Hashtags: When They’re Good, They’re Very Good; When They’re Bad …

Remember when # was the pound key? Well, thanks to Twitter, that symbol is almost universally referred to as a hashtag, and they are increasingly being used to determine exactly what the biggest news of the day is.

Earlier this month, I was delighted with a fun new campaign by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, publisher of Cassandra Clare’s YA series The Infernal Devices. The cover of the series’ final installment, Clockwork Princess, was revealed using hashtags on Twitter.

Instead of merely showing the image on her website, the cover was slowly revealed over the course of a few hours, every time someone tweeted #ClockworkPrincess on the microblogging site. The more tweets posted with hashtag, the more of the cover you saw on the Web page devoted to the cover. And 30,000 Tweets later, the “veil” was lifted for all to see, regardless of their Twitter habits.

Connect & Communicate

This was a phenomenal way to get Clare’s base excited, and heighten the profile of the entire series, a full eight months before the book is even released. Because here’s the thing about hashtags: If you’re not sure what a particular phrase means, you can simply click on it for more information. Anyone who was curious about what this #ClockworkPrincess is could simply click on the link and see a literal stream of information from excited fans.

For instance, while I was writing this post, South African golfer Ernie Els had just won The Open, beating competitor Adam Scott. Both men were trending on Twitter, and a quick peek showed exactly what many people thought of the contest’s results.

Sounds simple, right?

It’s the simplicity of the hashtag and trending system that makes the Twitter misstep committed by Celeb Boutique last week even more confusing to me.

On the morning of the horrific mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., where 12 were killed and 59 others were injured, this international clothing store tweeted:

Celeb Boutique later backpedaled, claiming that their social media team, which isn’t based in the United States, had simply had not heard the news.

But the whole point of having a social media team is to ensure that your account is handled by professionals.

And any professional should know how to click on a link to determine why a topic is trending.

In the communications industry, you must ensure that you do no harm -- to your company or to the public. Let’s hope that Celeb Boutique, which according to UPI is looking to hire a U.S.-based PR team, has learned that lesson.