Habitat Get It So Wrong

Now we all know that there is a debate that rages throughout the social media world, one that spawns passionate statements about freedom, corporate responsibility and user experience.   This debate tends to revolve around one issue:  Should companies be taking advantage of social media to directly sell to their consumers.  The general consensus is that businesses can (and I would say, should) engage with customers at a personal level, maintaining a strict adherence to a self imposed rule of no selling. 

Social media can be used to give a company a platform to actually engage with the public, whether they are potential customers or not.  There is an exceptionally important line that should, by no means, be crossed by any organisation, or for that matter individual: do not capitalise on a serious social media conversation in order to push your product or service.  Habitat, the furniture retailer, decided to take an enormous step over that line and is now facing an online backlash of unprecedented proportions.

The over zealous retailer (@habitatuk) decided to hashtag (keywords used on Twitter to help users track posts on specific themes, achieved by putting a #theme before the tweet) new season products with incredibly popular and some sensitive hashtags such as #Iran, #iPhone and #Apple.  Of course none of the used themes had anything to do with the subsequent tweets, Habitat were simply using the hashtags to pitch their product to as many people as possible.

This irresponsible and deplorable marketing tactic earnt Habitat a plethora of condemning articles within the online press not to mention the flood of angry tweets sent directly to @habitatuk.  They have effectively alienated any online consumer they were attempting to target, to rub salt in the wounds Habitat have (as I write this blog) as yet apologised for this ridiculous stunt, the company has simply deleted the offending tweets. 

The power of social media tools such as Twitter has become more evident every day.  Earlier in the week, Twitter users managed to skew an insensitive poll on the Daily Mail site, in fact I think more people voted on that poll than on many other Daily Mail surveys.  This time, it was incredible to see how quickly a corporate error can snowball as well as the millions of Twitter users leaping to protect the dignity of planet Twitter. 

The Social Media Today blog captured screen shots and posted the original article alerting a host of other publications and media outlets (including Sky News) to the story.   Twitter users were already moving in on the kill as publications such as ComputerWorldUK and Computer Weekly uploaded scathing articles.   I expect the evening news will pay homage to the story as well as the morning Metro.

This only goes to show how quickly things can go wrong when companies decide to simply ignore unwritten protocol, wade into the online furore and attempt to unscrupulously sell to a highly aware and totally connected community.  Whether this marketing blunder was orchestrated in-house or through a marcomms agency, is yet to be clear.  Organisations have to be fully aware of the potential consequences of getting the online conversation wrong. 

Social media does give businesses the opportunity to interact at a personal level with potential customers, however it is a wild beast and businesses should be prepared to be on the backfoot from the outset and should always follow an honest and open approach to any interaction. Habitat didn’t and one thing is for certain, they have severely damaged their image and reputation with millions of potential consumers; and all in under 140 characters.    

Comments

[Jon]

One key rule when using social media, and most things in life - apply common sense.

It's genuinely surprising to see how many companies have none of the above when it comes to PR/marcoms. The minority give the industry a bad rep.