READING, PA: What prompted Steak-umm’s social media manager to post a nearly 400-word rant about coronavirus misinformation on Twitter on Monday night?
The person behind Steak-umm’s tweets, Allebach Communications social media manager Nathan Allebach, was just fed up with coronavirus misinformation, and he knew his feelings -- as a frozen beef brand, not a concerned citizen -- would be “noteworthy.”
friendly reminder in times of uncertainty and misinformation: anecdotes are not data. (good) data is carefully measured and collected information based on a range of subject-dependent factors, including, but not limited to, controlled variables, meta-analysis, and randomization
— Steak-umm (@steak_umm) April 7, 2020
“As we spend every day on social media following the cultural conversations around this coronavirus, we’re actively looking for ways to add thought-provoking and introspective dialogue into the mix and encourage other people to help in ways they can,” Allebach told PRWeek. “Misinformation has been a major problem online, so we thought it would be beneficial to add some friendly reminders on how to read data versus anecdotes.”
Jesse Bender, account director at Steak-umm PR partner Allebach Communications, added that there is a lot of information about coronavirus being shared, with varying amounts of truth.
“Headlines are spun into complete ideas and arguments,” said Bender. “The brand voice is one that wants to bring people together and allow for the community to interact and be productive.”
Bender said Steak-umm has been “bombarded with inquiries” from members of the media on Tuesday.
Engagement with the thread has been off the charts. It has been liked 38,700 times and retweeted 10,600 times. Steak-umm has been retweeting engagement from blue-check-marked users such as CNN’s Jake Tapper; Starfish Media Group CEO Soledad O’Brien; Shannon Watts, founder of gun safety advocacy group Moms Demand Action; actor Jeffrey Wright; and Andrew Noyes, head of global communications at Eat Just. Columbia University’s Department of Surgery also retweeted Steak-umm.
