2011 Golden Tweet Award: Wendy's Tops List Of Most Retweeted Tweets Of 2011

Twitter's year-in-review series has brought us 2011's hottest stories, top hashtags, most tweets per second and more. Now, the microblogging site has revealed that the Golden Tweet Award, given to the most retweeted tweet of the year, goes to fast food giant Wendy's.

In June, Wendy's sent out a tweet that said, "RT for a good cause. Each Retweet sends 50¢ to help kids in foster care." The burger chain included the hashtag #TreatItFwd.

The tweet was a nod to deceased Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, who was adopted when he was six-weeks old and founded the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption in the early 1990s.

Check out the winning tweet (below):

@Wendys
Wendy's

RT for a good cause. Each Retweet sends 50¢ to help kids in foster care. #TreatItFwd

June 8, 2011 9:11 pm via web Reply Retweet Favorite

Wendy's message struck a chord. According to Twitter, the tweet raised more than $50,000 for foster children, although The Wall Street Journal reports that Twitter won't say how many times the post has been retweeted.

According to CNBC, the tweet is still making the rounds and continues to be retweeted several times each day.

Twitter notes on its advertising blog that this year's Golden Tweet Award is significant because it's a promoted tweet, meaning Wendy's paid Twitter for prominent placement on the site.

Twitter announced Promoted Tweets midway through 2010, and the company started putting them in users' timelines this summer, so it makes sense that this would be the first year a promoted tweet would take top honors.

Last year, the first time Twitter named a "Golden Tweet," comedian Stephen Colbert took home the honor. He did not pay for the promotion of his tweet. In fact, Twitter's list of the top ten most retweeted tweets from 2010 didn't include a single tweet from a company, let alone a promoted tweet.

Comments

[NerdyStudent]

10:43 PM on 12/08/2011

So in otherwords, this was another advertisement for Wendy's and their gay hating company.

[August Stover]

05:08 PM on 12/09/2011

How is Wendy's gay hating? I know Chick-Fil-A's owners are pretty conservative, but I hadn't heard anything about Wendy's.

[josephslim]

10:14 PM on 12/08/2011

about the new planet; we have waited 2000 years for the return of Jesus, who knows maybe we are going to visit with him before his return comes due.