Tweets For Sweets

Image by joedawson via Flickr

After the popularity of a certain hashtag over the weekend I was intrigued by the innovative approach to embracing the social media community by Skittles. The Mars-owned confection’s web page received a makeover to further the widespread view of Twitter’s ongoing transition to the mainstream. Skittles replaced its entire homepage with the Twitter Search stream featuring all mentions of the word #skittles.

It's generated a lot of activity on Twitter and I'm sure that I have lost followers due to my involvement. I see this as enhancing the interaction with the brand and harmless fun but naturally there are many that only look to exploit the freedom -

Naturally, people are already spamming the hell out of this. One tweet being repeated over and over again unfortunately uses a racial slur. As such, I suspect this little experiment will end rather soon for Skittles. I’m a firm believer in the power of Twitter Search as perhaps the most compelling thing about the service, but the candy’s use of the feature just feels gimmicky. It would have been better as a part of the site, not as the homepage. My advice: I know times are tough, but hire a web designer. [Source] MG Siegler

Update:

Skittles have made the inevitable decision to switch their homepage from a Twitter search for "Skittles" opting instead to use their Facebook fan page. A post on Mashable notes that it's possible Skittles plans to rotate the various social media channels on the homepage but I'm sure the spam was the deciding factor. I will update further with anymore developments :)

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