Mr. Rick Wion, Director of Social Media at McDonald's, initiated a public relations initiative on Twitter to promote growers performing for McDonald's. This project initially launched to minimize the misconception of McDonald's unsustainable reputation and raise a general understanding of their agricultural products and right animal products. The just-launched campaign utilized the hashtag "#MeetTheFarmers" as a way of appreciating the ties to their suppliers, the farmers, and their families. But before the first day of the launch day ended, Mr. Won shifted the hashtag to "#McDStories". The company detractors grabbed this opportunity to post negative comments about the company. This created a negative image for the company. Now, the director has to find a way to remedy the situation.
Jana Seijts and Paul Bigus
Harvard Business Review (W13493-PDF-ENG)
November 15, 2013
Case questions answered:
- What are the potential advantages and disadvantages of an organization when using social media?
- Who are the different audiences McDonald’s needs to address when using social media campaigns, and why?
- How can Wion and his team better design a future Twitter campaign for McDonald’s?
- Using the communication plan template, devise a Wion strategy to encourage better media relations and more accurate reporting.
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McDonald's Twitter Campaign: Hype Versus Reality Case Answers
Summary – McDonald’s Twitter Campaign: Hype Versus Reality
In 1940, McDonald’s was established by two brothers, Dick and Mac Donald. After 56 years of profitable operations, it grew in 2011 to 119 countries worldwide, with total consolidated revenues of $8.5 billion. In 2012, Mr. Rick Wion, Director of Social Media at McDonald’s, initiated a public relations initiative on Twitter to promote growers performing for McDonald’s.
This project was initially launched to minimize the misconception of McDonald’s unsustainable reputation and raise a general understanding of their agricultural products and right animal products.
The group eventually released a hashtag named #meetThefarmers on Twitter. As the day went on, the public relations team agreed to modify the hashtag because they seemed to be not pleased with the outcome and said the hashtag wouldn’t escalate as widely as they anticipated.
Just several hours after the update, the hashtag was changed to #McDStories and rewarded to be number one on Twitter’s frequency count.
Within somewhere around two hours of the recently launched hashtag, people on Social media started posting experiences using #McDStories. Not only extraordinarily positive and likable incidents, however, have been shared.
People began to share bad personal memories with the company. Many people were complaining about customer dissatisfaction with care, foodborne illness, and other derogatory McDonald’s comments.
Consequently, #McDStories will outrage on Twitter just under an hour after the latest second hashtag has been generated for their agricultural producers’ movement.
1. What are the potential advantages and disadvantages of an organization when using social media?
Business organizations make productive use of social media marketing to support their businesses and connect shoppers with their goods and services. Social media approaches will enable all companies to become accessible, sustainable, and profitable (Taneja & Toombs, 2014). The use of social media has a wide range of advantages and drawbacks for businesses.
Advantages
Social networking has tangible opportunities because social media has widened beyond Industry to consumers and Business to Business.
Companies utilize social media to improve their brands by posting on Twitter, sharing and blogging about new offerings, customer engagement, work opportunities, and news releases about company initiatives (Kelleher, 2013).
Social networking may also be used to build interactions with customers. It can create an excellent structure for concepts and opinions about the product line. It is an extremely affordable way to attract potential customers and help them build purchase intentions.
The significant benefit of using social media sites is that you can significantly understand what your customers desire. Social networking involvement is increasingly recognized as a considerable firm investment, demonstrating to be helpful in new product releases and selecting brand partner organizations.
A significant benefit that social media brings to marketers and companies is the…
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