MNG81001 Management: Case study - McDonald's Twitter Campaign

n increasingly been made affordable through continuous technology innovation (Sherwin 2015).

This growth has forced organizations large or small to adapt to the technological changes that are complementing the social media boom. Moreover, it has presented an enormous opportunity for organizations to reach a far greater audience and exploit the full potential of the market leading to the growth and development of the firm. However, there are two sides to the coin pertaining to this matter this matter, as much as their numerous advantages that accompany the use of social media in exploiting business opportunities and the use of promotional marketing strategies, there’s a dark twist that could ruin the brand and reputation of a firm (Stephen 2016, p 18).

Organizations such as McDonald's have tasted the consequences of ineffectively using social media to maximize their business opportunities. The failure of the #meetthefarmers social media campaign exposed the largest fast-food franchise inability to effectively manage the twitter marketing campaign. The campaign was intended to portray the quality product service delivery offered to it consumers but it rather depicted a negative side to the firm that tainted its strong reputation. Therefore, this memorandum will go into detail about the McDonald twitter campaign with the evaluation and analysis through crucial and strategic questions below;

Advantages and disadvantages of social media

Advantages

Improve brand awareness-Through social media organizations are able to reach different and large audiences and create awareness on their brand and product service delivery. This increases the market share contributing to the growth and development of the firm

Cost effective- The use of promotional marketing strategies is far cheaper than the conventional methods such as print media, tv and radio stations

Consumer engagement -through social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, it is easier for consumers to engage with an organization and air their views or recommendation concerning cetin products offered by the company of the quality of their product service delivery

Increase brand loyalty- Through the constant interaction and engagement with consumers through social media, it improves the quality of relation which fosters brand loyalty in the long run due to the fact the consumer satisfaction has been achieved

Disadvantages

Availability of spammers and trolls-One thing with social media is that it can attract all kinds of an audience either good or bad. These bad audiences may include spammers or trolls who have negative intentions toward the success of a firm ( Gilkerson and Berg 2017, p 141).

Time consumers -Social marketing is very consuming as a number of employees of an organization have to spend most of their time on websites so as to attract consumers. Moreover, the constant engagement with consumers online who a thousand in number could be cumbersome if an organization has limited resources

Viral tendencies-Social media should be handed crucially and effectively as a mistake by an organization could reach millions of people with a short period of time which would consequentially affect the brand and reputation of an organization in the long run like the scenarios in McDonald meet the farmers' campaign

Types of audiences when using a social media campaign

The numerous different audiences can be summaries into two categories which are internet audiences and external audiences who should always be considered when initiating social media campaigns. Internal audience covers the individual based within an organization. They include employees, supporting staff etc. their key roles in the organization have a strong impact to the brand and success of a firm, therefore they should be taken into consideration when designing a social media campaign. External audiences are individuals or a group of individuals whose activities have a strong impact on the organization. They include consumers both loyal and perspective, the organization supply chain, the organization’s critics as well as government organizations who regulate the marketer industry(Ngai 2015).

Better design for future McDonald Twitter campaigns

In order of McDonald to have an effective future social media campaigns, they must diet address the issue of effective management, therefore they should ensure that the designated team is skilled and if they are not effective training and seminars should be in order (Sexton 2015, p 240-241) However, there is a possibility of recruiting third-party organization who mainly focus on consultancy or social media campaigns and allow them to manage effectively the promotional marketing strategies. Nevertheless, they should consider the audience before initiating the campaign especially the critics who are always negative towards the firm so as to ensure that minimal damage which could be managed easily (Hollebeek at al.2014, p 150-155)

1.TIMING	Introduction of a new product by McDonald Major holidays or events in different locations
2.AUDIENCE	Internal and external audiences
3. SENDER	Management and marketing team Contracted external consultancy firm
4. KEY OBJECTIVES	Minimize negative damage affecting the brand Brand and product service delivery awareness Communicate the key objectives of the firm
5.DESIRED OUTCOME	Minimize negative damage affecting the brand Brand and product service delivery awareness Communicate the key objectives of the firm
6.MEDIUM	McDonald social media channels official page Android and iOS applications Conventions methods such as print media and tv stations
7.MATERIALS	Mobile adds. Conventional advertisement format Viral startups such as us of the # in twitter and Instagram
8.FREQUENCY	Mobile adds-daily Convention methods- twice in a week Social media platforms 5 times in a month

Strategy to encourage better media relations

References

Bal, A.S., Weidner, K., Hanna, R. and Mills, A.J., 2017. Crowdsourcing and brand control. Business Horizons, 60(2), pp.219-228.

Gilkerson, N. and Berg, K.T., 2017. Social media, hashtag hijacking, and the evolution of an activist group strategy. Social Media and Crisis Communication, p.141.

Hollebeek, L.D., Glynn, M.S. and Brodie, R.J., 2014. Consumer brand engagement in social media:, scale development and validation. Journal of interactive marketing, 28(2), pp.149-165.

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.

Sexton, D.E., 2015. Managing brands in a prickly digital world. Journal of Advertising Research, 55(3), pp.237-241.

Sherwin, R.T., 2015. # HaveWeReallyThoughtThisThrough: Why Granting Trademark Protection to Hashtags Is Unnecessary, Duplicative, and Downright Dangerous. Harv. JL & Tech., 29(1), p.455.

Stephen, A.T., 2016. The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10(2), pp.17-21.

VanMeter, R.A., Grisaffe, D.B. and Chonko, L.B., 2015. Of “Likes” and “Pins”: The effects of consumers' attachment to social media. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 32 (2), pp.70-88.