Buoyed by a solid offensive outing—79 yards receiving and two TD catches in a victory—primo NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals created an impromptu Twitter contest for any of his 100K fans who were still up. After first priming his audience to pay attention, Fitz then directed everyone to the most recent blog post on his web site:
Larry Fitzgerald asks a question on Twitter
Within seconds of posting, the first person posted the correct answer:
The answer was Robin Roberts
Within 3 minutes of posting, Fitzgerald got 53 correct responses, along with a number of others complaining that his web site was no longer responsive. Within 20 minutes of posting his question, Fitzgerald generated about 1000 Twitter replies and attracted many people to both his website and his top philanthropic cause (breast cancer awareness and prevention).
Fitz credited Brian McGrath with winning the shirt and autographed picture, but his answer came almost two minutes after the first response. Such is life when millions of people are polling Twitter’s service through different clients and connections. The wording of his previous tweet, though, did give Fitzgerald some wiggle room.
The important take-home is this: Despite being late on a Sunday night—not the prime time for “marketing efforts”—a Twitter celebrity with a six-digit audience used the channel not only to generate some interaction with fans, but simultaneously generated site traffic, raised awareness of a worthy cause, and earned 1000 more followers in the process. And, Fitz plans to do it again.
Larry Fitzgerald’s Web Site