A Social Media McDonalds Story Gone Wrong!
McDonalds, arguably one of the biggest fast food chain restaurants in the world suffered a huge social media disaster the digital world will not soon be forgetting.
McDonalds started a social media campaign on the micro-blogging site Twitter in order to promote their fresh harvest and positive relations with farmers. The initial promoted hashtag McDonalds used on Twitter was #MeetTheFarmers.
The promoted social media campaign quickly went wrong when a member of the marketing team started to use a non-neutral hashtag; #McDStories. The use of this hashtag was as an attempt to further engage consumers on Twitter.
The issue with the #McDStories hashtag was the vagueness. Since the hashtag was so vague it opened up opportunities for consumers and competitors to exploit McDonald’s promoted message in any way they wanted.
Another mistake McDonalds made was not providing any directions on how to engage in using the promoted hashtag. Thus, the hashtag quickly became an outlet for consumers who had received negative experiences from McDonalds to share their stories.
Image By: (Gus, 2012)
McDonalds tried to start a new hashtag to quickly distance itself from the damaging one, but it was too late. McDonalds learned a hard lesson that once something goes viral on the Internet it will spread like wild fire.
Image by: (Gus,2012)
The power of social media has become vital in the world of marketing. Although there were 72,788 Twitter mentions associated with McDonalds for the day of the hashtag promotion, only 2% were in relation to #McDStories (Gus, 2012).
In the end the lesson learned here is “a dissatisfied customer tells ten people. But…in the new age of social media, he or she has the tools to tell ten million” (Gillin, 2007).
Image by: (BigStockPhoto.com)
What McDonalds Did Wrong:
Using such a vague hashtag and no explanation on what the hashtag’s purpose was
Stayed silent about the social media issue reinforced the stories told by consumers
What McDonalds Did Right:
Quickly removed the promoted hashtag
Stayed calm and tried to redirect consumer focus
What McDonalds Should Have Done:
Stay engaged with the consumers
Reach out to consumers for support
Work Cited:
Gillin, P. (2007). The new influencers: A marketer's guide to the new social media. Sanger, CA: Quill
Driver Books/Word Dancer Press.
Article:
Lubin, G. (2012, January 24). McDonald's Twitter Campaign Goes Horribly Wrong #McDStories.
Image:
Lubin, G. (2012, January 24). McDonald's Twitter Campaign Goes Horribly Wrong #McDStories.
Article:
Thomas, H. (2012, January 12). McDonald's Twitter Mess: What Went Wrong. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
