Forced to Twitter?

You may remember a recent escapade by two teenagers at a Domino's pizza. They were filmed doing gross things to pizza, the video was put on You Tube and immediately became a viral sensation. Teenagers have been doing crazy things with food for years, so nothing new, right? What makes this story so unique is the role of social media. Let me illustrate this in a timeline:

1. Teenagers act goofy, film it and post it on You Tube
2. Domino's (corporate) finds out about it via a blog
3. Domino's scrambles, trying to decide how to react
4. The video gets over 1,000,000 hits on You Tube
5. Bloggers and other pundants spread gossip like wildfire because Domino's is silent
6. Domino's starts responding to rumors via Twitter
7. Domino's CEO posts his own response on You Tube

Let me pause on this timeline to add the all important element - time. All of the above happens in less than 48 hours. This leads to my point about social media. One of the goals of social media is for companies to be transparent through instant communication. Within 48 hours, a corporation the size of Domino's pizza is expected to learn of the disaster, formulate a strategy for recovery, and then react.

Another very interesting point is the forced reaction it caused. This one silly act from teenagers forced a corporate giant to forgo a planned social media marketing strategy in order to immediately start reacting to the public outcries. Until this point, Domino's didn't have a Twitter account. Two days later, they had over 1,000 followers. What did the competition think? They were busy on Twitter having their own fun with the matter.