6/29/2015
#hashtag
Ellen C. Wells
Maybe I’m getting old. Maybe I’m a technophobe. Maybe I’m behind the times. Whatever the reason, there’s something I don’t quite understand.
I’m mildly obsessed with Food Network. When the Red Sox aren’t on in the evenings—or when they are having a horrible season (such as this year)—I’m usually catching the fourth repeat of shows such as "Chopped," "Cutthroat Kitchen," "The Pioneer Woman" and others. I’m currently two shows into the latest season of "The Next Food Network Star." Despite its cooking premise, it’s a show set up like any other reality TV show with a mix of talented and talentless people with clashing personalities. They set up TNFNS to maximize drama, comedy and outrageousness, with a good helping of interesting cuisine.
I have a big problem with one contestant of the show, Matthew. At 22, he is the youngest-ever contestant on the show, now in its 11th season. Matthew is cute but cocky with a large dose of naïveté and combativeness. He has an online cooking show that he claims uses “the power of the hashtag” to …
To what? That is a really good question. On the show he just says he uses “the power of the hashtag.” To promote himself? To share recipes? To say funny things? Granted, I haven’t gone online to view his cooking show nor read his tweets, so I’m not exactly sure what power he is attributing to a hashtag. Oh, wait … do we all know what a hashtag is? And, as Food Network’s senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy Susie Fogelson, a frequent judge on the show, said of Matthew’s most recent presentation, “What does a hashtag taste like?”
I do understand the power of social media and hashtags to carry a message and influence people. A hashtag can be used to empower a revolution, promote a social cause, inform people of weather or emergency situations and let people know that Dunkin’ Donuts is giving away free coffee. They can let people know there is a sale @JCPenney, that #OITNB is starting its third season and that a certain project on Pinterest is a #PinterestWin or a #PinterestFail.
What I do not understand, however, is how a hashtag and other social media vectors can make your product or service better than another. They can promote and inform, yes. From a marketing perspective hashtags can influence folks to try. But without the interaction and the experience, it’s just another product or service. Where is the flavor, the quality, the evidence that the thing we’re tweeting about is as good as the claim? Stuck in the hash marks of the #? I think not.
I bet that Susie Fogelson would say the proof is in the pudding. Literally. Quality is experiential. It’s not something that can be proven through popularity, no matter how many tweets are flying through the Interwebs about it.
Again, maybe I’m old-fashioned or just old, but I like to think for myself. I gather information and experiences and determine for myself—as much as that is possible nowadays—how I think and feel about something, whether it’s a political coup or the flavor of Dunkin’s new dark roast (“It’ll do” is my official response on the latter). Put the popularity contests aside. Use the power of your hashtag to influence your customers to experience what you have to offer—and then resolve to offer them the very best you have to give.
GP