Brands like Wendy's and DiGiorno are making headlines for being clever and cheeky on social media (especially on Twitter) but companies wanting to replicate some of their engagement methods may want to go about it a different way.
Sprout Social has released its
Q2 2017 Index and three-quarters of consumers surveyed believe there's value in brands exhibiting humor on social but only one-third actually want brands to bring on the snark full force.
This compares to Sprout Social data that indicates the majority of consumers buy from brands that are honest (86 percent), helpful (78 percent) and friendly (83 percent). If being "sassy" on social media seemed off-brand or even off-color to you, trust your instincts as the data proves there are better approaches.
That said, both Wendy's and DiGiorno have highly engaged audiences and are both doing one thing absolutely right: listening. Above humor, being responsive is a brand action on social that prompts consumers to purchase.
Across industries, Sprout Social states that the average brand response rate is just 12 percent, and it takes brands an average of 11 hours to send those responses. That's a one hour increase from the average response time a year ago in Q2 2016. Before enlisting the help of humorous marketers who can respond cleverly to incoming messages, brands need to be sure they're monitoring inbound communication and professionally resolving any issues that arise.