The Power of Social Media: How to get free pizza for a year!

Companies better not underestimate the power of social media after recent events saw average joe, Dan May, pit two of the biggest mobile companies up against each other. The end result was O2 grovelling at Mr May's feet. Well ok, they didn't exactly grovel but they did give him free pizza for a year!


So what happened?


The saga all started when O2 offered its Twitter followers free pizzas delivered to their offices.


It was simple, all they had to do was was reply to O2's message with their location and a hashtag, and then a lucky few would win the pizza.




Danny boy thought he would try his luck and won, but no pizza followed. Disappointed and hungry he took to twitter to share his dismay with his phone company, threatening to leave.

Sensing a moment for a PR stunt, rival mobile company Three swooped in to save the day, sending Dan some pizzas while throwing in their #makeitright hashtag in the process. Genius.




Realising their mistake O2 ceremoniously apologised and were forced to go all out by offering Dan free pizza for a year.



However, the damage had been done. Three have been painted as a cool brand who live up to their tagline #MakeItRight, and probably picked up a few more twitters followers along the way. Sadly, O2 are seen as the villain who make promises they can't keep, which is not the perception you want as company who is in the business of selling pricey phone contracts.

The lesson to be learnt here is take you social presence seriously and monitor how you appear to the consumer on all media platforms. And for goodness sake, if you promise someone free pizza you better make good on that promise!