Is Radio Shack’s Inappropriate Twitter Account a Genius Marketing Move or Just Another Annoying Troll?

RadioShack may seem like a relic of the past, but this week the company was the topic of conversation for brow-raising reasons.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

In what first appeared to be an apparent hack, the electronic company’s Twitter went viral for posting some very questionable and very off-brand Tweets including references to sexual acts, drugs, and an array of celebrities and businesspeople including Elon Musk.

It’s a bold move for Radio Shack which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in both 2015 and 2017 before eventually being acquired by Retail E-commerce Ventures two years ago. The company had reportedly been seeing negative revenue since 2012, prior to either of the filings.

Amid the firing off of various vulgarities, RadioShack dropped a hint as to whether or not the switch-up of social media content was done on purpose in a Tweet dated June 27.

The post inferred that the idea of the obscene Tweeting spree was brought on by an intern at the company as a way to garner more business growth and development.

As of Friday afternoon, the company had over 336,000 followers, with one of the account’s most viral Tweets receiving over 38,000 Retweets.

Another post joked that the author of the Tweets was doing so to promote a new crypto-based platform that Radio Shack had created, but the false link just brought users to a meme about Jesus.

However, the crypto concept wasn’t a farce.

RadioShack has (whether on purpose or not) been promoting the launch of RadioShack Swap, a crypto exchange platform run through a separate app. The electronics giant has also created its own coin which will trade under the crypto token symbol $RADIO.

“Our mission is to be the first protocol to bridge the gap to mainstream usage of blockchain and cryptocurrencies,” the company wrote.

The company first announced plans to launch Swap last December, reportedly garnering a waitlist of interested crypto traders who wanted access to the platform upon its launch. The coin itself was lowly valued at $0.05 as of early Friday afternoon.

The retailer’s mystery Tweeter seemed to be in firey spirits ahead of the Holiday weekend, per a Tweet early Friday afternoon.

“Some people think beer is nasty, and so am i after 15,” the post read bluntly. “Good Morning. Happy Friday.”

There are around 5,200 Radio Shacks still operating around the country, per CNN, including hundreds of locations in Florida and the Midwest.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/430664