Fracking Firm Encourages Industry to Imitate Taco Bell’s Twitter Strategy
Can fracking firms win public support through social media by replicating the whimsical style of Taco Bell’s Twitter account?
That was one of the goals discussed at an Energy Digital Summit event with Brittany Thomas, an external affairs coordinator for Cabot Oil and Gas, a leading hydraulic fracturing company.
Big corporations, major retail chains and fast food brands have attempted to improve their image and score points with millenials by embracing social media slang. “We thought we were bae,” tweeted AT&T, in a typical message of the style repeated ad nauseam by other corporate accounts attempting to interact with customers. (Definition of bae.)
Thomas explained to a conference room full of industry executives last summer why it matters that Taco Bell once needled White Castle on Twitter over the correct usage of “you’re.”
“It’s a person tweeting this,” Brittany exclaimed. “I geek out about this stuff and I tell my family,” she continued, “and all of the sudden your message has left the social realm and it’s at people’s dining room tables and they’re telling their coworkers. It’s the reason why Twitter tends to drive the news now. It’s funny when things go viral!”
“That’s a dream of mine, that we all talk amongst ourselves and interact like other brands do,” Thomas said.
Oil and gas companies are steadily increasing their footprint on social media, hiring specialized public relations firms and developing “visual shorthand” infographics that can be shared easily on Facebook and Twitter.
For Thomas, social media presents a cost-effective way to win hearts and minds.
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