You never know who is watching what you post on social media.
That’s because creating a successful social media account for your business means more than taking a selfie and posting your business hours to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Consider the consequences of anything you plan to post to your social channels because you want likes, heart reacts, and shares—not angry and sad faces. For example, when Kylie Jenner tweeted about a decline in Snapchat usage, the message received over 75,000 retweets and 370,000 likes.
Eleven minutes after the post, Jenner’s 24 million plus followers saw a tweet that aimed to save Snapchat’s brand image. However, at the end of the day, all eyes were on the California-based company when its stock closed down six percent, or $1.3 billion.
Meanwhile, some financial experts say Jenner’s tweets may have incidentally caused the stock of Facebook, who owns rival company Instagram, to increase by $13 billion the next day. The stock changes also could be related to Snapchat’s recently redesigned interface, according to Bloomberg News.
Whether Jenner caused dramatic changes in the stock market is unclear (some say it’s unlikely), this proves how influential your social media can be. So be sure to cater your message to your target audience before posting anything that could sink your next marketing campaign like the Titanic.
Instead, take a page from Carter Wilkerson whose single tweet generated tremendous positive brand awareness for fast food chain Wendy’s. In 2017, Wilkerson, a college student, asked the restaurant how many retweets he’d need to receive free chicken nuggets for a year. Wendy’s, known for their sometimes snarky responses to social media followers, replied: “18 million.”
That’s when Wilkerson turned to Twitter’s more than 330 million active users for help. His plea for free nuggets received over 3.6 million retweets and 984,000 likes. The tweet broke the record for the most retweeted post previously held by Ellen DeGeneres with 3.4 million retweets during the 2014 Oscars.
The twitterstorm even drew the attention of big companies Amazon and Microsoft who wanted to bring attention to themselves during the social media wave about free fast food. And while Wilkerson didn’t reach the 18 million retweets requested by Wendy’s, the restaurant still gave him a year of free nuggets. Because it’s the least Wendy’s could do after all of that good publicity.
