How the “Wendy’s Twitter Guy” helped pioneer corporate social media trends
From a viral meme to running Wendy’s Twitter account, Matt Keck has become somewhat of a household name for anyone chronically online between 2010 to today. Now, he’s made a podcast to tell the story of being the “Wendy’s Twitter Guy.”
In 2010, Keck uploaded a YouTube video titled “I’m a Snake,” where he wore a felt snake hat with googly eyes and repeated, “I am a snake, a slithery snake.” At the time he had hoped to lead watchers to his stand-up comedy, but the video helped secure his place as the well-known “Wendy’s Guy” on Twitter.
“I met a guy who worked for VML about 11 years ago. They had just secured Wendy’s social media and were looking for someone who knew how social media worked,” Keck says. “He had known me through stand-up comedy, but he also knew about my old viral video. He kind of said ‘Hey this guy knows social media, he’s done a thing, let’s give him a shot.’”
Photo by Jeremy Cline
Keck started the job with no experience in copywriting or advertising. By the end of his time at VML, he was the creative director.
“They had me write some jokes and see if it worked for social media. I worked hourly for about four months before they decided to bring me on officially. Slowly, but surely, it went from writing the post copy to just being behind the keys, responding to everyone who had something to say to Wendy’s,” he says.
The team started small—a group of three people shooting out sarcastic responses to followers. People began to notice the out-of-the-ordinary interactions from the brand, followers increased, and suddenly everyone wanted to be roasted by Wendy’s Twitter.
“Me and my client Amy Brown had been doing this for years. We would just mess with people and just kind of use social the way no brands were, but it hadn’t really caught on yet,” Keck says. “When Brown roasted that guy about forgetting refrigerators existed, oh, man, it exploded.”
As attention grew, other brands began to follow suit with witty replies and ‘out there’ campaigns as a way of promotion. Brands began to call each other out, even having a rap battle between Wingstop and Wendy’s.
“It was really just organic. Brands would hop on, we would have some fun going back and forth,” he says. “Everyone was a great sport about it. We didn’t have to reach out formally or anything, we would just tweet at people and they would tweet back.” 
Wendy’s did more than just tweet. During his time with Wendy’s, Keck helped create Feast of Legends—a role-playing game similar to Dungeons and Dragons that was played on the popular DnD podcast, Critical Role, he created a mixtape titled “We Beefin?,” played Fortnite as Wendy’s, and created a series of Super Mario Maker levels titled “Super Wendy’s World.”
“It really started as a Twitter thing, but the more attention it got, the more ridiculous stuff they let us make,” Keck says.
After 10 years, Keck has moved on from VML, but wants to share his experience with the world on his new podcast, #RoastME – The Story of The Wendy’s Twitter Account.
“When I worked with Wendy’s, the idea was that it was Wendy’s, the company, doing all these things. There wasn’t a lot of opportunity for me to go out and tell these stories, share all the fun stuff, and how things came to be,” Keck says.
“Tons of fun, little stories, and journeys. It’s the first time I’ve gotten to talk about it publicly, so I’m excited to do it.”
#RoastME is available now and will comprise six 15 to 25-minute episodes posted weekly.
