What scares marketers so much about social media is also what excites them about it: the fact that marketing on the web is a two-way street. Just as a brand is able to engage with customers, customers are just as able to engage with a brand. There is no better example of how this can ding a company than what happened to fast-food giant McDonald’s last week.

On Tuesday, the corporate McDonald’s account (@McDonalds) sent out two tweets using the hashtag #McDStories, an attempt to start a conversation around the hard-working employees who keep McDonald’s in business. Little did McDonald’s know that this hashtag would take on a life of its own.

Said @Deweymedia, “#McDStories More than half a year since last McTerrible McFattening McMeal. I don’t McMiss the McFood McOne McBit.”

Said @SkipSullivan, “One time I walked into McDonalds and I could smell Type 2 diabetes floating in the air and I threw up. #McDStories”

Folks, it only gets worse. What’s the lesson here? Well, for starters, I go back to that same lesson at the core of a good social media campaign: listen. Pay attention to how not only your customers, but all of the public interacts with your brand on social media. McDonald’s should have been more aware of those people who have a negative perception of the company, and how quickly they could turn a positive hashtag into a “bashtag.” If McDonald’s had simply stuck to their original hashtag (#MeetTheFarmers) rather than use the more vague #McDStories, things would have gone down a lot differently.  Always choose your words carefully, and be sure to consider how all iterations and variants of your messages could be used or abused.

But there was something McDonald’s did right: they had a plan. As soon as it became clear that #McDStories was taking a turn for the worse, the company switched back to using the #MeetTheFarmers hashtag, and the flurry of negative tweets slowly turned into a trickle.

What are the lessons here?

1. Listen. Know how people talk about you on social media, and don’t try to unilaterally change the conversation (unless you are prepared to handle every possible response)
2. Think. Consider your tweets carefully, because once it’s public, it’s permanent.
3. Plan. If the ship starts to sink, make sure you know where the life boats are.

-Jon