Getting your brand noticed on social media is becoming increasingly difficult. As more organizations have embraced social, networks have become saturated with branded messages. After a while, calls-to-action stop biting, and everything starts to look the same. For brand managers in control of social media, fighting against stagnation and coming up with truly original ideas is the primary challenge.
Taco Bell answered this problem on Tuesday not by doing more on social, but by doing less. To generate hype for its new app, which gives users the ability to order and pay for food before picking it up at a Taco Bell location, the fast food company "blacked out" its social media networks, leaving behind only single posts on Twitter and Facebook that direct users to download the app and use the hashtag "#onlyintheapp." The company also rendered its homepage and Instagram account in black, deploying the same, simple instructions to users to check out the new app.
Regarding the drastic changes to the company's social accounts, Tressie Lieberman, senior director of digital platforms for Taco Bell, told USA Today, "We wanted to make sure our fans were the people who found out about this first. We wanted to break through with a message that gets them excited and talking."
Whether or not you're looking to chow down on a chalupa anytime soon, you have to admit that Taco Bell's social media black out is creative. In a welcomed break with many brands' social strategies, it's also not obtrusive or annoying. Rather, the stunt gets directly to the point, delivering the company's message promptly—which, after all, is the point of branded social media in the first place.
Follow Brian Greene on Twitter: @bw_greene