[Original #3] An Unexpected Groundswell

From the past few weeks' classes, we've learned how to listen, talk and energize the groundswell so that a business could gain huge benefits from it. While the groundswell is often started intentionally by some forces behind the curtain, it may also come from unexpected sources, such as, an individual who has never thought a simple post would trigger a celebration across the entire social network.

Carter Wilkerson, a teen in Nevada, has always been an ordinary boy until April 6, 2017. On that day he made a post on Twitter asking @Wendys how many retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets? And @Wendys replied quickly with “18 Million.” 18 million retweets seem to be an impossible mission consider that even some celebrities' popular tweets have no more than 4 million retweets. But Carter still posted this bet between him and Wendy's through his Twitter account, calling for help.

The original post of @carterjwm

Things went wild after @Wendys retweeted Carter's post. Many Twitter users doubted if it could really reach 18 million, but still, they chose to help Cater because they want to see an amazing ending. People built up the hashtag #nuggsforcarter, and actively retweeted his post, calling for peers' attention. Within two days the original post received over 1 million retweets, and the number was still growing at a fast rate. Since then, other brands and celebrities have all provided their support for Carter, including @Microsoft, @amazon, @Google, @aaronpaul_8 and T-Mobile CEO John Legere. United Airlines promised Carter if he gets the 18 million RTs, they would provide him a free flight to take him to any Wendy's in the world. Mattress Firm, on the other hand, promised a food coma sleep pack and John Legere said that he would give Carter a year of free nuggets himself if Carter switches to T-Mobile.

On April 8, the post reached 1 million RTs

Other brands and celebrities joined this Twitter campaign

It is in less than two months that Carter' post reached 3.4 million retweets. Carter Wilkerson has successfully ousted Ellen DeGeneres' Oscar selfie for the world record of the most retweeted tweet of all time. Because of this amazing achievement, @Wendys decided to give the boy one-year free nuggets, and 100K USD donation to The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, even the total number of retweets were still 1/6 to the 18 million goals. Ellen DeGeneres also put aside her anger of being outshined, inviting Carter to The Ellen Show on April 18^th (see the video below).

Carter with his certificate

Carter Wilkerson's one-man campaign just indicates the great possibility of the groundswell. We have never expected that a post from a nugget-loving boy would gather more buzz from social media than the selfie of a group of world's first-class celebrities. Carter Wilkerson became a social media star because of a bet he made with Wendy's. There are many lessons we could learn from #nuggsforcarter. The groundswell is building upon a value that most people would agree on. 18 million retweets sound like an absurd goal, but many people still support Carter saying that “follow your dream” or “if you love sometime, go after it”. “Following one's dream, no matter how hard it might be” is what lies at the heart of Americans' spirit. People would be more motivated if their share common feelings.

The interaction between @Wendys and other users

And we should not forget that @Wendys was actually the biggest winner in this bet. The business received so much popularity and media exposure in those days, at the cost of a year of free nuggets. It seems a wonderful bargain. What we can learn from @Wendys is “never ignore minorities”. A small spark could be the start of a prairie fire if you add substantial “fuels” into it. Many other brands would have let his tweet go unanswered given at the time he only had a few thousand followers, but @Wendys not only gave a swift response, and followed up this movement for the whole time, actively interacting with Carter and other people involved. Instead of a challenge recipient who watched the movement went wild, @Wendys played more like the strongest supporter of Carter. Sometimes listening and responding to your customer, no matter how small the voice is, could reward you more benefits than investing millions of dollars in a grand campaign.