Are You Too Chicken to Use Social Media?

Job descriptions are ever-changing due to the rise in new technology. With that said, there are now jobs specifically for social media and social networking. While a social media community manager job description hasn’t made it into the Job Descriptions Encyclopedia yet, it’s definitely becoming one of the fastest-trending jobs.

Recently, a restaurant in Australia has jumped on the bandwagon and hired its own social media manager. But this manager isn’t a normal suit-and-tie-type—in fact, this manager isn’t even human!

Chicken Treat, Australia’s version of Chick-Fil-A (but with beef options), hired an actual chicken to run its Twitter account. Betty, a 4-year-old domestic chicken, operates the restaurant’s social media site all by herself. Her office isn’t your standard cubical and, in fact, she actually gets to work from home! There’s a computer set up in her coop, and she can tweet whenever she feels like it.

Using a keyboard laced with chicken feed, Betty tweets using the hashtag #ChickenTweet, which was created to document her work—and she’s cultivated quite a following! Betty is so special, she even appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

Some would call this marketing ploy morbid, having a chicken promote a restaurant that specializes in chicken products, but Chicken Treat says it’s not just doing this for sales! The restaurant chain says it will continue to use Betty to promote Chicken Treat until she can successfully tweet a real five-letter word. So far, she’s only tweeted “bum.”

Having a social media manager can push your organization into the 21st century, but hiring a chicken might not be a good fit. Plus, poultry isn’t covered under workers’ comp laws, or any other employment law, for that matter! Should you decide to hire feathered fowl, it’s best you consult with legal counsel!