Today, McDonald's promoted the Twitter hashtag, #CheersToSochi. The idea was to have people send well wishes to athletes and organizers of the upcoming Winter Olympics. Not surprisingly, the hashtag was quickly taken over by people protesting Russia's anti-gay laws.
This isn't the first time tweeters have turned a company's hashtag against itself. I'm left wondering how these corporations don't see it coming. It's easy to say that these companies are hopping wildly in to the social media bandwagon before they understand it. We've seen organizations misuse new technology trends throughout the Internet era. And JPMorgan had a similar problem when they apparently forgot that some people hate banks.
But banks are kind of out-of-touch with public opinion; this is McDonald's we're talking about here. They're the masters of marketing. If they're that clueless, what hope is there for everyone else? They do understand that Twitter is a participation medium, not a broadcast medium. They just don't seem to realize how varied the general public's opinions are. So have they always believed that everyone loves them?
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