Author Archives: Traci

About Traci

http://www.heytrace.com/
Traci currently represents MapMyFITNESS, Inc. despite running a 15:00 mile and having little interest in cycling, aside from hot dudes in spandex. Previously, she was the community manager for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. She has worked on consumer and tourism accounts in the New York offices of Edelman, Fleishman-Hillard and Development Counsellors International. Her achievements include a nomination for a 2011 Texas Social Media Award, a mention in the New York Times (for something professional, even), the Girl Scout Gold Award and unlocking the Animal House badge on Foursquare. She graduated from Baylor University in 2005 with a B.A. in Journalism-Public Relations and minored in sorority life and Malibu rum. She currently lives in Austin with her rocket scientist husband, three cats, and a Darth Baby on the way. Her inane ramblings can be found at http://www.heytrace.com and are in no way a reflection on her employer. She doesn't always drink beer, but when she does, she drinks Strongbow.

Whitney + Waffles = Whaaaa?

February 20th, 2012 | Posted by Traci in Social Brands - (5 Comments)

We’ve all heard of “best practices” for social media. Don’t just promote yourself. Reply to tweets. Talk to your audience. Stay relevant. When do we go from “staying relevant” to “WTF?”

Earlier this morning, Waffle House tweeted the above to their audience. The responses were about what you’d expect from Twitter:

My personal favorite is ol’ Phil reminding The House That Belgians Built that he, too, enjoys the sweet, cake-like delicacies. Who doesn’t?

For our accounts, I’ll post about holidays when it’s relevant, like how to fit workouts into your busy December schedule (shameless plug: you can log activities like singing carols and housework on MapMyFITNESS.com). However, I generally tend to stay away from posts like the above unless it’s directly related to fitness, like when Olympian Grete Waitz passed away last year.

Truth be told, I’m waffling* over how I feel about this. On the one hand, why shouldn’t they post about it? Whitney Houston was a well-known singer, to say the least; she was the first woman to have an album debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, in addition to her other achievements. (We’ll ignore her sordid personal life for the sake of brevity.) On the other hand, WTF does this have to do with waffles?

What say you? Should brands incorporate more cultural news and trends like this into their social posts, or should Waffle House have left this post covered? (And smothered. And scattered. You get the idea.)

 

*I can hear you groaning.