Wendy’s twitter feed appears to be your average fast-food twitter account with promotions, retweets, and pictures of their food. At first glance, you wouldn’t be able to differentiate their account from other fast-food giants like McDonalds and Burger King. However, when looking closer at Wendy’s account it is evident that they are walking a fine line between entertaining and abusive.
To some people it may seem like Wendy’s is crossing the line with their tweets; however, I would argue that Wendy’s is stepping up their online presence and creating talk about their restaurant. Since they started roasting people on twitter, Wendy’s twitter account has gained over 400,000 new followers in just over a months time. Obviously not all of these followers can be credited to the new tweeting strategy, but there is no way that they would have gained this many followers in such a short time if they hadn’t starting roasting people on twitter. Now there are 400,000 more people who will see Wendy’s pop up on their timeline each day to be reminded that Wendy’s burger patties are fresh and never frozen.
I believe the key behind Wendy’s expanding their online presence is that their tweets are unexpected and controversial. People are tired of seeing the same advertisements over and over again. So by breaking away from the norm, people are drawn to Wendy’s new strategy. Never before has a major company trashed it’s competitors or fired back at user comments like Wendy’s is doing now. Some would argue that these tweets are inappropiate for a large brand like Wendy’s, but I think that is another reason why Wendy’s is doing it. Either way, whether people like the tweets or not, Wendy’s is drumming up talk about their brand and people are sharing the tweets.
I think another element to Wendy’s effective online communication is that the tweets are consistent and have been escalating over time. These tweets are not just a one time thing. Wendy’s is going out of its way to respond to user comments. This creates interest because everytime someone signs on to twitter they will want to know if Wendy’s has roasted any more people. Furthermore, the tweets have escalated to more personal and insulting comments. This also keeps people interested and holds their attention way more than normal advertisements or promotions ever would.
These days companies have to be careful about what they say on social media because it can have a devastating effect if it comes off in the wrong way. By talking just like everyone else would on twitter, Wendy’s has gained popularity and have a lot of people talking about their brand. I am curious to see if other major brands try to imitate Wendy’s new strategy going forward. I think it’s a risk that most companies won’t take because if the tweet comes off as too insulting, it could severely hurt that companies brand image and they would have to spend extra time and effort to try and repair their reputation.
