SAN FRANCISCO—Bidding on a nearly 6-foot-tall statue of a hashtag that was being auctioned off from the longtime Twitter headquarters seemed like a fun idea to former Twitter data scientist Lauren Fratamico.

Over $500 later, Fratamico won the statue. Then she had to figure out what to do with it. She enlisted her boyfriend and parents and hired two movers. They managed to lug the hefty hashtag up three flights of stairs and situate the hardly subtle piece of decor in a corner of her apartment in San Francisco.