HMV Twitter account hijacked!

Referring to my last post about HMV closing down (latest high street closure) the HMV Twitter account was today hijacked by some very upset employees. The following tweets, now removed from the Twitter account once control was gained back express some very specific views on the brands management.

This takes some guts on the employees behalf but I guess if they knew they were being let go it didn't matter to them any more. However, the account has now been regained and a few messages have been sent out to apologise for the outbursts on the social networking account. 

I can imagine a bit of crisis management came into play here at some point on how to turn this situation into a positive or make it something better than what it sounded, so have they done a good job? Could they have handled it better? Could it even have been staged to draw attention to HMV as other tweets are about the sale the stores are having and people on Twitter searching for these outrageous tweets are likely to come across these also? The reason I ask this is because it mentions about stores still being open and the whole #savehmv in  recovering tweet, but was it fair to use others losing their jobs today as part of a publicity stunt? I guess it's something that we will never find the truth about. 

With the result being that HMV now have over 72,000 followers and the brand has made national headlines, whether it was real or not, some good has come out of this, that they have reached a very wide audience now in their aim to save the brand. But can it really be saved given the current economic climate?

Would it be a wise move for HMV to sell off stock in stores in sales and set up as a competitor with Amazon and Ebay, for example? I noticed the other day that their site was down and it isn't clear whether they intend to open it up again? Some jobs can be salvaged through warehouses and internet orders and less costs will be involved due to not having to run stores. One thing is for certain though, being able to obtain media such as music, films, games, etc has never been so hard to do on the high street. Which sector of retailers will be next to go down and become largely internet based after the closure of media shops?