New Guiness Word Record created by rapper Lil Wayne.

Rapper Lil Wayne has broken the Guinness World Record for most Facebook likes on a single post in 24 hours — a record only too recently created and briefly held by Oreo. Yesterday, Oreo attempted to set the record with a post to the brand’s Facebook Wall. The post read, “‘Like’ this post to join Oreo fans around the world in setting a Guinness World Record for most “Likes” to a post in 24 hours. Oreo is the world’s favorite cookie, and with your help, it will be the most ‘Liked.’” Shortly after that post surfaced, Lil Wayne announced to the world that he was also going after the Guinness World Record for most Facebook likes in 24 hours. At the end of the 24-hour period, Oreo had 114,619 likes; five hours later, when the rapper’s 24-hour period had expired, his post had 588,243 likes, easily trumping Oreo’s bid for the Guinness World Record. (Though the company was honored for its brief record in a Guinness ceremony this morning.)Around 16.7 million Facebook users “like” Oreo’s page on the social network; Lil Wayne’s fanbase weighs in at 20 million Facebook users strong. However, the high level of engagement between Weezy and his fans tipped the balance in his favor.
Mazy Kazerooni is Lil Wayne’s
digital manager. He told us
yesterday that the stunt was
intended to show off Lil Wayne’s
social media chops. “I want
people to think ‘Bieber, Gaga and
Lil Wayne.’ The traffic we do is
ridiculous and no one really
knows,” Kazerooni said.
There’s a valuable lesson in this
exercise for social media
marketers; although the brand
failed to accomplish its goal of
holding onto a world record, it
did get a ton of brand
recognition and positive press
along the way. Still, a brand, no
matter how delicious, endearing,
or ingrained into the American
experience, is unlikely to have the
Pied Piper-like pull of an
internationally known star.