Following the uproar caused by Habitat’s much-publicised misuse of Twitter hashtags, the retailer has revealed that, as many suspected, they were sent out without any involvement or approval from management. In fact, it seems the tweets were the responsibility of a lowly intern. According to Sky News:
Habitat’s communications team said they had not authorised the messages, but they have confirmed they were not hacked.
“The hashtags were uploaded without Habitat’s authorisation by an overenthusiastic intern who did not fully understand the ramifications of his actions,” a spokesman said.
“He is no longer associated with Habitat.”
Just last week we reported on a StrongMail survey that posed the question ‘Who should be responsible for social media — PR or Marketing?’. It now looks as though the lesson to be learnt from Habitat’s unfortunate experience is that who is responsible isn’t what’s most important — so long as someone is….
