July 30, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team
As Twitter continues to grow faster than Facebook, MySpace, and other social sites, online merchants are still struggling to find the best way to harness its power. While many have found good ways to use Twitter, one popular avenue can be learned from the mistakes of Horizon Group Management.
Horizon Group Management is a Chicago-based rental agency that has recently gained an infamous place in the hearts and minds of Tweeters throughout the world. While this sounds like a good thing, for Horizon it is not. Everything started when a tenant put up a simple tweet announcing that her apartment had mold. Amanda Bonnen’s 140 character or less comment was “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon really thinks it’s okay.” Horizon responded by filing a $50,000 defamation suit.
While Bonnen’s Twitter account is currently shut down, it is Horizon who, many feel, will learn the hard way in the end. The Internet has created a space for consumers to find safety in numbers and anonymity when it comes to complaints. Merchants that rely on the Internet for any part of their business should take this into consideration and harness it to their benefit. Merchants should create a Twitter account and let consumers hold them accountable with this online tool. By publicly solving a consumer problem, a merchant has a better chance of gaining positive recognition and improving their reputation. No matter what, consumers will talk about companies online. Since the discussion is already happening, it’s best to get involved but with an understanding that there will be many complaints to face and few positive accolades. By proactively dealing with each complaint in a public way, merchants can earn consumer trust.
Currently, Horizon’s reputation is tarnished, and they didn’t help their cause by tweeting “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.” To avoid a similar situation, merchants should anticipate complaints and deal with issues in the same venue they are first brought up.
Nick was born and raised in California, but has been working the dot com scene in Seattle for many years. He co-founded ZippyCart back in 2009, and now works here full-time. Nick wears many hats at ZippyCart, including producing content for our Ecommerce News blog. Nick loves photography and the outdoors, so when not working on ZippyCart you can find him out and about in Seattle.
