Qantas hears Twitter opinion when hashtag gets hijacked

A Twitter contest goes awry when tweets air grievances about Qantas Airline's practices

Hashtag competitions are often a great way for companies to get their brand name stirring in the Twitterverse and gain a lot of new followers -- not so for the recent #QantasLuxury attempt.

Monday evening, Qantas Airlines posted a tweet encouraging people to tweet their idea of luxury and win some Qantas apparel -- but it went astray from the original intent real quick.

Within the hour, tweets started sarcastically referencing the Oct. 29 grounding incident due to union disputes and mechanical troubles.

Clearly Qantas didn't weigh the possibility that the public opinion of its brand would put the spotlight on their recent woes -- but they would be wrong.

A mere 13 hours after announcing the contest, more than 100 people have tweeted their negative feelings about the airline and their practices, and countless others have retweeted or mentioned that Qantas has taught companies what not to do so soon after a PR debacle.

What can other companies learn from this?

While it might be too late for Qantas to salvage this contest or regain control of the hashtag it created, big brands can see this as a cautionary tale.

It is almost impossible to predict if your tweet, hashtag or other Twitter communication could be hijacked, but assuring that you are vocal about intentions to rectify past issues, and offering open communication about your practices might be a first step to curb the risk that tweeters won't publicly flog your brand.

More than anything else, timing is a key factor that the public relations and social media director need to look into before embarking on an online ad campaign that allows public comments to be seen in real time.

Some brands would be happy to know that there are companies, such as DataSift, that can take the Twitter temperature about your brand and see if the public is tweet positive, negative or indifferent sentiments about your company.  This could help brands ride out the storm and launch a campaign when emotions have died down.

But nothing is a guarentee, so brands beware the wrath of the tweet. I am going to chalk this one up to a major Qantas #twitterfail.

Image Source -- Faranginthailand.com