Friday, July 26, 2013

Fake It Till You Make It #ChipotleTweets


Most of the tweets posted Sunday were intended to tie into their 20-day long treasure hunt called "Adventurito," which features 20 days of puzzles. Sunday's fragmented tweets were clues of the ingredients they use to make their mouth-watering guacamole. Most of the clues from "Adventurito" have been popping up all over the place and this was the first time they tied them into their social media presence, which surely confused a lot of people.


This past Sunday, American food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill did something out of the ordinary in the social media world; they faked their own Twitter hack.

Chipotle took the expression "fake it till you make it" to a whole new level. According to Mashable its main account, @ChipotleTweets, posted a series of confusing and seemingly random tweets over the course of an hour. Now, the company has come forward and admitted that it faked having its account hacked as part of a publicity stunt tied to its 20th anniversary promotional campaign.


In the end, however, it worked out in Chipotle's favor. A representative from the company, Chris Arnold, reported to Mashable that their Twitter account added more than 4,000 followers the day of the "hack," compared to its normal rate of adding about 250 followers a day. The supposedly hacked tweets, which have not been deleted, were retweeted about 12,000 times. By comparison, Chipotle's Twitter account usually sees about 75 retweets per day.


What do you think about this social media saga? Would you advise your brand to stage a Twitter hack? We want to know!


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