Stop Screwing Up Social Media - It's Just Not That Hard

"I know what will really inspire our brand ambassadors," said generic social media "expert" at large corporation. "We need to give them something that they can tag themselves with and declare their loyalty to our company in an effort to convert others to our services. What we need to do is give them a hashtag on Twitter!"

"Dead on!" replied slightly more junior social media "expert." "This way the people can simply send out a Tweet and all of those around them will see how dedicated they are to us and our community will grow!"

You know I would have thought that this conversation stopped taking place several years ago given how obvious it is that:

• It is a lazy comms strategy
• Personal testimony over Twitter is simply a one-time act - not likely to occur again outside the one time the hashtag is created
• Any brand that could have alienated its users at some point has now given control to those users by opening up the world of social media to the conversation

McDonalds screwed this one up pretty badly when it invited everyone to share their #McDStories (gee, wonder what could have possibly gone wrong with that one?). J.P. Morgan also blew it with their chat to #AskJPM a question, leading to a hilarious series of tweets asking how one goes about blowing up the global economy as effectively as J.P. Morgan helped do. Roger Goodell is no stranger to controversy with how the NFL has handled the lawsuits that former NFL players are bringing in droves that accuse the league of knowingly withholding information on the dangers of playing football, all while trying to add an additional regular season and playoff game to the mix for some more cash for the league. So maybe it wasn't the best idea to give fans (and players) an open forum to #AskCommish anything they thought was important.

#AskEmmert with the NCAA's embattled commissioner Mark Emmert was hijacked. So was #RedskinsPride - the Washington Redskins effort to combat Harry Reid's crusade to force the team to change its name. 

Even what should have been a safe #ILoveWalgreens hashtag was taken over by an unruly social media mob. If your neighborhood drug store isn't a sure bet, don't you think that that might be a sign?

These are all very high-profile businesses here that are really screwing up a comms tactic that isn't that hard. And the reason it isn't that hard is because you just don't do it. I can't think of any time, any brand, in any part of the world that wouldn't run the risk of getting taken over like those mentioned earlier.

I'm not saying don't engage with fans on social media. But the hashtag pride strategy needs to stop. Control the forum and you can help control the message. Send it into the wild and your Twitter hashtag will mutate into an uncontrollable beast.