McDonalds Twitter Campaign: Hype vs. Reality

MEMORANDUM
TO: McDonalds Management
FROM: Rick Wion
DATE: 3RD SEPTEMBER 2018
SUBJECT: MCDONALDS TWITTER CAMPAIGN: HYPE VS. REALITY
Over the last decade, social media has grown and developed at a fast pace giving endless
opportunities for organizations to report market and promote their quality products and services
delivery at a wider and increased efficiency scale that the traditional and conventional methods
or platforms such print media and radio (Tuten and Solomon 2017).However, lack of proper
control and management by organizations could be their downfall or ruin their reputation like
McDonalds #meetthefarmers social media campaign. This memo will elaborate more on social
media through a perspective of the failed Twitter campaign of McDonalds and recommending a
suitable communication plan to prevent such an incident from occurring by analysis and
evaluation of the following questions.
Problems that McDonald’s experienced when using social media #meetthefarmers
campaign
The firm has been known to offer quality product services delivery both locally and universally,
that was harmed when the #meetthefarmers campaign tumbled through the twitter due to
consumers airing the terrible encounters they had where some were identified with restorative
discussions (Stephen 2016, p 18). This prompt loses in trust in our image that saw the decrease in
sales consecutively. Moreover, consumers switched sided to our competitors decreasing our
market share which resulted in the retrenchment of some employees to curb the losses
accumulated.

McDonalds twitter campaign: Hype vs Reality 2
What are the possible advantages and disadvantages for an organization when utilizing
societal media?
Promotion and marketing strategies are crucial to an organizations business activity that impact
their growth and development in today’s complex business environment. Through technology
advancements social media has grown and increasingly adopted in our daily lives prompting
organizations to take advantage of the situation (Hollebeek at al.2014, p 154). However, there are
several advantages and disadvantage in relation to social media, they include:
Advantages
Effective consumer market analysis- Through the use of social media, associations can
determine the consumer demographics on their products and even conduct further research and
analysis of new products or new target markets easily and efficiently (Ngai 2015).
Social media has a large audience and a fast communication channel -social media has
managed to successfully connect billions of individuals all over the world through platforms
such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and snapchat. This gives organizations a larger audience
and a far reach that the conventional methods such as print media and radio in creating brand
awareness (Salma,2017,p 24).
Effective interaction and communication with consumers Associations can have an interaction
with their organizations amassing thoughts or suggestions which will be valuable in the
production of quality products and services (VanMeter, Grisaffe and Chonko 2015).

McDonalds twitter campaign: Hype vs Reality 3
Disadvantages
Negative customer reviews are harmful-customer feedback is very crucial and can be risky to
an organization of their increased negative feedback from angry consumers who have a large
influence on consumer behavior and loyalty to a brand (Austin and Jin 2018).
Social media is immediate and needs daily monitoring- The increase in social media has
prompted the ascent of numerous stages which could tend to be tedious and costly with regards
to utilizing numerous representatives chipping away at various stages and monitoring every data
produced through those stages prompting addition resources such as skilled manpower and
monitoring equipment (Sexton 2015).
Social media ROI is difficult to measure- Being active on most of the social media without a
doubt extremely compelling for businesses, however the primary concern is the complex process
of estimating ROI from all social media campaigns conducted. In spite of the fact that it's an
extremely overwhelming activity, however really not feasible
Who are the different audiences McDonald's needs to address when using social media
campaigns?
Keeping in mind the end goal to forestall and revolting situation that nearly prompted the
downfall of our firm, it has to distinguish pivotal groups of audiences and design an effective
social media campaign that will be reasonable to the audience and have an insignificant negative
effect, they include:
Internal audience- These are people who are inside the associations, for example, the
administration team, Representatives and other supporting staff individuals who all have a key