The Impact Of Twitter On A Brand
Posted: Monday 22 June, 2009
Pete Goold
Just read this terrific post on how Habitat has tried its hand at social media - Twitter specifically. The brand used hashtags (ie preceeding specific terms with #, to tag content for specific searches) which is fair enough - it's something that most/many twitter users do frequently. However, what was different was that the tweets included hashtags for completely irrelevant trending topics (as listed to the right of google, indicating the most popular topics at any given time) in an attempt to raise the feed's visibility. In doing so, not only did it use irrelevant tags (ie #Apple, #iPhone etc) but, far worse, it used the global interest in the Iranian election to sell it's wares.
So, unsuprisingly, there's been a web backlash.
As per the post referenced above, the point is not that Habitat can't be forgiven for making a mistake - it's not the first brand to regard social media as the modern version of a billboard - however it's still yet to show any remorse or to have accepted responsibility for its actions. In the long term, this is going to be hugely damaging.
This is another example of a brand that needs to learn that conversations are more impactful and effective than push marketing in the social space.
