National Marketer Loses Control of Its Twitter Marketing Campaign

"National brands should try to remember that social network campaigns take away their ability to control the message," warns Direct Marketing News. "McDonald's learned this lesson the hard way in early February with its Twitter campaign that emphasized and promoted the company's policy of buying fresh produce from farmers. Two hashtags were used: #MeetTheFarmers and #McDStories. As it turned out, the #McDStories hashtag became quite popular, with Twitter users employing the hashtag to tell stories of alleged food poisoning, heroin use, obesity and a 'sensory experience of inhaling deeply from a freshly opened can of dog food.'” Read more.