A property management firm in Chicago recently made headlines by suing someone who, via Twitter, wrote that they rent moldy apartments. They claim the damages amount to $50,000 despite the microblogger only having about 20 followers. Of course the backlash was swift. Most everyone online took the defendant’s side. The whole ordeal ended up generating unthinkably worse PR than the initial tweet. The company needs to forget the lawyers and take a minute to think about the problem. Like any other business, they have a customer who was displeased with their service and spoke about it in one of the places where they socialize. Luckily for the company, this person clearly identified herself. Instead of calling their lawyers, they should have sent a direct message on Twitter asking what her specific complaints were and how they can be resolved. This method is becoming increasingly popular with large corporations because of its surprising effectiveness. Little businesses will find that a little interaction with a potentially difficult customer is well worth the time and effort.

The full story at PC World:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/169324/Twitter_Lawsuit_What_Should_Business_Learn.html