Will brands continue to underestimate the Power of Twitter?
When the Wendy’s Twitter account replied to sixteen-year-old Carter Wilkinson’s question about how many retweets he would need to earn a year’s supply of free chicken nuggets little did they know that the screenshot of their reply would be on its way to having the most retweets in Twitter’s history?
As it stands, Ellen DeGeneres‘s Oscar selfie currently holds the record with 3.4 million retweets, and that was with the star power of some of Hollywood’s biggest names, and the hype of the Oscars behind it. Despite the fact that no one has ever come close to receiving 18 million retweets, Carter Wilkinson took the challenge head on and has managed to rack up 3.1 million retweets in less than two weeks. With some of the world’s biggest brands including Google and Amazon getting behind his efforts, even Twitter itself has joined the publicity train by giving the sixteen-year-old his own personalised hashtag.
With 14.9 million tweets left to achieve, Carter Wilkinson probably won’t reach his goal of 18 million as it would require 10% of all active Twitter users to retweet his plea for free nuggets. This single event effortlessly demonstrates the benefits of engaging in direct conversation with the consumer through Twitter on a one-to-one level and avoiding those automated, un-human responses (take note Dublin Bus).
The power of Twitter is considerably underestimated by brands, which is why it’s refreshing to see Wendy’s use the platform to engage light-heartedly with their followers on a regular basis, especially during a time when the only social media coverage some brands are receiving is for the wrong reasons. With Twitter being brushed off by the majority of brands in favour of other social media channels such as Snapchat and Instagram, maybe the quest for the next viral tweet will encourage brands to give it another go. After all, it has ensured Wendy’s has remained top of the conversation for the past three weeks, not just when it comes to fast-food, but when it comes to social media.