The Best Example of a Company Using Twitter Ever... and It Tastes Good Too!
I knew there was a reason why I liked Popeye's, but more on that in a bit...
I was quoted for a recent CRM Magazine article going over the travails of Entellium... it's still hard to believe what went over there. Anyways me and my CRM Essentials co-founder Michael Thomas sat at the same table as Entellium founder Paul "PJ" Johnston during CRM Magazine's annual award dinner back in 2004.
We had a good time talking with PJ at the dinner, and even had a few conversations with him after that but hadn't talked with him in years. So if you're with the feds, I DON'T KNOW THE GUY!!!
So when Michael came across the CRM mag article he sent me the following on Twitter:
So I sent him the following reply:
As Michael and I do, we try to "out-funny" each other, so he replied with:
Now here's where Popeye's comes in - and quite frankly one-upped both of us. Having keyed in on our talking about biscuits, I get the following tweet:
That, my friends, is quite simply the best use of Twitter that I've seen - from a corporate perspective. With a few short sentences they made me laugh, because they read our tweet stream and replied in context... and it was funny. They didn't lead with their product, so it didn't feel like they were intruding on our conversation. They didn't even try to sell anything. All they did was find a way to have fun with us, which in turn made me enjoy their contribution to our conversation. So much so that I did the following:
Started following them
Replied to the tweet
And if that's not enough, I dedicated a whole blog post to them!
Now I'm not lying in the tweet, my mouth is watering for a Popeye's biscuit, and I'm doing all that I can to keep from jumping the car right not to get one. But that's the power all of this social media stuff can have, if it's used wisely. Adding something to the conversation, no matter how small or lighthearted it may appear to be, can have very positive results. If they had said "Popeye's makes the best biscuits" in the tweet I would not have been amused, wouldn't have followed them, wouldn't have replied, and probably wouldn't be thinking about eating THEIR biscuit... although I'd be thinking about eating somebody's biscuit.
So if you're looking for an example for how to effectively use social media to connect with customers and move them to action, think of Popeye's biscuits. Upon further review, if they'd have sent me a direct message tweet with a coupon for a free biscuit that really would have been the butter on the... biscuit. Popeye's are you listening? I'll just throw the word biscuit in when I tweet out this blog post! I know you'll get the hint then....
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