Monday, August 19, 2013

What is Hashtag Hijacking?

What is Hashtag Hijacking?

Link to Small Business Trends

What is Hashtag Hijacking?

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 08:40 PM PDT

What is hashtag hijacking?

This week’s explainer article answers the question “What is hashtag hijacking?”

Let me say right up front:  if you do not understand what a hashtag is, this article will be confusing. A hashtag looks something like this:  #SMBinfluencer.   If you need more information about hashtags or how to use them in marketing, you might want to first read our earlier piece ”What is a hashtag?”  Then come back and this article will make much more sense.

But if you are a veteran of social media, then read on.  Because you may not be aware of how easily you can set your company up to be a target of hijackers.

We’ll focus this discussion on Twitter hashtags.  While hashtags are now being used on other social networks, the art of hijacking seems to have been perfected on Twitter.

What is Hashtag Hijacking?

As the word suggests, “hijacking” a hashtag is a negative thing.

Hijacking happens when a hashtag is used for a different purpose than the one originally intended.  There are two types of hashtag hijacking:  the attention seeking troll, and the PR campaign gone wrong.  Let’s look at them both.

1. The Attention Seeking Troll

The most common but not too harmful type of hashtag hijacking comes from the kind of person I call the “attention seeking troll.”

You may have seen them.  These are the Twitter jerks who use use a hashtag to promote their own “click my junk” offer that has nothing to do with the hashtag.  They use a popular hashtag because they know people are searching on that hashtag. Perhaps it’s a trending topic at the moment.  They figure they will get some attention by adding a popular hashtag to their tweets.

Businesses tend to run into the attention-seeking troll when they’ve set up a specific hashtag for a contest or an event.  For example, if you are holding a Twitter chat, a troll may throw in some unrelated tweets using the hashtag you’ve designated for the chat.

While annoying, attention trolls who abuse hashtags typically are not a major problem.  That’s because their MO (modus operandi) is the hit and run attack.  They lob unrelated tweets like grenades. Then they quickly move on to another hashtag.

The best thing to do with attention trolls is ignore them. Eventually they go away.  It’s usually not a good thing to get into a virtual shouting match with a troll.

If the troll persists and does the same activity repeatedly, you can report them to Twitter for spam.  Among the activities defined as spam by Twitter are:

  • Posting repeatedly to trending topics to try to grab attention
  • Posting links with unrelated tweets

That definition would seem to include tweeting using unrelated hashtags. To report a Twitter account for spam, you visit their profile page.  Click the little person icon to access the drop-down menu. Then choose “report for spam” as the following screenshot shows:

Report hashtag trolls to Twitter for spam

2. The PR Campaign Gone Wrong

The second type of hashtag hijacking is far more serious for businesses.

This is when a hashtag that a brand sets up to generate positive PR, is hijacked by detractors.  Instead of being used for positive sentiment, it is used for attacks on the business, or in a sarcastic or snarky way.

One of the most notorious business situations of hashtag hijacking happened to McDonald’s. In early 2012 the fast food giant started a hashtag campaign called #McDStories. Although they sent out just a few tweets using the hashtag #McDStories, the public soon started using the hashtag  – in ways McDonald’s never expected.  Customers started telling stories of their own — stories about quality issues they’d encountered. Or they used the hashtag to make snarky remarks about the hamburger purveyor.

The hashtag quickly trended – for all the wrong reasons.  Members of the public, either unhappy with McDonald’s or just seeing an opportunity to have fun at a big brand’s expense, quickly turned the hashtag’s sentiment negative.

Almost a year and a half later, you can still find the occasional #McDStories hashtag being used.  Every once in a while it is positive, but mostly it’s negative, like this one two days ago:

Of course, McDonald’s is hardly the only brand to find itself the target of snarky hashtag hijacking.  It seems to happen with some frequency to large brands.

Celebrity brands are also targets.  The beleaguered Paula Deen bore the brunt of numerous hashtag attacks on Twitter and elsewhere. One of them used the hashtag #PaulasBestDishes, which is also the name of her former show on the Food TV Network.  The hashtag had been a sedate tag added to tweets about recipes by adoring fans. Once allegations of racism surfaced, the hashtag became a lightning rod for sarcastic outraged commentary.

Hijacking also happens almost daily in politics – as the recent hijack of #ObamacareIsWorking shows.

The bigger the business or the more well-known the person or organization, the bigger the target on its back.

And what typically happens is the hijacked hashtag becomes viral and far more visible, as a result of the sarcasm and negative uses of it.  Not only does hijacking have a negative effect, but the negative aspects are magnified.  It becomes a train wreck, where public relations are concerned.

Preventing hashtag hijacking

How to Avoid Having Your Hashtag Hijacked

So how do you avoid finding your brand in this situation? And avoid having your PR campaign go horribly wrong?

  • First, do not create vague, self-serving or “tell us how much you love us” type of hashtags.  Those are the ones that invite sarcastic remarks, as Sprout Social points out.  They are the most vulnerable to being hijacked and making your PR campaign go wrong. Trying to incite people to speak positively about your business or somehow spontaneously engage around a vague tagline-like phrase you’ve created, is a clumsy use of social media.
  • Second, keep it specific and give users a hashtag with a “what’s in it for me.”  For instance, creating a hashtag for a contest where people tweet using the hashtag to enter the contest, is less likely to be open to snarky hijacking.  If people have a reason to tweet using it, they will. They are less likely to have fun with it at your expense.
  • Third, some companies deliberately choose hashtags that do not include their Twitter handle or any variant of their brand name.  Hashtags without your brand contained in them are not as easy to turn against your brand.  The hashtag hijack depends on having a hashtag that can propagate through nearly instant recognition.
  • Fourth, consider what is going on with your company at the time.  If you are going through a particularly difficult time in your business — with layoffs or some public screw-up on the recent horizon — it’s not the time to be creating hashtag campaigns.  It just gives detractors one more way to attack your company.

The good news in all of this is that small businesses tend to be much more authentic when it comes to social media, than many larger brands.  With fewer layers between employees and the customer, small businesses tend to converse pretty naturally with customers.   Still, it’s something to be aware of.

In an age where everyone with a computer or a smartphone can publish his or her thoughts to the world, businesses have to navigate more public relations minefields than ever before.

The post What is Hashtag Hijacking? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

NALA Introduces Press Release Service for Small Businesses

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 02:00 PM PDT

NALA press release service

Small businesses need public relations … PR. But when you’re busy running your business, it’s hard to get your story out to the world.  It can be challenging to write and distribute press releases while worrying about maintaining the quality of your products and services and keeping your customers happy. A new service offered by a group that calls itself the National Association of Local Advertisers aims to solve that.

The new NALA News Division has introduced a “turnkey” press release service for local businesses.

The cost per release is higher than what you could get by distributing a release directly through a service such as PRNewswire or PRWeb. But organizers say there’s more than just distribution involved.  They say they wrap in writing, publicist and marketing services, too.

“I think we have a few things going for us that distinguish us from other services,” said Jeff Velis, vice president of operations in an email interview. “Not only do we write the releases, but we work with the business on developing press campaigns, which can be anywhere from one release to several over 6 months or even one year, making sure that their news gets out to the media.”

What the Service Provides

“A lot of small businesses don’t think they have news, but everyone has news and we at the NALA help them find that news and develop their story,” Velis explained. “We also don’t stop once the release has been distributed, but we follow up with the media outlets targeted and then will work them on behalf of the client,” he said. “Sometimes this can be answering follow up questions, sending additional images or even setting up an interview or photo shoot.”

The NALA charges between $725 per release (if you buy six releases), up to $995 for a single release.

There is also a $195 “editorial fee” added to each campaign. Releases are delivered to online news outlets and social media. Clients receive a report on the number of independent news sites that picked up the release, the number of times it appeared in searches and the number of times it appeared on NALA affiliated sites.

Shutterstock: publicist

The post NALA Introduces Press Release Service for Small Businesses appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Using Vine Videos to Beef Up Your Written Content

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 09:00 AM PDT

Twitter's video service, Vine, has been making waves lately as a new platform that businesses can use to make an impression on their target audience. And while Vine certainly works to any business's advantage on its own, it can also be used to enhance your written content as part of a larger campaign, or through linking and embedding Vine videos in your text.

Let's take a look at a few ways that small businesses can use Vine videos to add some zip to their written content.

Using Vine Videos for Small Business Marketing

Show Off What You've Got

Big businesses like Taco Bell have been using Vine to showcase new products, but thanks to Vine's 6-second limit, you don't need a huge budget to produce a mini commercial or demonstration of your product or service.

So, for example, you could use Vine videos to supplement a description with a view of the real thing, in action.

Interact With Fans

Sure, you could tweet back and forth, but there's something extra personal about interacting with brand fans and customers through video.

You could respond to customer feedback via a Vine video, you could work it into a larger content strategy like Honda recently did in its call and response ad campaign or you can simply say “thank you” as Vine has done below.

Boost Your Transparency

Blogging about the day to day functioning of your business, or talking about a special event? Shoot a quick Vine video to give an inside look to your followers.

Going behind the scenes through writing is one thing, but a quick Vine video can really bring your business to life and show people exactly who you are and what you do.

Garner User-Created Content

I think that encouraging followers to submit their own content is one of the most dynamic ways to engage with people, and the best part is that it takes little to no effort for you.

You could run a contest with prizes for users submitting the best Vine videos like Urban Outfitters recently did, or simply use Vine as a fun way to get feedback.

Share Information

You can show that you're a thought leader without long-form posts and lengthy tutorials. In 6 seconds, you can share interesting and informative details about your field, about your product or service, or about anything else that your potential (and loyal) customers might find useful. Even the San Francisco Zoo has started using Vine to share information.

And while you might not have any tigers on staff, I'm sure you can come up with something almost as interesting to share.

The post Using Vine Videos to Beef Up Your Written Content appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Why You’ll Love Reading Loveworks

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 06:00 AM PDT

loveworksIn a world of digital reading, you've got to love the visual and tactile experience of a gorgeous hardcover book printed on high-end glossy paper that feels like silk as you leaf through the pages.  As if that weren't enough, the beautiful vivid graphics pop off the page and literally draw you into the content.

And that was just the sensory experience of reading my review copy of Loveworks: How the World’s Top Marketers Make Emotional Connections to Win in the Marketplace.  And you better believe that this book is just as big on brains as it is on looks.

Love is Better the Second Time Around

Loveworks is an extension of Kevin Robert's 2004 book Lovemarks.  That book caused a bit of controversy because of its premise that emotional connections are at the root of all customer-product relationships.  Now that that idea is more fact than fiction, enter Loveworks, a book that takes that idea a step further and adds twenty case study examples of love-marketing in action with some of the best marketing companies on the planet; Proctor and Gamble, Toyota and Visa to name just a few.

Loveworks Romances the Reader with Visual and Intelligent Content

Don't get me wrong.  Loveworks is more than a pretty book.  The author, Brian Sheehan, has loaded it up with intelligent branding content that will not only entertain you, but educate you on how the best marketers build lasting, loving and loyal relationships with their customers.

You don't have to guess the purpose of the book, you'll find it squarely on page eight:

“This book has one purpose.  It is to provide tangible proof that when brands engage their consumers' deepest emotions – instead of just appealing to their intellects, or even their basest instincts – they will win in the marketplace.  These brands win because their customers don't just respect them, they love them.”

Brian Sheehan Carries the Torch with Grace and Ease

As I mentioned, Brian Sheehan's Loveworks is an evolution of a book written by Kevin Roberts. What I haven't told you yet is that both of these men come from one of the world's premier advertising agencies, Saatchi and Saatchi.  Kevin Roberts was the CEO and Brian Sheehan had a long and successful career there starting out of college, working his way through the agency as the CEO of Team One Advertising, and Saatchi and Saatchi Australia and Japan.

It's a Reference Book and an Art Book All In One

So let's take a deeper dive inside Loveworks.  The best way to read this book is to start from the context from which it's written:  connect to your customers through their emotions, and they will love you forever (or at least until you stop).

The majority of the book, 166 pages out of the 181 pages of content, are case studies grouped according to love lesson or theme such as:

  • Xploring – See how Guiness takes it's brand to Africa.
  • People Power – Stories about the Toyota Camry and SKOL.
  • Tribes – How Pampers and Cheerios pulled together diverse teams to solve big challenges.
  • Virality – T-Mobile and Reebok spread the love.

There are eleven case study lessons in all, each featuring two big brands.

How Case Studies About Big Brands Will Help Your Small Business

You probably fall into one of two camps — you either love a book that features big brands and big companies, or you hate it.  I can go either way.  But I will tell you one thing. There is powerful insight in each case study that you can adapt to your small business.

Here, let me give you an example.  Let's take the case study in chapter eight, which features Miller High Life and Toyota 4x4s. Sheehan uses these popular brand examples and campaigns to show the power of understanding your ideal customer and the core user of your product or service.  Both of these brands got deep inside their customers' heads and hearts and focused on what made them feel unique.

One of my favorite commercials for Miller beer was actually one of the case studies.  Remember Wendell, the Miller delivery guy?  I just love this ad series.  My favorite one is where he delivers beer to a baseball game luxury skybox.  The idea was that he was going to replace the expensive beer with Miller High Life.  But instead of replacing the beer, he got disgusted and left because the people in the skybox were pretentious and not paying attention to the game. Instead, he went into the stands and joined the real fans for a beer.

I know that you aren't going to create a million-dollar 30-second commercial.  But there's no reason you can't do what Miller did – they talked to their customers, they dug deep to understand what really mattered to them and they focused their brand and their brand message on exactly those characteristics.  They talked about what their brand was really about — and those attributes matched those of their customers.  This is what made Miller’s sales rise and their brand lovable.

So, don't just look at this book as some hoity-toity branding book. Look at it as a resource for helping your small business connect to your ideal customer in a very powerful emotional way.

As you can tell by this review, Loveworks has certainly tugged at my emotional triggers enough to say that this is certainly a book every marketer and small business owner should have as a resource of great ideas and strategies to make your brand irresistible to your customers.

The post Why You’ll Love Reading Loveworks appeared first on Small Business Trends.
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