If ever there was an example of what not to do on your social media campaign this would be it. Habitat, the major UK retailer has been engaging in some very underhand tactics through the popular social networking site Twitter.

With only a few followers on their Twitter account Habitat chose to promote their new sale in a rather unethical manner. Using the popular hash tag facility Habitat targeted keywords that had absolutely nothing to do with their current sale but are heavily searched upon within Twitter e.g. #Apple, #phone and even #Mousavi.

One thing is for sure they certainly got people tweeting about their brand but not in the way they had intended. The spammed twitter users were furious with the blatant misuse of the tags.

It would appear that Habitat have now deleted their initial attempt at promoting their discounts and instead have started engaging with followers in a more ethical way.

Although this was a tough lesson learned by Habitat I can’t help but feel they have severely damaged their brand and whilst they can try to hide the evidence, it is almost impossible to remove completely.

Tags: social media marketing, twitter