Over the last few years, as companies have looked for a competitive edge when it comes to their social media campaigns, the medium, and particularly social listening, has become more and more fast-paced.  Tweets which are well timed and relevant to followers have the ability to garner huge attention and go viral in minutes instead of hours or days.  The epitome of this is Oreo’s legendary “You Can Still Dunk in the Dark” tweet, which was made within a few moments of the power going out at the Superbowl.

But where does this race to become faster, more relevant, and to reach users in unusual circumstances end?  john st thinks it never will.  Or, they do think it will but they might

The moral of the story?  Content is king.  Trying to be faster is only useful if the message is particularly engaging and engaging content usually takes time to create.  And let’s be honest with ourselves, Oreo’s tweet was pretty great, but they are just a cookie brand.  Did the tweet really send people rushing to the shops for Oreos and milk?  Probably not.  More likely, it just made Oreos seem little bit cooler than they were before.  Which is great but how much of purchase behaviour for cookies is governed by the coolness of the brand?  I suspect very little.  I would rank “flavour” and “texture” far above “wittiness of social media campaign” for my purchases of baked treats.

I could be wrong of course but unless Oreo’s business is set up to register every time their cookies are scanned at a cash register, I doubt Oreo could prove otherwise.