Why Denny’s Has the Best Social Media Team
I know I’m not the first person to talk about Denny’s and their social media. We talked about it in class, and it’s pretty widely talked about in the outside world anyway. But it doesn’t hurt to talk about it again, because it’s so damn good. Denny’s has really been able to take a step back and have fun with their social media, and sometimes it gets weird.
Us millennials, we don’t really think about our social media too much. I mean, come on, some of the most popular Twitter accounts out there are people who just copy and paste other people’s successful tweets. (You know who I’m talking about… *cough* Dory *cough*) We just like things that are simple, or stupid, or funny — sometimes all of these things at once.
As much as Denny’s is appealing to this carefree social media approach, I think they’ve actually carefully calculated how to do this. I think they’ve observed young people on social media and mimicked this the best they can. They saw that we value social interaction, we value relatability, and we value things that are sometimes a little bit weird (at least I do).
Take a look at some of the April Fool’s Day “pranks” they played on their Twitter audience:
You might be thinking “okay, yeah, whatever Alex. It’s easy to be stupid on Twitter, you do it.” And you know what, you’re right. But look at the number of likes and retweets that Denny’s gets. (Honestly I almost typed Donny’s just then, they sure got me).
If you look at other companies similar to Denny’s, they may have a decent number of followers (any established company would) but they don’t have the amount of interaction that Denny’s followers have. I don’t think enough big companies really care about interactions with their posts. I’m not expert, and correct me if I’m wrong, but there are so many corporate accounts that only tweet things that are professional and provide information or promote something to do with the company.
This is fine, I guess. It’s to be expected from professional accounts, and that’s kind of why I don’t really follow companies on Twitter. (Unless I love what they sell or what they do) The only time I’ve ever really followed some sort of corporate account on Twitter was during the whole Canada 150 debacle, because I wanted to know what Via Rail was going to say about the campaign. I was disappointed with their lack of coordination in handling the repercussions of their failures, and unfollowed them shortly after. Shout out to you, Denny’s, I know you would never let me down like that.
Denny’s is also present on other forms of social media. They have Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr as well.
On their Instagram alone, they have 114K followers. This is less than they have on Twitter, but I think this is just because their comedy style is more suited to tweets than it is to Instagram posts. What I found most interesting, however, is that they have over one hundred thousand followers on their Instagram, but they’re not following a single person. That is incredibly impressive, and I think we all know that.
This means that the people that follow Denny’s follow them because they like what they post. They get thousands of likes per photo, and hundreds of comments per post. I keep talking about social interaction and how important it is, but I can’t stress that enough.
If you follow Denny’s, you’re always seeing them and their weird humour on your timeline. If you’re constantly seeing their name and their logo, you’re probably more likely to go there.
Also, when new promotions are presented to consumers in a fun or interesting way, they’re a lot more likely to take action. There are so many companies out there that are trying to access our malleable little brains and convince us to buy their products. If you don’t think of a memorable way to market yourself to us, we won’t care.
Denny’s Tumblr is sort of the hub of where it all started. I think the first viral post I ever saw about Denny’s was a screenshot of them responding to a question someone asked them. I’ve been talking about follower interaction this entire time, but their Tumblr is really just the pinnacle of it all. While on Twitter it is easy to get lost in the sea of replies, Tumblr allows users to send questions directly to an accounts inbox in a much more organized fashion.
I just went onto their blog to see what they had been up to lately, and I cam across this gem:
SOUP DU JOUR!! That’s hilarious, right?? Like, even just browsing through their social media accounts now I kinda wanna go and get some Denny’s, and I’ve never said that before. When I think breakfast, I think Fran’s, but that’s slowly starting to change.
Also browsing through their Tumblr, I found out that they’re nominated for a Webby award. That’s actually a pretty big deal to be honest.
They’re nominated in the Food & Drink category (obviously). But the reason I think this is a big deal is because the Webby’s are dedicated to people whose careers revolve around social media. Some of the other nominees include food blogs, food Instagrams, and even the Tastemade series on Facebook. These are all nominees that are solely social media based. Denny’s is just a company that happens to have a great social media team. And clearly they’re doing something right, because they’ve managed to associate themselves with the best of the best of social media, even professional Instagrammers.
Social media, as much as people may poke fun at being social media famous, isn’t all that easy. People, and especially companies, screw up on social media a lot. Denny’s has the right idea. Don’t take it too seriously. There’s so much bad news going around that all us youngsters want is some good, lighthearted fun.
Millennials are a huge market that not enough people appeal to. If you put something out there that we like, it has potential to go viral. And if your company goes viral, that’s HUGE for your company. We’ve learned a lot about the power of social media, but it seems like not enough companies are harnessing it. And I don’t mean just getting social media stars to talk about your product or company. While this can be effective, establishing your own brand on social media goes even farther.
Denny’s knows that associating yourself with social media famous people can only get you so far. I feel like their social media team has kind of looked at this method and thought “hmm, seems a bit passive to me.” And that would be right. Why just get the social media stars to talk about you, when you can become a social media star yourself? They really have just put themselves in the middle of this huge market and now everyone’s talking about them and their company.
To kind of close this off, I just want to say that people need to stop taking things so seriously. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, what really grabs my attention is someone — be it an individual or a company — who can appeal to my sense of humour. I know a lot of people who think this way, actually. Especially with millennials, if we can’t relate to something, we don’t usually pay attention to it. (This doesn’t apply to everyone or everything, but from a general perspective we like people and things that are relatable). Denny’s really come across as just one of the guys. They’re like your mostly funny but also kinda weird friend that you follow because you get a laugh out of the things they post. And you also follow them because sometimes you get mildly concerned when they get really weird… like this:
You good, Denny’s??
Jokes aside, whatever they’re doing, it’s working for them. Both followers wise, and financially:
In general, Denny’s stocks are worth more now than they have been in the past couple decades. While they’ve experienced some general ups and downs, and I can’t prove to you whether this is because of their social media tactics or not, I stand by saying that their humour has something to do with it.
But really, I think we all can learn something from this. There is no shame in being yourself — or whoever yourself would be if you were a breakfast chain. Even if you are trying to market yourself in a professional world, people want to know who you are. And if who you are is goofy and silly, don’t be afraid to let that shine through.
And with that, I will leave you with some of my favourite posts on the Denny’s Twitter.
Stay weird, Denny’s. We love you!
