Let’s just be real with each other for a second. If you haven’t heard about Denny’s social media campaign, then you’re old (sorry to have to be the one to tell you this).
For the past two years, everyone and their dog has been talking about how Denny’s successfully hit the quirky, lovable, social media gold mine, and quickly became the cut-throat leader of teen “likes” and “reblogs”. And yes, I’m talking about Denny’s the Restaurant. The place you probably brought your kids last weekend for pancakes; or, in early years, where you dragged yourself at 3am after a five hour punk rock battle of the bands to nurse your rapidly approaching hangover with a Grand Slam. Much like delectable breakfast foods, Denny’s just seems to get it.
“But I don’t!”, you sigh, “What appeals to Generation Y besides pictures of themselves and ‘The Bieber’?”
Fear not, I am your young knight in shining armor who is still relatively “hip” with the kids (#TheDress, Igloo Australia, very dog, mineral craving, bath products, etc.), and I am here to break down the basics of the Denny’s Tumblr account for you (you can thank me later by “liking” my selfie).
1. The Denny’s Tumblr is real.
But they’re so amazing and a break from the corporate America norm that no one believes them. #GoodProblemsOther popular asks include: “Denny’s are you Ok?” and “Denny’s are you single?”
Image by 2. They make social media a full time job and understand the different audiences associated with each platform.
For example….
The timely Mac tweet for Twitter: clever, delicious, trending, and lightning fast as necessary for the twitter-verse
vs
The Welcome to Night Vale fandom reference for Tumblr: Welcome to Night Vale being a popular podcast with a cult-like following on Tumblr (Google it.)
3. They make GIFs. But not only GIFs.
GIFs are, arguably, the most important use of the internet. If you aren’t going to invest any money in GIF creation then you should just get out of the game now.
Having said this though, it’s important to vary your media and not constantly post only one thing. Look at the Tumblr stats of the Denny’s Tumblr vs. Coca-Cola’s Tumblr. Denny’s has more variety and the notes they receive over time are more consistent.
Image by Grafik via Simple Tumblr Stats
4. They interact with their customers.
Fun fact: people like people. The personality and mystery in every Denny’s response creates a fun narrative and inspires a creative environment where brand and consumer interact. You can actually picture a living person running their social media and not a robot. This is the downfall of other corporate tumblrs like Oreo who have plenty of great visuals but zero personality. (Plus Denny’s reblogs selfies! Bae material <3)
5. They’re flexible and not constantly cramming the fact that they’re a business with a bottom line down everyone’s throat.
You don’t need to slap your logo on everything and constantly remind people that you only love them for their money—that’s not healthy! (I’m looking at you Coffee-Mate Tumblr, you sell coffee creamer, we get it, calm down.) That being said, don’t act like you’re “one of them” either; you’re still corporate America and you love that bottom line, you’re not fooling anyone! It’s that fragile balance every “cool parent” faces.
6. They don’t need a news story or natural disaster to occur to show they care.
We’re all human. Taking a break from the fun to throw that out there without an agenda to follow says a lot.
In conclusion, I think this quote from the infamous Leslie Knope sums it up best:
“We have to remember what’s important in life: friends, waffles, and work. Or waffles, friends, work. But work has to come third.”
