HabitatUK return to Twitter

It was in June that HabitatUK learnt the power of social media when they jumped on Twitter and used trending topic hashtags (the most tasteless was the Iran Election) to push signups to their marketing database and furniture discounts . As the blogger who broke the news, and then watched it break all records on Social Media Today, I am very relieved to see them back on Twitter. The case has been used as a benchmark of the cynical use of hashtag spam, been written up on countless posts, news stories and talked about on Twitter. Even though HabitatUK apologised through me via another blog post, and then promptly blamed their intern as the cause of the hashtag spam, they didn’t respond back on Twitter. Until now.

HabitatUK back on Twitter

There seems to be a marked shift in adopting basic principles of social media

• they’ve spent the last few months listening to what’s been said about them.
• Now actively asking for feedback on what followers would like to see
• Going transparent: saving to their favourites what they believe are the key issues
• Responding about the intern being the cause of the hashtag spam issue
• Looking at customer service through Twitter
• Responding to people who talk to them on Twitter in a one-on-one

I’m really happy they’ve got back on the metaphorical horse and have listened and learned. And I’m hoping this will end up being a new type of case study: the best social media recovery for a brand.