We’ve all felt it: that feeling in the pit of your gut when you made some seemingly colossal mistake and it is suddenly out there for all in the world to see. It is, in a word, awful.
Well, earlier this month I was spinning through Linkedin and found mention of a lower level social media staffer who was living this feeling in real time on TikTok. Over the course of a week it went from terror to triumph. Why? Because instead of panicking, the team at Sweet Loren’s decided to seek opportunity and have some fun.
Sweet Loren’s, a gluten-free cookie company based in the Northeast, had just brought on a new social media manager, Ryan Weitz. On August 8th, Ryan thought she was updating the display name on her personal TikTok account. But instead—oops—she updated the company’s account. Suddenly, Sweet Loren’s was rebranded as… “Ryan.” And the kicker? TikTok doesn’t allow another name change for an entire week.
Ryan’s first reaction? Beg! Her post laid out exactly what she had done, and asked users to follow the page. Her gut told her that an increase in followers might bring a little forgiveness from her boss.
Good news for Ryan: her boss is pretty cool. When Ryan provided her first update, we learned management actually thought it was funny! That was certainly helpful for Ryan’s future. This is the point where the story takes an unexpected twist. Just two days into what seemed like a fiasco, management decided to lean all the way in.They actually changed the company logo on the TikTok page and then proceeded to adjust the launch of their new cookie line to go along with it! There was drama unfolding, after all! It got to the point some skeptics out in the world, myself included, were wondering if the whole thing had been planned!
We will take Ryan at her word that this was one big, happy accident, and judging by the outcome, it certainly was.
The whole thing went viral, even getting feedback from LinkedIn’s founder, who also happens to be a Ryan!
If it is KPI’s you are looking for, they’ve got them. Sweet Loren’s (Ryan’s?) TikTok followers are up nearly 33% in the short span since this happened. Page likes blew up even more! There was a 57% jump to over 350 thousand as of this writing!
Obviously it is easier for something like this to happen with a cookie company. If this were a defense manufacturer or a medical provider, no one would be quite so glib. But none of that changes the fact that they looked at the mistake from a different point of view and turned it into a win.
It was such a win, in fact, that past day 7 they haven’t put “Sweet Ryan’s” out to pasture yet! In fact, you can sign a petition to keep the name!
