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Not Nominated, Arby’s Wins on Grammy Night

Amidst the 33 marriages and Madonna scrutiny at this year’s Grammy’s, Arby’s managed to arguably win the best Tweet award.

In response to Pharrell Williams donning a hat not unlike the one in Arby’s logo, the company scored with this tweet:

Hey @Pharrell, can we have our hat back?

To add to the triumph, Pharrell himself came back with a great retort:

Pharrell Williams ‏@Pharrell

Y’all tryna start a roast beef?

And a “Congeniality Award” must surely go to both Hyundai for its comment “well played, well played,” and Pepsi’s for its re-tweet with a one-word-comment: “Win.”

Adweek reports Arby’s tweet had 15,000 retweets and 40,000 favorites by the day after the Grammys.

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Two Twitter Skeptics Walk Into a Bar @SXSW

Yesterday in Austin, I was having lunch at the bar at Champions. Mike, a guy sitting next to me, said he was working in the AV department for SXSW. I mentioned it was nice to be talking to someone in person for a change here in Austin. He mentioned that he and his wife recently were discussing “face-to-face” contact and how Twitter/Facebook impedes that. We both mentioned we originally didn’t “get” Facebook or Twitter, but have now been assimilated, he more to Facebook, and I to both Twitter and Facebook.

I apologized for looking at Twitter while talking to him. I was trying to find out where some of the people I follow on Twitter were in Austin, at the same time decrying the trouble I was having meeting people at the conference because people were always on their phone. I had spent a day and a half at conferences where I would rarely get the chance to talk to anyone next to me because they were on their phone. (Disclaimer: okay, I was on my phone, too.)

As we discussed whether Twitter served a great purpose or not, I saw a tweet from a SXSWpresenter, Kristina Halvorson (@halvorson). She said she was in Ballroom A for her presentation, which began in about 45 minutes and she needed a wireless microphone. Um, I thought. I’m sitting right next to an AV guy for the conference. I turned to him and explained what had happened. He didn’t seem to believe me at first. He put his head in his hands and said, “She’s “TWEETING” about that?” It sounded silly to him at first. Then he realized he could actually do something about it.

He got on the phone, called one of his co-workers, and had them go to Ballroom A to assist Kristina. Still in shock, he shook his head and said, “What are the odds that you would get that tweet and would be sitting next to someone who could do something about it?”

As we contemplated that, we conceded there was more to this Twitter thing than we realized. My guess is Kristina used all her options – trying to find someone in the center and sending out an SOS on Twitter. Maybe the Twitter SOS was more of an update for her and she didn’t expect someone to really help her. I don’t know if Kristina got the help Mike sent her way, or if she had already found someone in the convention center to help her. But her tweet could have been the answer to her problem, due to Mike’s dispatching.

What’s the lesson here? That some seemingly innocuous Twitter updates may mean more to others than to you? Sure.

But also: That face-to-face stuff is still important, or else I wouldn’t have met Mike and gotten an actual solution for Kristina.

SXSW rocks! (Twitter’s not so bad, either….)

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For Me, The Twitter/Kutcher Net Race was all about the Other Nets

It’s hard to escape the buzz about Ashton Kutcher beating CNN in the “Twitter Race.” Opinions abound on the subject:

  1. I DON’T CARE!!!
  2. Power to the People!
  3. Twitter has turned into a popularity contest
  4. Twitter is now officially – heaven forbid – MAINSTREAM
  5. This is Changing the Face of Media
  6. Twitter is dead (meaning either it has caused its own demise or for the more dramatic among us: “you are dead to me, Twitter, sob, sob, dead to me”)

And Oprah will talk about web phenom Twitter with Ashton on TV today. Ah, the synergy.

I admit I was one of the people egging Kutcher on. On Facebook, I even posted updates of the “race” in an effort to get people to “follow” Kutcher on Twitter. Was I motivated by “beating the man,” namely the corporation CNN? Nah, for me it was all about the malaria nets.

The cynical among us will call Kutcher’s promise to buy 10,000 anti-mosquito nets for Africa a marketing ploy, a cheap trick, etc., to get his Twitter followers to a million. Is Kutcher just looking for more publicity? Or is he really trying to show the power of the people on social media sites?

In the end, does all that matter? Not to me. For me, it was always all about the anti-mosquito nets. If even one life could be saved, it was all worth it. And 10,000 malaria nets will surely save many lives. That thought makes me feel all warm and happy. Sure, Kutcher could have donated that money anyway without the contest. But I give him credit for turning what could have been just a publicity stunt or ego race into a humanitarian act.

Recently Kutcher was lagging behind CNN in the race, even with the promise of the nets, before Electronic Arts stepped in and offered to put the one millionth “follower” in their new video Game SIMS 3. At first, the percentage of new followers being added actually dropped off, as people were apparently waiting for others to join so they could be closer to the one millionth mark and possibly hit it. So Electronic Arts added more prizes to random follower numbers to encourage participation. And it worked. So self-interest induced many to “follow” Kutcher on Twitter. But whatever the motivation, things worked out great for the people who will never get malaria because of the promised nets.

So kudos to Kutcher for reaching out to people on Twitter. He has been taking questions and comments and responding to tweets, so he is being a good social media user.

But kudos most of all to Kutcher and to us for saving lives. Now that’s the real power of the people.

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Twitter: 1, Pizza (Domino’s): 0

When two Domino’s employees posted an online video this week showing them tampering with food in particularly disgusting ways (and no, I’m not going to link to it – I believe it has been taken down anyway), a company spokesman said they knew people on Twitter were wondering what the company was doing about it.

“We got blindsided by two idiots with a video camera and an awful idea,” said Tim McIntyre, a Domino’s spokesman.

“Even people who’ve been with us as loyal customers for 10, 15, 20 years, people are second-guessing their relationship with Domino’s, and that’s not fair.”

According to McIntyre, “Well, we were doing and saying things, but they weren’t being covered in Twitter.”

Apparently McIntyre didn’t understand how Twitter works. It doesn’t “cover” things. It is, of course, an online community where anyone can post anything and respond to anything – including companies.

McIntyre was told about the existence of the online video on Monday. The video had been viewed more than a million times by Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday afternoon, Domino’s set up a Twitter account. By Wednesday evening, Domino’s chief executive appeared in a YouTube video.

McIntyre said, “It elevated to a point where just responding isn’t good enough.”

I think McIntyre missed the point. Domino’s was responding early on, but not on YouTube, the site where the video was seen, and not on Twitter, the site where people were asking questions. Granted, two days to produce and post a video is not bad. But the ability to monitor their brand on Twitter and to respond immediately to critics existed before this crisis. If Domino’s had already been on Twitter, they would have gained a couple of extra days of damage control.

I admit I was a Twitter skeptic. I still personally prefer Facebook to comment on people’s posts and to follow threads. I like having the comments listed together as they are on Facebook.

But for companies to get out information on their brands, Twitter is great. The short comments are an ideal venue for people to speak out and for companies to follow the comments.

I’m sure brands who haven’t taken to Twitter yet will be thinking twice now about getting a Twitter account. And for those looking for work, how does “Social Media Specialist” sound?

Footnote: And oh, yeah, as for the two lame-os who thought it was “funny” to cause a PR nightmare for a company in this already beaten-up economy: welcome to the unemployment line.

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