A Tip For Business On Social Media

FINANCIAL TIMES — It was the tale of two Tweets. In June last year, Habitat, a UK furnishing retailer, found controversy when it used messages posted on the Twitter social networking website to promote its furniture sales. That same month, computer maker Dell reported selling $3m worth of refurbished hardware, also via Twitter. Dell’s experience was widely heralded as a success; Habitat’s led to apologies as it linked its promotion to unrelated subjects such as Iran’s election and Apple’s iPhone. These experiences show how difficult it is for large brands to read the mood of a social network – but many are now trying to achieve just that...