? Social media campaigns exist in the same reality as every other type of message going out about your brand - so be acutely aware of how your campaigns can be misused!

If that hasn’t completely put you off using hashtags, I’ll #seeyouonTwitter…