Management Communication for McDonald's: Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media

RUNNING HEAD: Management Communication 0
MCDonald’s
Management communication

Management Communication 1
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Subject: Management Communication
With the passage of time, social media have become an immense part of the marketing
activities of organizations. Social media is a great thing from the marketing perspective as it
allows an organization to build emotional and personal relationship with the customers
(Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014).
However, there are both advantages and disadvantages of using social media. Organizations
can use social media for the purpose of increasing brand awareness. The relevant and
compelling content grab the attention of the prospective customers and increase the visibility
of the brand. When the organizations respond instantly to the queries and grievances of the
customers, the brand reputation automatically improves. The advantages further improve the
cost effective nature of social media marketing. The traditional promotional and advertising
activities are much more expensive. Furthermore, organizations can easily evaluate and
measure the traffic received on the website from social media. Relationship with the
customers can also be developed with the help of social media which can increase advocacy
and loyalty. The customer interaction along with the customer service can be improved
through social media (Zhu, Anagondahalli and Zhang, 2017).
The disadvantages of using social media include the negative feedback received from the
customers which is openly visible to the prospects. This can have a significant impact on the
reputation of an organization. Sometimes organizations use social media in an ineffective
manner and therefore, are not able to engage the customers. Also, resources are required to be
committed in order to manage the presence of the organizations on social media. This further
requires investment in paid advertising, hiring and training staff and paying for the costs of
image and video content. The use of social media is generally effective for the growth of
business but it is complex to measure return on investment from all the campaigns (Holt,
2016).
The target audience of the social media campaigns of McDonalds are the millennials. The
Facebook and Instagram posts of McDonalds are hype the quality of its burgers. The brand