Oreo’s social media team jumped on an opportunity during the Superbowl blackout, tweeting about dunking in the dark. Quick thinking and timely posting got them over 13,000 retweets.

Of course, every brand isn’t going to get the same results as Oreo with their 71,000 followers but there are still universal lessons to be learned.

Flexibility:
Scheduling everything in advance means you have time to plan and get approval. However, locking yourself into the schedule means that you are missing some of the possibilities in social media. Make sure you are mixing planning with the real time needs and opportunities of social media.

Know Your Chain of Command:
Make sure you know what you need to do in order to get a tweet up quickly. Oreo was able to react and capitalize on an unexpected event because they had decision makers all together in one place, ready to react. They may not have know what real time tweets they were going to send out during the super bowl, but they knew that there would be opportunities to capitalize on.
If there is a major event happening where you know that there will be large audience and opportunity, make sure you know in advance exactly what you need to get an update posted quickly. Once an opportunity presents itself, you will have to be quick or it will slip away; it isn’t the time to figure out chain of command for the first time.

Have Material to Work With:
Starting from scratch isn’t quick. Having some basic templates, pictures, or videos ready to work with allows you to adapt quickly. Think about the types of tweets you may want to send out, and set it up so that the basics can be adapted quickly. You may not know exactly what you will be doing, but you should still have the tools in place to do it.

With a little bit of planning, an opportunity can turn into a lucky break!