Currently, there’s a silly trend populating Twitter feeds everywhere, one that uses the #ItsOkayToCheatif hashtag. The tweets responding to the trend are primarily from bored kids who are trying to sound deep and compelling, or maybe even humorous. Ultimately, it’s a throwaway trend that will fall by the wayside in an hour or so.
But, one car care company in particular provided us with a valuable lesson on how to capitalize on even the most innocuous Twitter trend in order to promote their business. The company in question is Meineke, and instead of adding yet another throwaway tweet about when it’s acceptable to cheat, their social media manager demonstrated a nifty way to use these silly trends to your business’ advantage.
Take a look:
@meinekecarcare
Meineke Car Care#itsokaytocheatif on changing your oil if you want your engine to get destroyed. Bring this coupon and keep it honest http://t.co/kjRZXesU
19 minutes ago via Social Office Suite · powered by @socialditto
When the link is clicked, visitors are taken to a Meineke coupon page that features a Twitter special coupon:
In fact, the URL of the linked page is revealing in and of itself:
http://www.meineke.com/twitter/
And that, folks, is the correct way to capitalize on a Twitter trend, regardless of how silly it may or may not be. Granted, something like this would obviously not be appropriate if it was done in an insensitive manner, like, say during the outpouring of tweets concerning the Japanese earthquakes or the tornadoes that trashed various cities around the United States earlier this year.
However, if it’s a throwaway trend we’re talking about, something the #ItsOkayToCheatif trend clearly is, then tailoring a promotional tweet to fit such a trend is a great way to take advantage of all that Twitter noise. Now, can a coupon page actually be considered a signal to be acknowledged over the normal Twitter noise? Perhaps not, but it’s still an effective way to leverage something all the Twitter users are discussing.
Hey, even bored kids with not much to do need oil changes too, or at least, their friends who have cars do.