What is Hashtag Hijacking?
Hashtag hijacking happens when a hashtag is used by the public for a different purpose than it was originally intended.This can be done by trolls who want to use the hashtag to promote their own content or play a prank on the company; or hijacking can happen when the general public takes the opportunity to sound off in a snarky way about the brand in question.Instead of being used for positive PR, the hashtag is used to attack the business or provide sarcastic feedback.Either way, hijacking is often perceived as a negative thing for the brand... but it's pretty funny for those of us who haven't spent a lot of time and money coming up with the perfect hashtag marketing campaign.
There are rare cases when a hijacked hashtag actually helps a brand get more press than they might have without the hijack, like when singer Susan Boyle released her new album along with the hashtag #susanalbumparty.Let's face it, while this tag is inadvertently funny, it's not really harmful to Boyle's brand, and she probably needed the little press boost, so no harm done.Not all brands are that lucky, however.Here are four examples of hashtags that got totally, hilariously, hijacked.
1. #McDStories
In 2012, McDonald's became one of the most well known examples of hashtag hijacking when the fast food chain launched a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #McDStories.Instead of hearing glowing memories of the brand's fattening fare, critical Twitter fans turned the hashtag into a #bashtag (Hat tip to Kashmir Hill of Forbes Online) and started tweeting sarcastic experiences they had had with the restaurant chain instead of happy experiences. McDonald's had even paid Twitter for extra promotion of the hashtag, but pulled the promotion within two hours of the negative bashtags hitting the Twittersphere.
Almost two years later, the negative #McDStories hashtags are still circulating.More »
2. #PaulasBestDishes
Before celebrity chef Paula Deen got into hot water for using racist and sexist remarks, the #PaulasBestDishes hashtag was a popular way for her fans to share their favorite recipes on Twitter. However, once the scandal broke, the hashtag was hijacked by Deen's many critics, and it quickly became a trending topic as users fired off comically-racist meme variations of Deen's Southern cooking recipes like "Back Of The Bus Biscuits."Ouch, burn.
Click here to see some of the best Paula Deen memes and #paulasbestdishes hashtags.More »
3. #SpreadTheCheer
During the 2012 holiday season, coffee giant Starbucks asked their fans to tweet out some warm fuzzies using the hashtag #SpreadTheCheer.Unfortunately, British fans decided to use the tag to criticize Starbucks' low tax rates and labor policies in the United Kingdom.Adding to the corporate embarrassment was the fact that the nasty (and sometimes NSFW) tweets were being broadcast ongiant screen at London’s Natural History museum!Big oops.More »
4. Hijacking Al-Qaeda
In August 2013, J.M. Berger, an analyst, author, and consultant on al-Qaeda and extremist groups, learned that al-Queda was using an Arabic hashtag to solicit ideas from their loyal followers for public relations operations.So Berger urged his Twitter followers to troll jihadists by hijacking the hashtag with some of their own (very snarky) suggestions for al-Qaeda operations, and the results were seriously funny.BuzzFeed has a good collection of the tweets here.
Remember, kids, if you don't use humor when hijacking a hashtag, the terrorists win!More »