Habitat apologises after Twitter fail
by Staff,
Brand Republic
24-Jun-09, 11:40
LONDON - Upmarket home furnishings store Habitat has apologised after it tried to promote offers at its stores with mentions of the Iranian elections and iPhone on its Twitter feed.
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
Twitter users can see what topics are the most popular for tweets at any given moment and often use the "hashtag" to find information.
Last week the Iranian elections and the launch of the new iPhone were among the biggest topics on Twitter.
Habitat attempted to capitalise on this by using tags such as #mousavi and #iphone so that more people would read offers such as "Join the database for free to win a £1000 gift card".
The retailer has since deleted the tweets, although some can still be seen here.
However, while the tweets may disappear, the company is already being held up as an example of how not to use social media.
Blogs on Brand Republic:
Comments
Anyone know the agency behind this?!!
Surely it would be the retailer itself, not an agency?
yep but some stupid 'social media expert' probably advised them to use trending hashtags unless the retailer themselves had a resident 'expert'. I call it a good lesson learnt for anyone wanting to exploit social media. be warned, your sins will find you out. nowhere to hide these days...
Wow. I wonder what ghoul decided that capitalising on this issue was a good idea? And do you think he's allowed within 100 metres of kittens?
Wonder if the BNP will start featuring sofas to reach the middle classes. You could not make this up. This will crucify the company.
It's pretty funny though. Someone thought they were really smart coming up with that idea. Idiot.
To Mark Palmer's point I can see problems with tagging for BNP and BNP Paribas bank, especially as one of them is a big sponsor of International Tennis.
Martin Loat
Propeller Group
The bigger question than just having a go at Habitat \(who to be honest, have apologized unreservedly) - is which will be the next company or brand that runs into online issues like this - given the unregulated nature of online, it is only a matter of time and it could be a lot worse than this....scary stuff.
It would certainly be suprising if an agency was responsible for this debacle and perhaps more suprising if they came forwards!
http://chocolatecommunications.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/habitat-finding-twitter-very-uncomfortable/
Well turns out it was the intern's fault - or was it a mole from Ikea?
To blame it on an intern is pretty low and management have to take repsonsibility, hence why it's called management.
So you fucked up, get over it and move on, it's not really that big a deal and if you look at the bigger picture, the intern was at least showing passion for the job which is a lot more than I can say for Habitat as a shop. The words pony and lame come to mind.
The intern got sacked, if anyone knows who it was I'd like to speak to them about opportunites.
Management at Habitiat, err good luck until you go under.
Comments
Karl Havard - 24/06/2009
Anyone know the agency behind this?!!
Jack Wallington - 24/06/2009
Surely it would be the retailer itself, not an agency?
chris doyle - 24/06/2009
yep but some stupid 'social media expert' probably advised them to use trending hashtags unless the retailer themselves had a resident 'expert'. I call it a good lesson learnt for anyone wanting to exploit social media. be warned, your sins will find you out. nowhere to hide these days...
Amod Munga - 24/06/2009
Wow. I wonder what ghoul decided that capitalising on this issue was a good idea? And do you think he's allowed within 100 metres of kittens?
Mark Palmer - 24/06/2009
Wonder if the BNP will start featuring sofas to reach the middle classes. You could not make this up. This will crucify the company.
Natalie Prout - 24/06/2009
It's pretty funny though. Someone thought they were really smart coming up with that idea. Idiot.
Propeller Mobile - 25/06/2009
To Mark Palmer's point I can see problems with tagging for BNP and BNP Paribas bank, especially as one of them is a big sponsor of International Tennis. Martin Loat Propeller Group
MIKE PHILLIPSON - 25/06/2009
The bigger question than just having a go at Habitat \(who to be honest, have apologized unreservedly) - is which will be the next company or brand that runs into online issues like this - given the unregulated nature of online, it is only a matter of time and it could be a lot worse than this....scary stuff.
Matt Hall - 25/06/2009
It would certainly be suprising if an agency was responsible for this debacle and perhaps more suprising if they came forwards! http://chocolatecommunications.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/habitat-finding-twitter-very-uncomfortable/
Matt Hall - 25/06/2009
Well turns out it was the intern's fault - or was it a mole from Ikea?
harry fowler - 26/06/2009
To blame it on an intern is pretty low and management have to take repsonsibility, hence why it's called management. So you fucked up, get over it and move on, it's not really that big a deal and if you look at the bigger picture, the intern was at least showing passion for the job which is a lot more than I can say for Habitat as a shop. The words pony and lame come to mind. The intern got sacked, if anyone knows who it was I'd like to speak to them about opportunites. Management at Habitiat, err good luck until you go under.
Gordon Macmillan - 29/06/2009
Good to see this story made it to the New York Times. Habitat really has been Twittered.
Kevin Gordon - 30/06/2009
Diabolical.