Denny’s tweet about Apple/Beats deal nails it

BREAKING: Denny’s Buys Beets for $3 Billion, Makes Huge Salad

— Denny’s (@DennysDiner) May 29, 2014

The tweet blew up, with about 2,000 retweets and nearly as many favorites. It’s missing a lot of what brand social media managers believe are requirements for tweets, too. There’s no link to an article explaining what the joke is about; readers either get it or they don’t. There’s no call to action (“Come to Denny’s and get one of our signature salads today!”). And it worked. Mashable interviewed Kevin Purcer, senior vice president and director of digital strategy for Erwin Penland, the Greenville, South Carolina, firm that runs Denny’s social accounts. He said the idea was for the company’s tweets to feel like “sitting in a Denny’s booth, just hanging out.” “So much social media activity is like ‘Do you like burgers? Retweet if so,'” he added. “It’s pretty pointless.” Denny’s is simply committed to silliness. Here’s another tweet, which references a line from the HBO series “True Detective”: