School of Information Systems

Wendy’s’ Twitter

Social media is a communication tool that most people today use on a very frequent manner. It can also be also useful tool that businesses today could use to connect with many people, be they are customers or just potential customers. Use it right, it may bear a rather promising result for the business. Just like a website, social media can potentially be beneficial to a business. There are similar goals that a business could do to gain considerable profit from social media.

One of the most commonly used social media platform is twitter. There is a unique stunt where twitter is used by a fast-food company, Wendy’s, contrary of what a typical business uses social media for. Normally, a business would formally post about what is happening in their business, whether it is a promotion or just a direct information regarding the business. It is not the case with Wendy’s. A few years ago, Wendy’s started to behave as if they are just a regular person on social media. It began when they roasted some people and even one of their competitors, McDonald’s. Ever since, they have been continuing their unusual way to run a business’ social media. They interact with many people, roast more of their competitors, and even tell jokes. They do not behave like a stiff formal company, but instead like a regular person. It really distinguishes them from many other companies.

Wendy’s’ twitter antic one of their web goals and that it is to entertain the audience. The benefit for them may not be very direct, but it definitely piques many people’s interest in lurking Wendy’s’ twitter account which may presumably get them exposed to Wendy’s products. The Internet was in shock at the first time seeing an official twitter account of a business tweeting something which is rather unusual for a formal business to tweet. They get the needed attention from people by entertaining them with their rather shocking tweets.  As a result, some of people might get interested in buying Wendy’s product eventually. Statistically speaking in a time span of 3 years, Wendy’s has garnered more than 2 million followers since they have begun their quirky social media stunt. Wendy’s’ twitter account is also the first fast food twitter account that appears if someone searches “fast food twitter” on Google.

Today, many companies begin to follow suit what Wendy’s do on twitter. Businesses, like McDonald’s, Pepsi, and even tech company like Origin, begin to tweet like Wendy’s. Perhaps, it is a new standard of social media behavior for business pioneered by Wendy’s. A behavior that resembles how a normal person run their own social media account/

Wendy’s’ unusual behavior on twitter, to some extent, could possibly influence the audience into buying their product though indirectly. It piques many people’s interest in seeing what they serve on social media – primarily twitter. It have the possibility to change the whole landscape of how a business should run their social media account.   It is indeed a brilliant marketing plot for a fast-food company to sell their products in this social media era.

Nuril Kusumawardani Soeprapto Putri & Ivan Farhan Amien