The Best Tweet Of 2012- Congrats @AMCTheatres

As the year is winding down I thought it was a good time to share one of my favorite tweets that I saw this past year posted by a major brand.  In September, The major cookie brand Oreo sent out a tweet to it’s 50,000+ followers asking:

Ever bring your own Oreo cookies to the movie theater?#slicksnacker

Now, I understand Oreo was trying to be cute and humorous in their tweet to their loyal fans.  But, the response that followed back from AMC Theatres was great.

NOT COOL, COOKIE. RT @oreo: Ever bring your own Oreo cookies to the movie theater? #slicksnacker

— AMC Theatres (@AMCTheatres) September 25, 2012

Yes, the tweet back from AMC Theatres was clever, witty, and definitely one that made you chuckle.  But, to me, what makes this tweet one of the best of 2012 is much more than the humor side of it.

As I travel around the country as a social media speaker, I often teach classes on how to use Twitter.  During those presentations, one of the key points I always try to stress is that Twitter is much more than just a way to advertise your new product.  In fact, I normally spend twice as much time covering ways to monitor things on Twitter because I think there is much more value in it.

What excites me more about the response from AMC is that they didn’t just sign up for a social network and started selling, they are actually listening and engaging in conversations.  Services like Twitter Search and Tweetgrid are tools that every brand on Twitter need to be familiar with and use on a regular basis to monitor their brand to accomplish this.

Going The Extra Mile

What I found even more amazing with this story is that AMC is going the extra mile in their online monitoring.  Many brands might set up alerts for when someone mentions their name, or a product they may sell, but they obviously were also monitory other keyword phrases like movie or theater.  To me, this is one of the best ways to effectively use a social media network like Twitter.  If they would not be monitor those types of terms it would be almost impossible to see when others are mentioning things directly related to their industry.

While selling movie tickets is part of the revenue AMC Theatres generated, my guess is that sales a concessions generate twice as much revenue as the actual ticket.  Think about it, when you go to a movie, do you buy snacks?  If you do, you can easily spend twice as much at the concession stand as you do on that ticket.  The real question I’d like to know, is if I can find an Oreo cookie at the counter next time I visit an AMC Theatre.