Recommendations for McDonald’s future Twitter campaign

This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of social media for businesses, identifies the audience that McDonald's must address while using social media campaigns, and suggests ways to develop a better Twitter campaign. It also provides a communication plan for building stronger media relations. The article is relevant for management communication and can be used for courses related to marketing, social media, and public relations.

Management Communication
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To:
From:
Date: 01.09.2018
Subject: Recommendations for McDonald’s future Twitter campaign
Purpose:
The purpose is to analyse the social media campaigns carried out by McDonald’s and make
future recommendations.
Hence, the following memorandum is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of social
media for a business and the way it should be used effectively in overcoming the issues and
make the campaign successful.
First, the advantages and drawbacks of social media are discussed. Then the audience that
must be addressed by McDonald's is identified. Further, the way a better Twitter campaign
developed for the firm is discussed and lastly, a communication plan is developed for
building stronger media relations.
Questions
1. What are the possible advantages and disadvantages of using social media for a firm
Social media can be an important tool for business in terms of increasing involvement with
audiences and increasing traffic. However, there are some disadvantages too that must also be
considered for selecting the best strategy to social media for the business (Swani et al. 2017).
Advantages of social media are (Dijkmans, Kerkhof, and Beukeboom, 2015):
 Brand awareness and reputation- Relevant and compelling content help to grab the
attention of prospective customers and enhance brand visibility. Through responding
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quickly to the industry developments, a firm can display itself as a thought leader and
thus, can improve its brand reputation. For example, the Twitter campaign of
McDonald’s helped it gain the attention of a large number of audiences, as they were
eager to know the sources of ingredients used in McDonald’s offerings.
 Cost effective-Trainor et al. (2014) stated that it is a much cheaper method compared
to the conventional process of promotional and advertisement. It requires a minimum
cost for maintaining a strong presence in social media.
 Customer interaction- Effective customer service can be offered through responding
to their feedback effectively.
The disadvantages are (Ngai, Tao and Moon, 2015):
 Resources- Companies need resources to manage a positive presence in social media
by developing new content and providing responses to the feedback. It may include
recruit and train employees, spend in paid advertising and pay for developing the
image and video contents as done by McDonald’s.
 Evaluation- It is difficult to analyse and measure the monetary value on brand
reputation and awareness brought by social media. It is hard to evaluate the way in
which, social media affects in-store sales.
 Ineffective use-Using social media just for increasing sales without maintaining a
proper connection with the customers and failing to respond properly to the negative
comments can damage the reputation of the company.For example, McDonald’s
received negative comments and reaction for changing the name of its Twitter
campaign from ‘#MeetTheFarmers’ to ‘#McDStories’.
2. Who are the different audience McDonald’s need to address while using social media
campaign?
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While carrying out a social media campaign, McDonald’s must address the following
audiences, who are the stakeholders of the company as well. They can be categorised into
two parts are as follows (Ainin et al. 2015):
Internal- As McDonald’s has been facing severe issues and negative reactions toward its
social media campaigns like the Twitter Campaign on #MeetTheFarmers’, the company must
focus on addressing the internal audiences such as management, employees and delivery
staff. The firm must consider ideas offered by the employees and delivery staff, as they are
the people, who interact and deal directly with the customers. Hence, they can offer better
ideas on how to make a social media campaign effective. Regular meeting with the managers
of sales, social media, finance and marketing departments are critical for making critical
decisions regarding social media campaigns effectual.
External- External audiences include suppliers, customers and media activists (Wamba and
Carter, 2016). McDonald’s must build a strong relationship with these audiences before
launching any social media campaign so that it can have a clear idea pertaining to the
emotions, feelings, perceptions, demands and expectations of the customers, media activists
and suppliers from the firm. It will help the organisation to develop the contents of the social
media campaign accordingly and gain success and positive reactions.
3. How can Wion and his team better develop future Twitter campaigns for
McDonald’s?
According to Jussila, Karkkainen and Aramo-Immonen(2014), Twitter is a great marketing
network for influencing traffic and producing leads, as 42% users follow companies or
brands. However, companies must consider the limitations of social media before launching
any new campaign and so as Wion. For example, if the social media content contains any
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offensive or controversial facts, then it may damage the brand reputation as well as affect the
sales rate negatively.
Wion can follow the following steps for developing a superior Twitter campaign in future
without facing the issues, it previously faced:
 Wion needs focusing on three areas including, demands of customers, needs of
customers and what the company can offer.
 Wion must not forget that customers are giving their attention and time and hence, the
company must provide tangible value by offering them important information and
making them surprised and delighted by the ads.
 To reach to the hearts and minds of the targeted customers, Wion needs to develop the
content of the Twitter campaign according to their wants and desires and it must be
appealing to them. Scott (2015) stated that people skip ads, but they do not generally
skip experiences. Hence, McDonald’s can develop its future Twitter ads in such a way
that allow the audience to know others’ experience as well as share their own related
to McDonald’s. Thus, it can grab the attention of its targeted customers positively and
generate leads significantly.
 For ensuring all these are happing effectively, the firm needs developing a better
relationship with the media, so that media thinks twice before making any negative
headline about the firm in future.
4. Devise a strategy for Wion to motivate better media relations using the
communication plan template
Wionis suggested using the following communication plan for developing a better media
relation:
Timing- The date can be between the month like 10th day of the Month
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Audience- Social media users, especially the consumers and the news media who identifies
wrong aspect in every advertisement or campaigns
Sender- Company top officials namely the CEO or Public Relations Worldwide Manager
Key message- To understand the inherent meanings of campaigns before making negative
comments or statements
Desire outcome- Audience will be able to evaluate advertisement campaigns before making
statements
Medium- Social media
Materials- Not applicable
Frequency- Every month
Conclusion
Social media has both positive and negative sides and before developing any campaign on
social media, a company must not avoid the drawbacks of social media. If planned properly,
social media can bring significant positivity in business.
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References
Ainin, S., Parveen, F., Moghavvemi, S., Jaafar, N.I. and MohdShuib, N.L., 2015. Factors
influencing the use of social media by SMEs and its performance outcomes. Industrial
Management & Data Systems, 115(3), pp.570-588.
Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P. and Beukeboom, C.J., 2015. A stage to engage: Social media use
and corporate reputation. Tourism Management, 47(2), pp.58-67.
Jussila, J.J., Kärkkäinen, H. and Aramo-Immonen, H., 2014. Social media utilization in
business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human
Behavior, 30(2), pp.606-613.
Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015. Social media research: Theories, constructs,
and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), pp.33-
44.
Scott, D.M., 2015. The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, online
video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach buyers
directly. John Wiley & Sons.
Swani, K., Milne, G.R., Brown, B.P., Assaf, A.G. and Donthu, N., 2017. What messages to
post? Evaluating the popularity of social media communications in business versus consumer
markets. Industrial Marketing Management, 62, pp.77-87.
Trainor, K.J., Andzulis, J.M., Rapp, A. and Agnihotri, R., 2014. Social media technology
usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social
CRM. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), pp.1201-1208.
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Wamba, S.F. and Carter, L., 2016. Social media tools adoption and use by SMEs: An
empirical study. In Social media and Networking: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and
applications(pp. 791-806). IGI Global.
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