Today was our last class of the semester and the last time our team met. Everyone seems to be on the same page and my team members should have no problem getting our different parts of the paper to Keith for him to compile by our set deadline of 8:00 PM tomorrow night. As stated in previous blog post, I researched three of Taco Bell’s top competitors: Wendy’s, Burger King, and McDonalds. The best company when it comes to the use of social media in my opinion is McDonald’s.
McDonald’s has been focusing a lot lately on the quality of its food, with campaign messages regarding the fast food chain using the best potatoes for its french fries, for example. The brand’s Facebook strategy aligns well with its overall marketing. When users like the McDonald’s Facebook page, they are brought to a destination within the page where McDonald’s communicates its commitment to quality. For example, users can watch a video that features a potato farmer who talks about his dedication and struggles to grow the best quality potatoes and supply them to McDonald’s. The company posts images of its newest products on its wall, using it as a platform to keep loyalists in-the-know. There’s a lot of engagement going on here as well, with every post for the last month getting at least 200 comments and some exceeding 2,000 indicating that McDonald’s is succeeding at starting a two-way dialog with consumers on Facebook. McDonald’s gets an excellent grade in my book for its use of Facebook.
When it comes to Twitter, McDonald’s is actively talking to followers and actually asks them to talk back. “We’re here to listen and learn from all of our fans and followers,” McDonald’s says on its Twitter page. McDonald’s not only posts on its Twitter feed, but actually replies to its followers as well, again opening the door for two-way conversation. McDonald’s is literally constantly tweeting. Of course, there was that one little Twitter mess a while back. As part of the company’s promoted tweet campaign, McDonald’s wanted people to share their favorite Mickey D’s stories by using the hashtag #McDStories. Things quickly took a turn for the worst. Twitter users hijacked the hashtag and started tweeting things like: “I only eat McDonald’s when I am ill because it makes me feel sick anyway. #McDStories. ” This has become one of the defining case studies of social media. The brand put out a statement explaining that they are still learning from its experiences. The moral of the story is that everyone (yes even the king of the fast food industry) can lose control of a situation, especially when it comes to social media.