Burger King saw a surprising upside after its Twitter stream was recently compromised: Tens of thousands of people began following its account. The company had about 50,000 followers before the hack, but that number shot up to more than 110,000 after the incident. “Interesting day here at Burger King, but we’re back!” Burger King tweeted. “Welcome to our new followers. Hope you all stick around!” Twitter promotes its platform as a tool that companies can use to reach out to customers. But this incident turned that model on its head: Outreach efforts led to embarrassment with the hack, but then the apparent security breakdown aided outreach by generating new contacts with potential customers. At one point, Burger King’s profile message said that the company had been sold to McDonald’s. McDonald’s denied involvement, tweeting, “We empathize with our @BurgerKing counterparts…. We had nothing to do with the hacking.”
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.