One of Twitter’s most powerful attributes is its ability to deliver real-time search. Rather than wait for blogs and web pages to be scraped, archived and inserted into search results, Twitter allows for instant searching of the thousands of brief messages its users generate each day.
Companies have already begun using Twitter to douse PR fires, service customers and promote sales. Now one US candy-maker is using Twitter’s real-time search as a way to show off just how much people are Tweeting about it (and flaunt its social media savvy).
Skittles, the Mars candy brand, today replaced its homepage with a Twitter-search for the word “Skittles.” (There was also a navigation widget with links to other pages.) In doing so, Skittles essentially handed over control of its page to Twitter-users, for better and worse.
Early indications suggest the campaign is a success. The Skittles meme went viral on Twitter, and “#Skittles” is today’s most-popular term on the micro-blogging site.
But by entrusting users with the content of its homepage, Skittles opened itself up to some embarrassment from mischievous Twitterers. Indeed, one Tweet that appeared on the Skittles homepage was decidedly not kid-friendly. It read: “@qwghlm More like: ARE SKITTLES MAKING PAEDOPHILES OBESE?” (Anticipating as much, Skittles required visitors to verify their age before they could view the results of the Skittles Twitter search.)
This isn’t the first time Skittles has ceded control of its homepage to users. Last month Skittles.com was for a time replaced by the candy’s Wikipedia entry.
Skittles and its ad team, Agency.com, have clearly demonstrated their social media smarts with this campaign. Getting the online world buzzing about a 35-year-old candy is no easy feat, and will likely be a boon to the brand.
The question now is if Twitter can demonstrate equivalent business savvy. With no revenue model to speak of, Twitter is in need of one if it is to be a serious business, and not just a fad. Cofounder Biz Stone has said Twitter will make money by charging businesses for enhanced services. Given the success Skittles has had with a Twitter search as its homepage, it seems like levying a fee for this privilege would be well within Twitter’s rights.
UPDATE: A reader observes (via Twitter, of course) that ad agency Modernista! has been doing as much, with Facebook at least, since March of last year.
UPDATE 2: Another reader informs us (via Facebook) that the homepage of Skittles.com is now the candy’s Facebook page. Clicking the “Chatter” button on the navigational widget still brings up a Twitter search for “Skittles”. Her verdict: “The home page is now the more boring FB option…”
