Here’s a lesson for social media editors. Want to get #followers to #engage on #Twitter? Ask them whether they would go back in time and kill baby Hitler. And do it on a Friday afternoon.
The New York Times Magazine‘s Twitter account posed this question today, and, well, it generated a virtual tweetstorm.
We asked @nytmag readers: If you could go back and kill Hitler as a baby, would you do it? (What's your response?) pic.twitter.com/daatm12NZC
— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) October 23, 2015
By the end of the day, the term “Baby Hitler” was trending on Twitter, the tweet had been favorited and retweeted hundreds of times, and the whole thing was a Twitter Moment.
And there were, not surprisingly, no shortage of jokes in response.
Here’s just a few:
Was baby Hitler the inventor of peas in guacamole?
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 23, 2015
https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/657644696047624194
"I'm Sexy Baby Hitler!"
"I'm sorry, you're what?"
"Like from Twitter?"
"…"
"…" https://t.co/PAN5WAeC2n— Caitlin Kelly (@caitlin__kelly) October 23, 2015
BREAKING: New Congressional committee to investigate whether Planned Parenthood has a time machine to go back and harvest Baby Hitler parts.
— Lizz "Insufferable Wench" Winstead (@lizzwinstead) October 23, 2015
https://twitter.com/max_read/status/657631447633821700
Good news: I killed Baby Hitler. Bad News: Somehow, all guacamole is now made with peas. #ButterflyEffect #NYTtrolling
— Daniel Radosh (@danielradosh) October 23, 2015
Sure, most of those tweets were making fun of the Times Magazine (and referencing the Times‘ Peas in Guac episode from July), but maybe that’s just the price of Twitter engagement? Well, @NYTMag had the last LOL.
Anyway, #TGIF, Media Twitter.
