If you want to make your home the No. 1 destination in your neighborhood this Halloween, then load up on Skittles. According to social analytics provider StatSocial, the Mars Inc.-owned treat is the most influential candy brand on Twitter.
StatSocial ranked candy brands with a proprietary metric it calls "Twitter pull" (see infographic below), which it uses as a proxy for Twitter influence and popularity. The analytics company says it aggregates data using "30,000-plus defining variables."
That Skittles came out on top is not a huge surprise. (Sadly, Black Jack chewing gum didn't make the cut for the top 19.) Skittles has long excelled at interacting with its fans on Twitter. The brand constantly speaks directly to fans on Twitter, and will tweet random jokes that have nothing to do with candy. Among its recent tweets:
"Be sure to stock up on Skittles now so when Halloween comes you can eat them all while pretending you're not home."
"Heads up, Rainbow on the bridge! Okay, seriously, #SweetorTreat party people? Your tweets and ideas are awesome. Just had to tell you."
"The days are getting shorter, but don't talk about it, because they're really sensitive about it."
And it doesn't hurt to have brightly colored packaging that you can tweet every 20 minutes. Maybe that's where Black Jack went wrong.
Infographic: StatSocial
Follow Steve Goldstein: @SGoldsteinAI