Media 140: The dos and don'ts of social media

As Twitter and social media get more and more important for brands, beware of some painful pitfalls Homewares firm Habitat this summer provoked Twitter outrage when it used the #iranelection hashtag - which would normally alert users of the micro-blogging site to a message about the elections in Iran - to try to drum up interest in its wares. After apologising for the ruse, the company blamed it on an "over-enthusiatic intern". But how should brands use Twitter? And why is it so hard for them to understand the new medium? George Nimah, managing director of marketing firm Iris Digital, said: "Twitter is challenging for brands, because it is made for talks and chats, and their public relation language is very different. If they want to use Twitter, they have to learn to act different and sound human. "There are some, who just... [read full story]                    

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