Punxsutawney Phil on Twitter: a lost opportunity?

First thing this morning I heard (via Twitter, mind you) that Punxsutawney Phil had not seen his shadow. I realized today was Groundhog Day, and that the annual mock-holiday had been entirely eclipsed by the Super Bowl this year. I hadn’t heard one peep about Groundhog Day last week, and was struck by the missed opportunity for Phil to leverage social media to get the word out about his big day.

GroundHog.org, The Official Site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, has no social media tools — no countdown widget, no blog, no live stream, nothing.

Phil does have a Facebook Fan Page, but other than a handful of user photos and comments, it’s been dormant for over a year. What a lost opportunity!

So I went ahead and set Phil up with a Twitter account. @PunxsutawneyPhil was one character too long, so I went for @groundhogphil.

Here are a handful of his tweets today:

After sending a few tweets, I discovered over in Lilburn, GA, Phil’s competition, Gen. Beauregard Lee, has a Twitter account (@gameranch) with 14 updates and 47 followers.

Coincidentally, Phil tweeted this:

I wish I’d thought of this last week. Instead, I’m a bit late to the party, but was able to quickly brandjack Punxsutawney Phil. Yet another example of why it’s critical companies, brands and individuals proactively stake out their online reputation.

NOTE: If you represent Punxsutawney Phil and/or Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, I will glady turn over the Twitter account to you. I’m just having some fun, so please shoot me a note.