When Hashtags go bad

I run several social media workshops, and I have a section all on its own about hashtags, simple do's and don'ts. My golden rules for using Hashtags; Always research your hashtag, Write it down and Always, always if you have a hashtag which consists of more than one word, Capitalise The First Letter Of Each Word.

Tweets with hashtags get twice as much engagement as those without them, and 55% more Retweets. On top of that, 75% of people on social media use hashtags. - Sprout Social

In saying that though, there are some cases when hashtags have gone bad, whether it's not using capital letters, or a phrase meaning something else entirely in a different country, there's always going to be an amusing Hashtags.

Related Article: Eddie, the Twitter Genius

Classic hashtag fails

#hobbitch

Working on the film the Hobbit the Swiss PR team put together Hobbit with the abbreviation for Switzerland, CH. It may not have the same meaning in Switzerland, but here in the UK #Hilarious. FYI, this tweet roughly translates to Only one month to go until Lord of Rings.

#rimjobs

Research in Motion, or RIM, was used by Blackberry back in 2012 for a recruitment drive, which resulted in an abundance of abusive tweets using the official hashtag #RimJobs. Always, always research your hashtag.

#susanalbumparty

Susan Boyle's PR team used this unfortunate hashtag in 2012, one of my best practice rules is to always #AlwaysCapatlizeTheFirstLetterOfEachWord. Poor Susan.

#Clitfest

Oh my! This is not what you think it is, it's a huge hashtag fail by Chester Literary Festival. The hashtag lesson: don't always shorten you hashtag, it might not work.