It's me, your best friend, Arby's!

October 28, 2021 7:21 AM

Looking for smart writing (journalistic, think piece, academic, you tell me) about the "friendification" of corporate social media.

Corporations crackin jokes, making memes, dissing each other, being, I guess, "friendly" online. Why do corporations think we want this content? When did it start? Has it changed over time? Does it actually work? What should I be reading on this topic? What are the "classic examples of the genre"?

Thanks hivemind, you have never steered me wrong yet.

posted by athirstforsalt to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: Sarah Z explores some aspects of this in her video The Late Capitalism of Fast Food Twitter.
posted by Pwoink at 7:27 AM on October 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Kara Swisher interviewed, on one of her podcasts, the guy who writes for Arby's (I think...maybe Wendy's...all corporate meat variation sales kind of blur to me). Everything is based on a social media cost of entry matrix. How much $$ to get the kinds of views and go viral and not be deeply alienating. That's it, really. A PR team created the plan. So: which social media platform, writing character development that dug into tone, responsiveness based on platform, how far to the edge was the brand comfortable with.

So, non-organic. Not rogue. Not some recent grad sitting there going off while all the executives are asleep. A plan to capture a slice of viral content, on an expected timetable, on targeted social media platforms.
posted by zerobyproxy at 7:42 AM on October 28, 2021 [5 favorites]

Best answer: I found this piece on the evolution of Arby's voice -- the strategy shifted in 2014 when they tweeted to Pharrell Williams about his very large Grammys hat -- and which also talks about how some other fast food chains shifted to a conversational voice (like Chipotle) or even faux-trolling (Wendy's tweets to McDonalds).

And then there's this, from Delish: "When Did Food Companies’ Social Media Get So...Weird?". This one is great, really quite interesting with a lot of examples from different corporate social media accounts.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:04 AM on October 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In terms of its origins, I wonder if it started with “wackaging” as firms tried to develop an alternative and more personal voice through the written words on their products. This article is UK-focused but locates the origins of that in the late 90s and early 2000s. As firms developed a social media presence it would have been a fairly natural progression to adopt that voice there, too.
posted by greycap at 10:24 AM on October 28, 2021

Best answer: Nathan Allebach Behind The Legendary Steak-umm Twitter Reveals How The Brand Immersed Itself In Internet Culture And Avoided Becoming ‘How Do You Do Fellow Kids?’ (knowyourmeme.com)

Brand Twitter Grows Up How corporate social media (mostly) moved past its awkward phase and connected with audiences. (Nathan Allebach for Vulture)

(I am not Steak-Umm)
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:56 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]