The MoonPie Twitter account is slowly becoming the only good thing about Twitter
When it comes to how companies should handle their social media presences, there are a lot of competing philosophies. Some businesses will only use their channels to promote emotionless branded content or promo codes. Others go the engagement route by constantly pestering their followers with polls, surveys, and contests. It’s only the most daring companies that will take the ultimate risk of letting their social media manager do whatever the hell they want. That seems to be the option MoonPie has gone with for its Twitter account, and it’s quickly becoming the only good thing about that accursed website.
On Thursday, while everyone was having their daily freak-out about the implosion of our democracy, the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based confection company tweeted out what can only be described as a branded mental breakdown. The sugar-coated cry for help was enough to inspire one MoonPie fan to reach out and make sure the sentient snack cake was doing all right. This resulted in one of the more bizarre social media exchanges in history.
MoonPie’s laid-back, humanlike approach to corporate social media is as refreshing as it is effective. People used to say that no one likes a hard sell. But in our increasingly postmodernist society, consumers are savvy enough to see through even the softest of sells. For the most part, people would prefer it if companies just stopped beating around the bush, gave customers a little credit, and said, “We’d like you to buy our damn product, please.” So, that’s pretty much what MoonPie has been doing for months.
In a world that’s growing ever bleaker, we can only hope that the MoonPie tweeter continues their crusade of being weird online. That is, until their boss finds out what they’ve been up to.