After watching Applebee’s get social media management so wrong starting Friday with their social media meltdown and continuing through the weekend, it’s somewhat relieving during the Super Bowl blackout tonight to see some big brands prepared to respond and even have personality and some fun while they are at it! (…didn’t hear about this unbelievable Applebee’s social media fail that just won’t end? No worries check out this post “Applebee’s Overnight Social Media Meltdown: A Photo Essay” to catch up). Yes the lights went out during Super Bowl 47 and about 28 minutes later they came on – that story is old. The story I’m intrigued by is how some brands were able to step up and have some fun with the #blackout. Seeing these brands step in with real personality, wit and humor as well as some good ad placements (many for free) shows that some brands have taken time and spent the money to place quality social media managers as well as entire PR teams in place to ensure they are covered. My guess is none of these brands will be flailing around in a nightmare social media PR controversy anytime soon (although I guess never say never as I would never have guessed Applebee’s to go down this social media fail path). Here are some screenshots of tweets and FB posts I saw tonight (many shared by followers and friends of mine on Twitter – thanks everyone for sharing!) Congrats to the brands who made these 28 minutes a lot of fun! @Oreo I believe was the winner with this Tweet and image- Who doesn’t love Oreos in the dark? And with over 13,000 retweets many people agree! 
@Tide with a catchy tweet and image Tide was a top winner in the response and fun category. 
I found a handful of Brands with witty twitter responses…although they may not have full ad/images ready to go – but their tweets were fun and got a lot of fan/follower interaction so they are all winners. What I like is they show the community mangers are well trained and allowed to think for themselves. I also believe each of these brands has community managers that are professionals whom their employers take serious and understand that social media community managers are valuable and important.
Here’s what @JimBeamOfficial had to say:
@SimCity‘s twitter response was classic and fits so well with their product:
@Walgreens had a fun responses – who would of thought that the corner of happy and healthy would come up with this quick response? Nice work guys!
@Audi was quick to respond with their own light humor…
@BWWings response was simple but funny and got a bit of positive attention which was good since their Super Bowl ad did not appear very popular on twitter…
@StateFarm may have had a somewhat mundane response – but it made me chuckle as it fits with what they do…insurance…not the most exciting product but good to know they have advice in a blackout…
And we can’t leave out @CalvinKlein…a little eye candy never hurts anyone…below is their tweet but click here to see the Vine post they attached to it (it’s worth watching this)
