This week, ABC won Twitter.

Before airing its latest episode of Modern Family, there was moderate some buzz around an advocacy group’s campaign to get it pulled. The controversy? A plot focusing around a toddler using the F-word, on a few occasions (it was bleeped).

So what did ABC do? Right after the second bleep, a hashtag appears on screen – #modernfamily – as if to say, “Pretty wild, eh? Go Tweet about it!”

Genius? Wrong? Obvious? Whatever your take, it worked, with audiences flocking to share the laugh online. Take a look at the screenshot below, which captures hashtag use for #modernfamily. It skyrocketed right on queue, at levels it hasn’t seen since the season premiere.

While this was particularly well-played, and well-timed, Modern Family and ABC aren’t the only shows capitalizing on Twitter. There are plenty of examples, and many of the best take right from the plot. “Parks & Recreation” had a particularly effective campaign with #treatyoself, an on-screen hashtag in a plot where two characters do just that, for one day. The success came because it was inherently social, with audiences tweeting the tag while adding what they do to treat themselves.

Not enough companies are using social appeal – or humor – in B2B. It’s begging to be used. Why not these?

  • #InfoSecWorldProblems – Headaches security experts can relate to.
  • #SupplyChainIs – Supply chain experts share the humorous ways they’ve tried to describe the complicated nature of what they do to friends outside the industry.
  • #StuffPRPeopleSay – Actually, this one is real, after Hunter PR’s recent, hilarious video of the same title. Twitter results weren’t astounding for this one, but the video itself saw almost 50K hits. We even forwarded around our office.

But a hashtag on its own won’t carry much weight. Just like the TV-based tags wove in the plot, B2B needs to weave in the bigger business drivers – not just collateral. And it should tie in to spot-on content, or it’s a waste of time.

Is there a good hashtag campaign you’ve seen? Or run?

By: Robert Klucevsek
Twitter: @RobertKlucevsek