Furniture store
Habitat has been caught in a Twitter marketing gaffe that saw
the chain advertising its goods in postings about the political
unrest in Iran.
The store drew attenion to its tweets by tagging its messages
with #iran, a 'hashtag', used by Twitter users to identify
discussions on Iran.
The store has been plugging its products and services via
Twitter, but adding unrelated tags that have been getting a lot of
attention, like #iphone, #apple and #iran. Another Tweet mentioned
the name of the opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi.
The micro-blogging service has been invaluable to protestors
disputing the result of the recent Iranian elections, who have used
it to communicate with the outside world. Political clashes have
led to the deaths of at least 20 people.
When Twitter users mentioned the use of unrelated tags and
highlighted Habitat's poor use of the service, the company did not
issue an apology, but instead deleted the offending Tweets and
reverted to standard marketing, advertising Tweets. There was no
interaction with the users who criticised them.
The Social
Media Today blog said of the tactic: "Admit nothing, aplogise
for nothing, do not engage in conversation, advertise, advertise,
advertise. You have to wonder why they're even bothering being on
Twitter in the first place."