Blog Link:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/amywu/2014/11/10/thepowerofhashtagsinbusiness/

I found Amy Wu’s blog post on the companies’ uses of hashtags on Twitter for marketing purpose very interesting. I totally agree with her that a company can enhance engagement with consumers and increase its brand recognition by using hashtag in an appropriate way. As opportunities and risks always go together, it intrigued me to explore cases where this “social-media-strategy” fails. I did some research and here are a couple of examples:

• Last year, Tesco, UK’s leading supermarket, failed to update its auto-tweets when it was involved in the horse meat scandal. The pre-scheduled tweet read: “It’s sleepy time so we’re off to hit the hay. See you at 8am for more #TescoTweets.” This generated thousands of complaints since people thought Tesco was trying to dodge the topic.
• In September this year, DiGiorno Pizza abused the “#WhyIStay” hashtag, which was originally used for 9-11 anniversary conversation, as an advertisement. And the tweet read: “#WhyIStayed  I have pizza.” This aroused public anger and complaints.

Social media like Twitter provides companies with a convenient interaction platform where they can engage with customers and convey their values more effectively. However, this closer engagement also makes the meltdown more catastrophic when things go wrong. Therefore, although the development of social media brings new opportunities in business, companies should be extremely careful when using it to avoid unnecessary social media disasters.

Source:

http://marketingland.com/john-oliver-corporations-dont-belong-twitter-conversations-99950

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-10-corporate-social-media-disasters-2013-11