Two of the U.K.’s most venerated museums recently went to war on Twitter.
It began during #AskACurator Day on Sept. 13, when experts from more than 1,500 museums around the world took to Twitter to answer questions. One user, a self-described “part-time silly sausage” named @Bednarz, started the fracas by asking, “Who would win in a staff battle between @sciencemuseum and @NHM_London, [and] what exhibits/items would help you be victorious?”
“We have dinosaurs. No contest,” London’s Natural History Museum retorted – getting more than 1,400 likes and 400 retweets.
London’s Science Museum didn’t let that stand. “@NHM_London is full of old fossils, but we have robots, a Spitfire and ancient poisons. Boom!” it responded – generating more than 2,500 likes and 1,200 retweets.
In the exchange that followed – which spilled into the next day, when the Science Museum announced the two were friends again – the Natural History Museum touted its robot dinosaurs and vampire fish, which the Science Museum tried to one-up by tweeting about its “merman” and Polaris nuclear missile.
It was just the most recent example of brands taking to social media to spar with their rivals – a practice that, at this point, has a long history. For example, after McDonald’s tweeted in March that “by mid-2018, all Quarter Pounder burgers at the majority of our restaurants will be cooked with fresh beef,” Wendy’s fired back: “.@McDonalds So you’ll still use frozen beef in MOST of your burgers in ALL of your restaurants? Asking for a friend.” The rejoinder garnered more than 180,000 likes. Although McDonald’s didn’t respond, plenty of other people did, and Wendy’s egged them on. USA Today proclaimed Wendy’s the victor in this Twitter war.
These exchanges show that making fun of the competition on social media can be an effective strategy for building a brand’s exposure. But businesses considering this tactic need to tread carefully.
It’s not OK to attack someone smaller, weaker or less well-known.
Fortunately, following a few simple guidelines can help businesses from going astray. First, when starting a Twitter war with the competition, it’s important to use humor, not condemnation, according to Helio Fred Garcia, president of the Logos Consulting Group, who consults for Fortune 500 chief executives during social media crises. He also advises companies, “It’s OK to attack a market leader or the government. It’s not OK to attack someone smaller, weaker or less well-known.”
It’s also important to be brand-consistent. Garcia points out that companies such as Southwest are known to be informal, so consumers expect them to be playful. The funny way both museums showed off was in keeping with the spirit of #AskACurator Day, which is designed to make institutions more accessible to ordinary people. But a Twitter war probably wouldn’t make sense for organizations that consumers expect to be more serious – such as law firms or pharmaceutical companies.
And if you’re going to criticize a company for something specific, make sure the complaint is justified and the problem is of the organization’s own making. Garcia warns that if the company is itself the victim of a crisis – such as a hacking or natural disaster that disrupted operations – the tweet may be viewed as unfair.
A final thing to consider is whether your own organization might be vulnerable to criticism for the same thing for which you’re ribbing the competition, now or in the future. If so, it’s a safe bet that the company you attacked will choose that moment to retweet your post – and have the last laugh.
Kara Alaimo is an assistant professor of public relations at Hofstra University. Distributed by Bloomberg View.
