The David of America's Fried Chicken War landed a decided shot against its Goliath in the social media sandwich debate this week. 

After the dust settled in the biggest fried chicken beef to hit Twitter ($TWTR) since we all wondered where the bread was for the Double Down, it was clear that Miami-based Popeye's ($QSR) landed the winning shot in the fight with Chick-fil-A ($PRIVATE:PRIV_CHICKFILA). 

First off, here is how we know Popeye's scored the winning punch in the Great Fried Chicken Sandwich Twitter War of 2019. It's the company's Twitter follower count, which rose about 25,000 or so, from roughly 107K to 132K in just over a day, an overnight increase of nearly 25%.

Chick-fil-A...did not gain nearly as many followers by percentage. However, the Atlanta chicken chain did gain about 10,000 followers - and having cracked the 1-million mark, perhaps it should have focused on its social strength instead of debating chicken quality which Popeye's, which appears to have more vocal followers. 

The battle began when Chick-fil-A impugned Popeye's - or so its social media staff likely felt - with this tweet, declaring itself the "original" fried chicken sandwich. Popeye's social media team weighed in with a two-word tweet that did nearly 15-times the engagement, in terms of likes, by the time Thursday morning rolled around. Then, just about everyone who makes meat-based sandwiches tried to chime in on the viral sensation, much to the delight of no one at all. 

It's important to note that opinions can, in fact, be incorrect - and that the finest fried chicken sandwich can indeed be obtained at Hill Country.

About the Data: 

Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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