What Happened When I Posted a Picture of a Rat’s Ass on Twitter

I posted this on LinkedIn a couple of years ago and was reminded of it during a recent conversation with fellow bees, Kevin Pashuk and Graham🐝 Edwards. If you ever wondered what makes people favorite your content on Twitter, this is an interesting experiment. 

“You could post a picture of a rat’s ass on Twitter and somebody would favorite it.” It was a quip I made as part of a discussion I was having with a colleague about social media in general, and Twitter in particular. We were talking about how people mindlessly click the favorite button on Twitter. Once I said it, I knew I would have to try it, so the next day I found this ugly picture of five rat’s asses and posted it with the comment, “I was wondering about this.” Sadly, it only took about 20 minutes to get a favorite. 

Obviously, there is nothing particularly engaging about this tweet, but having the chance to see what people click on is as interesting as finding out why they click. I didn't want to embarrass the lady by asking her why she gave me a favorite for that picture, so I am left to assume she just got click happy. It may be, however, that she really likes rats and thought they had cute little bottoms.

I decided to do a little internet research about Twitter and found this cool link from Ad Week. It gives you some great information about how to intentionally trigger positive social media reactions. I also found this on Slate which provides answers to "the why" of a favorite. My personal opinion is that some people favourite an item so that you will notice them and perhaps follow them. That one didn't make the Slate list at all. 

Could we be wasting our time with our content? Despite the rat incident, I still believe that producing and sharing high quality content is really important in today’s social media marketing world. To be fair, even though this picture did get a favorite, I am happy to say that most of the other content I posted on Twitter got more favorites and re-tweets than the rats. There is hope for quality content after all!

Few public relations & communications specialists have as diverse a background as Renée Cormier. Add published author, employee engagement specialist, sales and marketing strategist, entrepreneur and educator to her list of accomplishments. In her career Renée has held leadership roles in sales and marketing, developed and implemented national marketing strategies and was responsible for teams as large as 28 strong. She brings a wide range of experience and talent to her work.

Renée really shines in marketing communications. She is known for developing and implementing comprehensive communications strategies and generating results through flawless implementation. With such strong business acumen, passion for her work and a natural talent for business strategy, Renée is definitely considered an important resource for her clients. Is your business in transition? Do you need help with your communications or public relations efforts? Contact Renée through her website.

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