The use of hashtags to promote a campaign or event can be very useful, where there are large numbers of people involved and some are using twitter with confidence. I was at an event this week which proposed the use of a hashtag that was 23 characters long when the hash sign is counted. That is 16% of the whole tweet before you begin to write. Not a good start! Its also much easier to miss-spell a long hashtag. However there are other challenges that hashtags can provide, one of these is illustrated by the one that the Labour Party have adopted as part of their General Election Campaign. That is #LabourDoorstep Whilst I have no particular problem with the hashtag itself, what I find very strange is that most of the Labour Party tweeters that send out messages with a photo attached use images taken some distance from any doorstep. Perhaps I am being unduly picky, but the group photos of activists touring constituencies all stood together on a street corner or grass verge or even in front of a tube station with the phrase #LabourDoorstep is a mismatch between what I expect to see and what I do actually see. It doesn’t quite do what it says on the tin. The Conservative Party campaign appears to be using a twitter account @Roadtrip2015 which points toward people travelling but never arriving. Perhaps both campaigns need to rethink their social media strategy or maybe I need to get out more!