Note: This was featured as part of our Web Wednesday segment on Charleston’s 105.5 The Bridge with Box in the Morning. You can catch us every Wednesday morning at 8:20 am ET for your dose of social media & digital marketing news. You can listen to the segment below:
It’s less than two weeks into the new year, but already we’ve seen a few things on social media that have blown up. We love viral content, so we wanted to talk about a few of the most popular social media happenings thus far in 2017.
1. The Wendy’s Twitter Feud
Wendy’s has a great social presence. They’re a well-known national brand, but they’re great at responding to as many of their mentions as possible. They recently had one exchange with a non-believer in their “Always Fresh, Never Frozen” slogan, and their audience loved it.
Wendy’s sent out a tweet at the end of 2016 with a pretty cheesy caption on a photo of one of their burgers, saying “Our beef is way too cool to ever be frozen. ?”
Our beef is way too cool to ever be frozen. pic.twitter.com/QuXECJtlq5
— Wendy’s (@Wendys) December 30, 2016
The non-believer tweeted back, and thus began one of the greatest Twitter exchanges in 2017.
Wendy’s final clapback was what really caught everyone’s eye, and we’re all applauding the shutdown of this internet troll.
2. Elon Musk Listening on Twitter
As a successful businessman and the founder of many large companies, you may think that Elon Musk certainly doesn’t have the time to check his Twitter notifications. Well, you’d be wrong.
A frustrated Tesla owner recently tweeted Musk directly complaining that drivers are always parking in the charging spots, rather than charging and going on their way. Musk responded to the tweet that same day, and then Tesla announced a new charging policy only six days later on their website:
“We designed the Supercharger network to enable a seamless, enjoyable road trip experience. Therefore, we understand that it can be frustrating to arrive at a station only to discover fully charged Tesla cars occupying all the spots. To create a better experience for all owners, we’re introducing a fleet-wide idle fee that aims to increase Supercharger availability.”
The Tesla app alerts drivers when their cars are charged, and drivers will now be charged a $.40 fee for every minute their car remains at the charging station.
If that’s not the perfect example of how social media customer service should work, I’m not sure what is.
3. Meryl Streep’s Acceptance Speech
Meryl Streep is an icon, and was this year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 Golden Globes, but since her acceptance speech, you haven’t been able to say her name without sparking a political debate.
During Streep’s speech, she called out some of the President-Elect’s rhetoric without even calling him by name, eliciting a response from the PEOTUS himself on his Twitter account.
This has undoubtedly been a topic of interest on both sides.
4. The President’s Farewell Address
Regardless of how you feel about our current president, there’s no denying he’s had quite the presence on social media. And his farewell address was no different. Social media blew up last night during his speech, with many media outlets sharing quotes, photos, and videos from the speech and throughout his entire eight years as president.
His own POTUS Twitter account shared one of his best quotes last night, and the closing of his speech.
There are 50 weeks left of 2017, and we can’t wait to see what other viral sensations this year brings us!
