Did Allstate really try to crash its own Twitter account?
Typically, having one of your web pages crash in the middle of a promo is a bad thing, but Allstate actually wanted its @Mayhem Twitter feed to crash as part of a recent social media promotion. If you’ve seen an Allstate commercial recently then you’ve seen their character, “Mayhem,” a personification of the dangers stakeholders may encounter, doing everything from trashing cars to putting holes in roofs.
Allstate brought Mayhem to Twitter, and immediately attempted to induce Twitter’s “fail whale” crash screen with a continuous flow of nearly 450 tweets about whales as part of its #TwitterMayhem campaign. Although they didn’t succeed in creating a crash, the @Mayhem account does have over 22,000 followers after less than a month of existence, certainly no small feat.
Wow. Apparently #FailWhale too scared to show face. Shut down after 447 whale tweets #ChalkItUpAsAWin #TwitterMayhem pic.twitter.com/fcGSQSZRqQ
— Mayhem (@Mayhem) September 25, 2013
In the course of having all this fun and driving sales Allstate is also creating a great big cushion of goodwill with stakeholders, something that comes in handy when it’s time for the serious business of crisis management and reputation repair. Having some fun AND reaping benefits? Sounds like a win-win to us.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]