Denny’s major social media fail

Denny's social media links

Denny's social media links

Tracie and I wound up at Denny’s for a late dinner last night after Halloween activites. Don’t ask why we wound up there instead of our favorite go-to spot, Pita Jungle. Anyway, I noticed that Denny’s had redone their menus and I was impressed with them. The design was great and to top it off, they prominently featured links to their Facebook, Twitter and web site on the back. Not only did they put the links on the menu, they encouraged people to “Join the conversation”. Really? A company that understands social media is for conversations, not promotions, advertising or any other one-way BS? Amazing! I was so impressed I TwitPic’d the back of the menu.

Thanks to my friend WO, I quickly found out that @dennys on Twitter actually belongs to some guy named Dennys Hsieh in Taiwan. Seriously. How the hell can a company as big as Denny’s print menus prominently featuring a link to a major customer engagement channel and get it wrong? I wouldn’t have believed it until Saturday night.

UPDATE: Thanks to Jamie’s find, the real Denny’s Twitter is @DennysGrandSlam. I’m guessing there was a little cut-and-paste error when someone copied the Facebook link and turned it into the Twitter link.

UPDATE: Three months later and Denny’s social media fail finally gets bigger media attention. Daniel Terdiman at CNET wrote a blog post which mentioned my original post. Major scoop for me!

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  • wesleytech

    Hahaha! That's a serious FAIL!

  • http://www.jamiemulhern.com/ maventheavenger

    Bwa-hahahahaha!

  • http://www.stacyholmstedt.com/ Stace

    Ouch. Maybe @Jenny's is available for the Denny's on 7th and Camelback?

  • http://www.stacyholmstedt.com/ Stace

    Ouch. Maybe @Jenny's is available for the Denny's on 7th and Camelback?

  • http://twitter.com/benatkin Ben Atkin

    I think @dennys should get to keep his username. If twitter transfers it over to Denny's Inc, that would be a douchebag move IMO.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Are you sure they don't have that already? :)

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Well, it would be a little rude, but Twitter states that they don't allow name squatting. If Denny's is truly their brand name (which I think they could make a case for), Twitter could compel the guy who has @dennys to give it up.

  • http://www.askjeremyjones.com JonesIMA

    oops! what a gross error! haha, funny you caught that, nice one!

  • http://twitter.com/benatkin Ben Atkin

    Well, he signed up on March 2, 2007, and his first name is Dennys. It's not squatting. It would be squatting if he took DennysRestaurants, though.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Good point. I guess @Dennys is a little more common of a name than something like @CocaCola. :)

  • benatkin

    I think I made more of an issue out of it than it really is. It really comes down to whether twitter is focused on building trust with its loyal user base or going after the big brands. It probably makes sense to go after the big brands. But in the case of Denny's, why raise a ruckus if they're going to #fail at making use of the username once they get it, anyway?

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Good point!

    • Leann

      All I can say is that someone has probably lost their paid position with Denny’s Restaurant and a couple of guys named Denny could cash in if they need a little $. The restaurant could choose to decline but it would be…another fail.

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  • http://twitter.com/denny Denny

    I get a tonne of tweets intended for Denny's, just because people don't think before they use an apostrophe in a username. Mostly people who can't spell in general, it has to be said.

    I also get a lot of tweets meant for Denny Hamlin, from people who think usernames can have spaces in them somehow.

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  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Funny that people don't realize that usernames can't have spaces, or that @Denny is not @Dennys. Have you gotten pressure from Denny's or Twitter to give up @Denny? They seem to think they can make @Dennys give up his username, so I was wondering if they're thinking about getting your username too. I don't really think they'd have a case to make you give up @Denny, but you never know what companies will try.

  • http://matthewpetro.wordpress.com Matthew Petro

    Funny that people don't realize that usernames can't have spaces, or that @Denny is not @Dennys. Have you gotten pressure from Denny's or Twitter to give up @Denny? They seem to think they can make @Dennys give up his username, so I was wondering if they're thinking about getting your username too. I don't really think they'd have a case to make you give up @Denny, but you never know what companies will try.