From unhinged tweets to nostalgic pop-ups, Chili’s is proving that brand legacy isn’t a liability—it’s a marketing advantage.
Chili’s opened its doors in 1975 as a quirky burger joint in a converted postal station on Dallas’ Greenville Avenue. With a Southwestern flair and a laid-back, neighborhood vibe, the brand quickly expanded, becoming synonymous with casual dining throughout the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s. Signature items like baby back ribs and the Triple Dipper turned Chili’s into a household name, but as fast-casual trends evolved, its cultural relevance began to fade.
For years, Chili’s was more meme than must-visit. Just a relic of early-2000s dining culture known more for Triple Dippers than trendsetting. But in 2024, something shifted.
Without a rebrand, menu overhaul, or flashy new name, Chili’s has reentered the cultural conversation and not by accident. The brand has transformed from punchline to cultural player through platform-native content, unapologetic food fandom, and a chaotic-yet-confident tone.
This is what happens when a legacy brand stops chasing relevance and starts owning it.
Want to dig in even deeper? Check out the ListenFirst Quick Service & Fast Casual Restaurants brand set to see all the brands mentioned in this article and more.
What’s Happening: From Meme Energy to Real-World Moves
Chili’s resurgence is rooted in a modern playbook: don’t sanitize the brand, amplify what makes it distinct. Across platforms, the chain has embraced tone, timing, and community to drive real engagement.
X: The brand fully embraced absurdist, meme-literate humor with one-liners like “If your man isn’t taking you to Chili’s tonight, break up with him!!!!!!” Paired with surreal visuals, like baby back ribs floating in space, Chili’s racked up 348,762 engagements in Q1 2025.
Instagram: Chili’s highest-volume platform (659,789 engagements) is powered by lo-fi “bad flyer” design, mouthwatering close-ups, and punchline-driven carousels. Every post is engineered for scroll-stopping humor and hunger.
TikTok: On TikTok (305,588 engagements), the brand thrives on behind-the-scenes chaos, employee humor, and UGC-style food stunts. The tone is unpolished and personal, key to resonating with Gen Z audiences.
Offline Activations: Chili’s has taken its internet energy into the real world with IRL moments built for shareability. From a parody “Buy Now, Pay Later” booth in NYC to a The Office-themed pop-up in Scranton, these stunts doubled as content and earned media.
The Results:
#6 in total social mentions (113,408) in Q1 2025
+41,285 new followers across platforms
Outpaced Applebee’s (+8,054) and BJ’s (+2,190)
This isn’t just noise. It’s equity in action.
What Competitors Are Missing
Chili’s isn’t just winning on content—it’s pulling away from peers in both Engagement and tone. Other casual chains have history, but few have found a way to make it resonate in today’s culture.
Hooters: Despite broad name recognition, the brand is struggling to stay relevant. With just 17,305 engagements and 2,190 mentions in Q1. As cultural values shift, its core identity is increasingly viewed as outdated or out of step, making its legacy more of a liability than an asset.
TGI Fridays: Closed 36 locations in early 2025 and is now exploring a “bankruptcy bounce-back” strategy. On social, just 38,579 engagements and 5,843 mentions suggest brand fatigue and declining visibility.
Red Lobster: Under new CEO Horace Dawson, the brand is simplifying its menu and investing in loyalty and delivery infrastructure. Q1 results: 96,028 engagements and 10,671 mentions—a modest but meaningful step toward cultural relevance.
Olive Garden: Still strong (823,080 engagements and +25,190 new followers), though its more traditional tone leaves room for evolution.
Texas Roadhouse: Consistent but quiet, with 104,068 engagements and 9,442 mentions—solid performance without a clear cultural POV.
These examples reinforce a key truth: brand memory is not the same as brand momentum. Even once-iconic brands can lose ground without evolving their voice and values in a cultural climate that values inclusivity, self-awareness, and originality.
Internal Alignment: Culture Drives Content
Chili’s didn’t just get louder on social—they got smarter. In an age where most brands are chasing the next viral format, Chili’s found its voice by leaning into a few consistent, fan-fueled pillars that now define its social identity.
It all starts with food fandom. Every chaotic meme or offbeat caption still circles back to what matters most: craveable comfort. Whether it’s a $5 margarita or “11 a.m. beer energy,” the content always leads with appetite.
Then there’s internet literacy, a quality that sets Chili’s apart from brands trying too hard to speak the language of TikTok and Instagram. Their posts riff on fan comments, remix native meme formats, and easily tap into platform jokes. It never feels like they’re crashing the party.
Creative repetition builds a sense of community. The recurring phrase “I am what I am” shows up in surreal visuals and inside jokes, creating a thread for fans to follow and remix.
And they’re not doing it alone. Influencer alignment has helped extend Chili’s tone across foodie and humor verticals. Partners like @callmebelly, @salt_hank, and @devourpower don’t just promote—they play. The brand has become a sandbox, not a script.
But the real reinvention happened behind the scenes.
When CEO Kevin Hochman took the helm in 2022, he pushed for more than just punchy tweets. He pushed for cultural alignment. “We wanted people to feel proud to say they’re a Chili’s person,” he said. That internal pride now shows up in every caption, carousel, and kitchen-side video.
The impact has been measurable:
Restaurant morale is up
Customer traffic has increased
Net Promoter Score (NPS), a key indicator of customer satisfaction, has improved over the past 12 months
The social wins reflect something deeper. This is a brand that finally feels like itself again.
It’s also worth noting that Chili’s isn’t chasing polish. They’re leaning into formats that invite interaction rather than admiration:
Carousel memes with indulgent food and punchy copy
Behind-the-scenes reels featuring staff humor and day-in-the-life content
Polls and prompts that blur the line between engagement and R&D
Micro-campaigns tied to food holidays like National Margarita Day and Triple Dipper Tuesdays
These aren’t just posts. They’re inviting participation, and the audience is RSVPing in droves.
Key Takeaways for Marketers
Be loud, not random: A bold tone works when it’s rooted in product and pride.
Know your platform lanes: Tailor execution—X for chaos, TikTok for reels, IG for visual humor.
Create your own trends: Chili’s doesn’t chase vibes—it shapes them with a distinct POV.
Let culture lead: Internal buy-in empowers experimentation and multiplies creative confidence.
Remix nostalgia: Legacy isn’t outdated—it’s remixable IP waiting to be refreshed for today’s scroll.
Final Thought: Legacy Isn’t Lame—If You Own It
Chili’s isn’t chasing trends—it’s curating them. By blending millennial nostalgia with Gen Z’s taste for irony and vibe checks, it’s become more than a restaurant—it’s a brand with lore, fans, and momentum.
The broader truth: Legacy brands don’t need reinvention. They need recontextualization.
In today’s feed economy, the most future-facing move might be to own your past—and make it weird.
Chili’s Public Social Stats as of April 20th, 2025
Looking to get started with social media and wondering where to begin? Here is your guide.
Social media is no longer an ancillary marketing channel for brands to explore. In a world where content continues to reign king, an effectivesocial media marketing plan is critical to your brand’s success.
The rightsocial media marketing planserves as a guide to achieving your desired marketinggoals. By incorporating key audiences and personas, core tactics, assigned roles and responsibilities, and critical social media KPIs, you can identify and track your brand’s success.
The first step? Getting started.
That’s why ListenFirst created a simple guide to kickstart yoursocial media marketing strategy. Let’s dive in.
Social media marketingfocuses on creating relevant content for social media platforms that connects with your audiences, drives engagement, and increases brand awareness.
While there are infinite variations of this definition, the bottom line is social media marketing is about engaging customers in a relevant, authentic way to help them understand your business, connect with your brand, and ultimately drive leads and increase sales.
Today’s brands understand the increasingly indispensable role of social media marketing. According to our 2022 Social Media Trends Survey Report, more than 55% of brands surveyed increased their social media spend during the first two years of the pandemic. And just over half of brands planned to increase spending further during 2022.
What Are Your Goals?
Setting tangible, measurable social media goals is key to success.
Only 14% of marketers can always tie social media efforts to ROI. Being able to set clear goals around what signifies social media success and accurately measure performance is essential for an effective social media campaign.
Think big. Ensure yourplanaligns with overall business goals.
Do you want to grow awareness? Consider goals related to audience growth.
Are you set on increasing brand affinity and loyalty?
Set a target for engagement rates. Is brand love your focus? Aim for a positive social sentiment.
Incorporate short-term and long-term social media goals into the mix and plan to benchmark progress along the way.
As the infamous business strategist Tony Robbins put it, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
Who is your audience?
Identifying your audience and persona research.
While it may seem obvious, audience and persona research is a step that is often overlooked when developing asocial media marketing plan. To create impact, know your target audience so you can customize content to fit their specific needs and interests.
Here are some key elements to consider:
What platforms do they use?
When do they use these platforms? Why?
What content do they engage with?
What other brands and/or influencers are they following?
What inspires emotions?
The right social media analytics solution can provide the full picture of these insights for your brand – quickly and easily. This video explains how.
Creating Personas
Go one step deeper and develop research-based personas to bring your target audience to life. Classify your customers into specific groups based on their desires — and plan to tailor your content accordingly.
A persona can include your ideal customer’s role, their goal, and their segment:
Role
A customer’s job description, responsibilities, tasks, and external factors related to their interaction with your service. These factors typically relate to business, work and productivity.
Goal
What the customer is trying to achieve. Goals have a timelessness that roles do not, and should be differentiated from “tasks.” For example, for an online shoe shopper an easy registration process is not their goal, it is a task on the way to buying shoes.
Segment
Characteristics the customer shares with many other customers such as demographics, psychographics, attitudes, and/or behaviors.
Research-based persona categories may revolve on a single main descriptor, for example, a Gen Zer who regularly watches reality TV on Netflix. Or a main descriptor with multiple sub-elements, for example, a Gen Zer who regularly watches reality TV on Netflix, spends time gaming, and gets their news from Instagram.
There are many tools that can help you glean insight from your target audiences and create buyer personas.
It pays to use an in-depth social media analytics solution to easily view audience insights for each social media platform. A comprehensive dashboard, like the one shown below, can help you establish a baseline of competitive audience demographics, languages, geography, and brand affinities to craft the most high-impact, tailored social media marketing plan. Additionally, it can provide in-depth knowledge of current campaigns and what your audience is responding to and why.
The right social media analytics solution can also help you reach new audiences by identifying new trends in your industry to maximize the number of people you reach.
Discover which brands, people, events, and influencers your audience finds interesting, and use that to inform your messaging and creative. By doing so, you can form more targeted, successful partnerships. Plus, you’ll learn how to create engaging content to keep your customers interested.
What Social Media Content Will You Share?
Knowledge is power. Once you have a deeper understanding of your audience and buyer personas, you can develop shareable content that resonates.
But with social media trends ever-changing, what kind of content is the question? Here is some inspiration to help.
Humanize your brand
By now, you should have a specific “voice” for your brand. Be consistent in tone, and don’t be afraid to show the behind-the-scenes processes, the day-to-day work culture, and other aspects of your brand that make it truly unique.
For example, Ben & Jerry’s is a brand who sees politics and social justice as very central to their culture, with them donating 7.5% of their earnings to social causes. These values are also front and center in some of their most popular social media posts. Their top performing post in April 2022 was an Instagram Gallery about cannabis justice that got 191,916 engagements, while their top performing post in June 2022 with 105,541 engagements was an Instagram post outlining their disagreement with their parent company selling their ice cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
User-generated content
We’ll talk later about how to get the entire company involved in sharing, but when it comes to user-generated content, think about some of your biggest brand advocates — your customers. Can they provide reviews, or use a specific hashtag to share experiences with your brand?
One of the most successful examples of brands using user generated content is the TikTok user Nathan Apodaca, who went viral on TikTok, for a video where he’s drinking Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice and singing along to a Fleetwood Mac song while on a skateboard. Ocean Spray shared his video on their Instagram account where it got 102,013 engagements. Additionally, the top performing social media post of 2020 for Ocean Spray with 163,096 engagements was a follow up Instagram video where they gave Apodaca a new car.
As new forms of content continue to surface, it’s important to keep your finger on the industry’s pulse to uncover the latest trends. Right now, here are some forms of content your brand should consider.
Short-form video
With the advent of TikTok and Instagram Reels, it’s no secret that video should be top of mind. According to research, the average person will spend 100 minutes a day watching online video.
Short-form video content, in particular, is what social media consumers most resonate with — and research shows time and again that they get the highest conversion rates.
How dominant is short form video for brands at this point? Between January – July, 2022, 58% of the top 100 social media posts by episodic TV brands with the most engagement were published on TikTok. That includes the top performing post, a 12 second Tonight Show TikTok video featuring Noah Schnapp and Maya Hawke from Stranger Things that got 8,367,300 engagements.
It’s not just brands that are inherently video focused benefiting from sharing short form video through TikTok. The 5 social media posts that generated the most engagements for fashion brands between January and July 2022 were all TikTok videos.
Paid partnerships with influencers
According to Forbes, “influencer marketing is stronger than ever; brands are projected to spend $15 billion on influencer marketing during 2022.”
As social networks like Instagram and TikTok make the in-app shopping experience more seamless, this creates a wealth of opportunity for brand partnerships to thrive with shoppable products at their fingertips.
Images and Galleries
While video is here to stay, images are still an important and essential part of the social ecosystem. In fact, as Instagram continues to push video content, they are seeing a backlash from many users with a desire to bring back more images.
When thinking about your content flow, aim for galleries over a single static image. In a recent webinar, Top 5 Social Media Trends Driving Brand Engagement, we found that during August 2021, 33.5% of engagement on brand content was coming from gallery posts compared to only 18.9% of engagement happening on single image posts.
What Times Will You Post?
As the saying goes, “timing is everything.” Yet on the flip side, there is no one size fits all solution for the perfect time to post content on social media.
A social media analytics feature like our Instant Insights can help you determine the right times for your brand. It will give you the core elements, like the best time of day, day of the week, words, emojis, and hashtags that make up the best performing social media content.
For example, in a recent report focused on hospital brands, data showed that 56% of all industry Reels are posted between 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., resulting in some of the lowest average engagement on videos. As a result, we recommend hospital brands post their Reels between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.
By benchmarking performance against your brand’s historical performance and competitors’ performance, brands can get a clearer picture on what posting windows makes the most sense for them specifically.
How Will You Measure Success?
As management guru, Peter Drucker, said, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Yet many brands still struggle with proving the value of their social media marketingcampaigns. The key to successful measurement hinges on leveraging social media analytics.
Set social media marketing KPIs that align with your business goals
When it comes to setting social media marketing KPIs that will have an impact, less is more. Start with your business goals. Ask yourself, how do those translate into social metrics or outcomes?
Identify metrics that matter
It’s critical to do industry research prior to determining the most logical social media marketing KPIsfor your brand.
Of course, you want to look at historical trends for your brand as well as for your competitors. But there’s also a lot to gain from reviewing other aspirational brands who’ve accomplished what you’re after. Even if the brand is not a player in your industry, understanding benchmarks across industries will give even more context on performance goals and best practices.
Then ask yourself, what’s a reasonable expectation for your brand based on the historical data and performance across other brands? Focus on metrics that speak to non-paid audience activity around your brand such as Interest Score, and look at metrics that normalize audience size, such as Response Rate, which shows engagement relative to the number of followers your brand has.
Social media KPIs are crucial to your brand’s success. A data-driven approach will help in measuring social media engagement as well as your goals, and continuously improving upon them.
Reporting is key to tracking your progress.
Reporting that allows you to see all of your cross-channel data in one view is essential. You’ll also want to set up reporting that will allow you to see the most important metrics, including your benchmarks and historical trends, at a glance.
Dashboards are a great way to communicate the story the data is telling to your key stakeholders. Configurable dashboards are an invaluable tool that allows users to build a series of dashboards to best match their team’s goals.
How Will You Optimize Your Strategy?
The social media landscape is ever-evolving. The TikTok “revolution” serves as a prime example of this. Brands that want to stay relevant to today’s consumer must constantly work to optimize their social media marketing strategy.
Tap into audience sentiment
A sentiment data analysis can help identify opportunities or trends impacting your brand. Once you understand how your audience is feeling and why, you can gain a better sense of what you need to do to change the course of your plan or campaign.
Refine your creative content
Once you’ve nailed down your audience, it is crucial to ensure you are continuously engaging them. Make changes if needed as you discover what inspires action.
By focusing on elements such as color, product, talent or layout that perform best, you can create more impactful campaigns.
Instant Insights from ListenFirst helps you optimize your visuals and messaging, so your content always delivers against your goals.
How To Get The Entire Company Sharing?
Employees should always be seen as a valuable asset. But when it comes to your social media marketing plan, did you know employees are one of your most powerful tools to achieving success?
According to The State of B2B Social Media Marketing Report, nearly 50% of CMOs said that employee advocacy was their best-performing social initiative. Their second highest-performing social initiative was social selling, coming in at 32% — another form of employee advocacy.
So how do you get your employees to walk the walk? Here are a few simple tricks.
Create a social culture
Ensure that your employees can access the appropriate and relevant social media channels at work – and that they feel comfortable doing so. This creates a more social media-friendly culture, where employees will be more apt to share your company content.
Share third-party content
Relevant and credible third-party content is a great way to build thought leadership and bring more attention to your social media feeds. Think about content related to your industry or community. Make sure you tag the appropriate organizations and/or thought leaders to extend your content to a larger network.
Connect employees to the vision
Your vision isn’t for management and management alone. Share your social media marketing goalsmore broadly, and explain how they tie into your brand’s overarching strategy. Employees will buy into these goals and be more motivated to work toward them as a team.
Notify your team
Many social media networks, like LinkedIn, now have features to notify your employees when you make a post. Take advantage of this feature to cast your message – and encourage more reach and engagement.
Recognize employee contributions
Are you employees making strides in social media sharing? Whether it’s a virtual high five or a company shout-out, be sure to let them know their efforts are seen and appreciated. Positive reinforcement will encourage your employees to continue to engage and spread your brand’s message.
In 2021 for example, the top performing Tyson Food content on social media was a Facebook post that got 67,493 engagements about Jeannie, a team member who secured 1.4 million meals for military families. Overall in 2021, the 43 posts Tyson Foods shared using the #TysonTogether hashtag promoting their employees averaged 2,501 compared to their 195 posts not using that hashtag averaging only 98 engagements.
Are You Ready for Prime Time?
Is your social media marketing plan ready for prime time?
Our premier social media analytics solution can help you unlock social insights, optimize social media marketing, and maximize social media ROI. To learn more about ListenFirst, you can request a free demo.
The Social Media Reaction To Roe v. Wade Getting Overturned
While getting consensus on anything involving abortion might seem impossible, people on both sides of the issue probably can agree the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will likely end up being the most impactful Supreme Court ruling in decades. So what do brands need to know about the social media reaction to this court decision?
Here’s how the social media audience is responding to Roe v. Wade being overturned, both in general and around brand messaging specifically.
The Official Ruling Was Far More Impactful Than The Leak
It was widely assumed Roe V. Wade was about to be overturned, as a month earlier a draft of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling was leaked to the press. However, the leak didn’t mute the social media reaction to the decision becoming finalized. In fact, there were 7,235,816 Tweets mentioning either Abortion or Roe V. Wade on June 24, 2022, the day the case was overturned. That is 4.8X as many Tweets mentioning those terms as there were on May 2, 2022, the day Politico published a leaked draft of the decision.
Brands Coming Out On Social As Pro-Choice Aren’t Seeing Significant Negative Impact
Dozens of major companies have pledged to cover their employees expenses if they need healthcare out of state, including abortion services. However, brands have been hesitant to post about this on social media (and in some cases, publicly discuss those policies in general).
For the brands discussing their new healthcare policies on social media, there didn’t appear to be any significant blowback. For example, DICK’S Sporting Goods got 170,259 engagements on Instagram (a 27.78% response rate) and 199,133 engagements on Twitter (a 54.53% response rate) for a post announcing they would reimburse their employees up to $4,000 if they, their spouse, or dependant need to travel out of state to have an abortion. DICK’S had a net gain of 6,330 social media followers on the day.
Similarly, GoPro shared an Instagram post saying “We support women.” and they’re enhancing family benefits for their employees to include abortion, adoption, and IVF treatment. That post got 28,965 engagements and had a 0.15% response rate, with GoPro adding 5,190 followers to their social media accounts on the day it was posted. Meanwhile, Live Nation Entertainment got 20,080 engagements and a 4.03% response rate for an Instagram post saying they stand with women, will pay for employees’ out of state healthcare expenses and are matching Lizzo’s donation to Planned Parenthood and Abortion Rights. Live Nation Entertainment gained 130 social media followers on the day.
Also notewothy, Ben & Jerry shared 7 posts across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about fighting for abortion rights between June 24-25, 2020. Those posts got a total of 115,660 engagements and an average response rate of 0.53%. Most engaged of those posts was an Instagram gallery focusing on all the other existing rights Ben & Jerry felt the Supreme Court could potentially take away because they’re not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution. The brand gained 3,003 new followers over the two days.
The Reaction Was More Mixed For Video Game Brands Being Pro-Choice
Electronic Arts (EA) committed to expanding the benefits to their U.S. employees around their healthcare in a post that got a combined 13,865 engagements on Instagram and Twitter. However, EA had a net loss of -7 followers on the day, and many of those engagements were negative. For example, the post on Instagram got a comment saying “”EA caring about politics more than of they games [ sic ]” that got 289 Likes and a comment that said “we dont care drop skate 4 [ sic ]” that got 239 Likes. It’s worth noting EA’s post didn’t directly mention either Abortion or Roe V. Wade.
Ubisoft did gain 3,088 social media followers on the day they posted on Facebook that “reproductive rights are human rights” with the post getting 943 engagements. However, the top performing comment on the post with 81 thumbs up and 12 hearts read “Brand out of touch again? Imagine thinking it would be popular to publicly support the killing of babies.“
Brands With A Primarily Female Audience Were Most Likely To Speak Out On Social
By far the most brands posting about Roe v. Wade being overturned were brands with a primarily female audience, especially around Fashion, Beauty, and Home Furnishing brands. The most popular of these was a Lululemon Instagram post that got 137,281 engagements and a 3.30% response rate saying “reproductive rights are human rights” while announcing they’d be making a $500,000 contribution to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Other brands focusing on saying women’s rights are human rights or reproductive rights are human rights include PacSun, Francesca’s, and Parachute Home.
Gucci got 81,348 engagements and a 0.17% response rate for a “My body, my choice” post on Instagram that also talked about their CHIME FOR CHANGE campaign which since 2013 has been fighting for gender equality. A number of other brands shared “Your Body, Your Choice” or “My Body, My Choice” focused messages, such as Rituel de Fille, Chloé, Tatcha, Madewell, and The Body Shop.
Athleta got 36,292 engagements and a response rate of 4.50% on an Instagram post saying employees on GAP Inc. healthcare can travel to other states to get healthcare. Dove, Benefit Cosmetics, and Hanna Andersson were other brands talking about giving their employees out of state health care options.
A number of other brands talked about who they were donating money to, or who they wanted you to donate money to. Companies that said they were donating to pro-choice organazations or other organazations focusing on women’s rights included Peach & Lily, Prose Hair and Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare.
In some cases, brands got more in the weeds discussing what the Supreme Court actually wrote. For example, Pacifica Beauty, shared a quote from Sotomayor, Kagan, and Breyer’s dissent while Boy Smells analyzed Clarence Thomas’s additional opinion to see what other protections might be at risk.
In other cases, CEOs just used brand channels to share personal feelings of frustration. Tory Burch wrote a note to her employees on Instagram expressing her outrage at Roe v. Wade being overturned which got 13,201 engagements, while Jeffree Star Cosmetics got 6,013 engagements on a Tweet where Jeffree said he’s in utter shock.
Pro-Life Brands Were Silent On Social Media
ListenFirst looked extensively for examples of brands commenting on social media about Roe v. Wade being overturned with Pro-Life messaging, and almost without exception those posts just didn’t existed (excluding politicians and news brands). That includes brands that had publicly discussed their religious rights in the context of the First Amendment in the past. The one place where Pro-Life brands did speak up on social was around very specific films.
BREAKING: Supreme Court OVERTURNS Roe v Wade
VICTORY!
We’re thankful for the bravery of SCOTUS to render this decision in a volatile political climate. We pray for their safety, and for our nation in the aftermath this decision will bring.https://t.co/Rtsr2kEpzg
Unplanned, a drama about a Planned Parenthood employee who becomes an anti-abortion activist had 584 engagmeents on a Tweet thanking the Supreme Court of their bravery and praying for their safety in a volatile political climate. Meanwhile, the movie Persecuted, a 2014 Christian drama got 25 engagements on a Facebook post saying “Glory to God!!” and “The lord cares for the unborn!!” linking to a news story about Roe v. Wade getting overturned.
Given that polling shows 60% of US adults disapprove of overturning Roe v. Wade, combined with the verdict having already gone their way, brands with pro-life leadership likely didn’t see much to gain by posting about the decision on social media.
‘We Will Adopt Your Baby’ Goes Viral
Between June 26 – June 28, there were 285,797 Tweets using the exact phrase “We will adopt your baby”. The trend started because a Twitter user took a picture of an anti-abortion couple outside the Supreme Court, holding up a sign with the message. It turns out the couple aren’t U.S. citizens and can’t legally adopt children in America, but regardless, the image went viral in a cyberbullying context.
People shared the “We will adopt your baby” text with various pictures of sinister looking couples. A second strain of the meme, focused on a picture of a different couple holding up a sign saying “Please don’t abort, we will adopt your baby!”. That photo it turns out was actually from a 2019 Facebook post, and not directly related to the current Supreme Court decision.
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Conclusion
For a subject touching on people’s religious beliefs, their sense of autonomy about their own bodies, and existential questions on when life begins, it’s unlikely brands would or should have their messaging shaped by what others are saying on social media. That said, given most people in America get their healthcare through their employer, it is an issue companies are thinking about which has potentially long-term consequences.
Brands have to factor in the personal beliefs of their leadership, the divided preferences of their own employees, and how transparent they are about their policies with consumers. In weighing all those factors, it’s important to review social media analytics from a brand marketing point of view. Understand how your audience is responding to these hot-topic conversations, before you post about the issue. A principled stand is a principled stand, but brands should not fly blind when joining the conversation in the very public arena of social media.
Which Food And Beverage Brands Won July Fourth On Social
When a holiday’s biggest sporting event is literally a hot dog eating contest, that’s a pretty clear indication of how important food is to celebrating July Fourth. The National Retail Federation estimated $7.7 billion would be spent on food items around Independence Day this year. For CPG Food and Beverage brands, the holiday is an especially opportune time to connect with the social media audience.
So which brands and tactics were most successful in their July Fourth related messaging? We looked at the social media analytics to identify the biggest winners around alcoholic beverages, non alcoholic beverages, and CPG Food.
Non Alcoholic Beverage Winners
Looking at the non-alcoholic beverage brands averaging the most engagements on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for their posts mentioning either July Fourth or July 4th between June 28 – July 4, 2022.
By The Numbers: Non alcoholic beverage brands averaged 475 engagements for the 90 Fourth of July related social media posts they shared between June 28- July 4, 2022.
Preferred Format: Gallery posts stood out by averaging 1,959 engagements. Single Image posts by non alcoholic beverage brands with Fourth of July messaging averaged 494 engagements, while video posts averaged 129 engagements.
Best Performing Channel: Instagram posts averaged 959 engagements. By comparison, Facebook posts averaged 323 engagements, TikTok posts averaged 90 engagements, and Twitter posts averaged 26 engagements.
Timing Is Everything: July Fourth related post published by Non alcoholic beverages on July 1 performed the best, averaging 1,137 engagements. By comparison, their July Fourth related posts shared during the actual holiday only averaged 368 engagements.
Most Noteworthy Post: Liquid Death got 11,289 engagements on an Instagram post sharing the Dehydration Detector 9000, essentially a picture of pee color for people to reference so they understand how dehydrated they are. This innovative approach, beat out an Instagram post by CELSIUS Energy Drink about sparklers, to become the most engaged Fourth of July related social post by a non alcoholic beverage brand.
Alcoholic Beverage Winners
Looking at the alcoholic beverage brands averaging the most engagements on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for their posts mentioning either July Fourth or July 4th between June 28 – July 4, 2022.
By The Numbers: Alcoholic beverage brands averaged 270 engagements for the 181 Fourth of July related social media posts they shared between June 28- July 4, 2022.
Preferred Format: For Alcohol brands single images were most effective, with those July Fourth themed posts averaging 320 engagements. Gallery posts averaged 226 engagements with video posts averaging 131 engagements. Text posts averaged 292 engagements, with that primarily due to a Bug Light Facebook post about the sound of opening up the first beer.
Best Performing Channel: Alcohol brands averaged 376 engagements on Facebook for their July Fourth related posts. That outperformed Instagram, where the brands averaged 223 engagements and Twitter where their holiday posts averaged 131 engagements.
Timing Is Everything: Alcohol brands averaged 2,266 engagements for the July Fourth posts they share on June 29. The holiday themed posts they shared on July Fourth only averaged 131 engagements.
Most Noteworthy Post: Evan Williams Bourbon had 14,581 engagements on a Facebook post promoting their American Made Heroes Foundation and wishing veterans a happy fourth of July. The American Made Heroes Foundation awards up to $75,000 in grant funding to qualified organizations that serve U.S. military veterans. This was the most popular Fourth of July post by an alcohol brand around the holiday this year.
CPG Food Winners
Looking at the CPG Food brands averaging the most engagements on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for their posts mentioning either July Fourth or July 4th between June 28 – July 4, 2022.
By The Numbers: CPG Food brands averaged 425 engagements for the 425 Fourth of July related social media posts they shared between June 28- July 4, 2022
Preferred Format: CPG Food brands averaged 643 engagements for their July Fourth related Gallery posts. In comparison, CPG Food brands averaged 314 engagements on their Video posts, averaged 189 engagements on their single image posts, and averaged 81 engagements on their Text posts.
Best Performing Channel: TikTok was the most effective channel for CPG Food brands as they averaged 659 engagements for their July Fourth related posts there. The brands averaged 384 engagements on Instagram, 205 engagements on Facebook, 169 engagements on YouTube, and 48 engagements on Twitter.
Timing Is Everything: For CPG Food brands, the most effective day to share their July Fourth related posts was July 1, when they averaged 518 engagements. The holiday posts they shared on July Fourth only averaged 174 engagements.
Most Noteworthy Post: The top performing July Fourth related CPG Food post came from a product that’s not actually food. Dubble Bubble Bubble Gum got 20,329 engagements for a Facebook post where their patriotic eagle wished everyone a happy 4th.
Conclusion
When looking at the top performing Food and Beverage posts around July Fourth, a couple of different templates emerged. Top posts were either clever, such as Liquid Death’s Dehydration Detector 9000 concept or Oreo sharing a gallery of firework themed Oreo creations, or patriotic, such as Evan Williams Bourbon saluting veterans or Double Bubble and their bald eagle. Additionally, when it came to timing, July Fourth posts shared 3-5 days ahead of the actual holiday performed the best.
Holiday campaigns are challenging for brands because there’s a very limited amount of time the messaging is relevant, making in window optimization near impossible. By using a social media analytics solution to understand what worked for holiday posts across an entire cohort of competitors, brands have a much clearer understanding of the proper approach to take around the next holiday.
Measuring Success: 4 Strategies To Measure Social Media Impact
Consumer behaviors are evolving on social media. Especially since the start of the pandemic, as in person interaction has become less frequent. Many people are no longer “lurking” on social media, but are actually engaging.
How does this impact your method of measurement?
Surface-level metrics like followers and engagements are not as telling as they once were. To measure the effectiveness of your social media strategy today, you must take a more sophisticated approach.
Download our report to learn how to measure social media’s impact on consumer buzz, brand awareness, competitive rankings, and customer conversions.
The Social Media Shift To Video
For brands, knowing video is important for your social media strategy is not enough. Certain social media platforms are becoming more central to brand marketing as video becomes more popular, while other social platforms become less of a focus for brands.
Additionally, as the audience embraces video, the social media metrics that marketers should be focusing on needs to change as well.
This report takes a look at several key industries on social media including Fashion, Publishing, Food & Beverage, Top Advertisers, and Home Furnishings, to determine the behavioral shift of media consumption by the public on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
In this report we outline exactly how video has changed audience behavior, why that’s impacting which social media metrics you need to focus on, and what brand priorities should be going forward.
