Branding - The Social Media Way : Part 2

In the last post on this topic, we talked about the growth of the Social Media spends by various brands as they have begun to realize the power of engaging customers through the online media. We also talked about how various firm follow different strategies for their Social Media activities. In this post, we'll talk about how McDonald's is trying to woo its customers and compete with other brands on this virtual platform.

According to Heather Oldani and Steve Wilson from Social Media Business Council, McDonald's digital strategy (for consumers and employees) has been based on four principles, which are:

1. Go to them and foster THEIR communities
2. Be multidimensional
3. Continue engagements
4. Be transparent

This thing is indicated through their Listen, Participate, Lead policy for their communications. The conversation strategy adopted for the various social media channels also varies in the Type of conversations, Primary owner and the Target audience.

Conversation strategy of McDonald's for various Social Media channels

McDonald's has executed this strategy for engaging its customers in 6 prominent ways:

• Cross promotion with Facebook Apps: The best thing (and the most successful thing) employed by McDonald's is 'The Quest' app on their Facebook page. It acts as a cross promotional tool for both Facebook and Twitter. Fans play a game on the Facebook application, unlocking various product based incentives. Fans are also encouraged to share their achievements through Twitter hashtags.  

The Quest app on McDonald's Facebook page

• Involvement through Social games: McDonald's added a virtual restaurant that fans can add to their city in the game Cityville. The rewards and bonuses for the fans depend on their ability to manage the restaurant. The popularity of the game is being leveraged by McDonald's in a fantastic manner.

• Sharing Videos: McDonald's has numerous YouTube channels on varied themes by employees and fans. These channels increase the engagement levels and enhance traffic on their other Social media channels. As McDonald's displays the actions of real people (employees and customers) there is a high likeability of fan interaction on Facebook and Twitter as well with comments, tweets and likes flowing in abundance. One such campaign asked customers to upload one's photo as part of an online game. This image was turned into a video using 3D mapping technology, in which the person was shown doing awesome football tricks. The video ended with the person kicking the trash (ball) into a McDonald's bin. Users could share this video on their Facebook profile/ page. This helped McDonald's reach a wider audience with over 1 million page impressions and 5,700 fuller bins than normal (interesting fact, but how did they measure this?).

• Expanding their Social reach: The Facebook page of McDonald's also provides a feature in which the customers can change their language to Spanish. Called 'Me Encanta', this feature has been included to target the Hispanic population in the U.S., thus providing a wider reach transcending language barriers.

McDonald's Facebook page with 'Me Encanta' tab targeted at the Hispanic population

• Personalized replies on Twitter: The team handling the McDonald's Twitter handle respond to individual questions, compliments and comments despite having close to 0.2 million followers. Interacting in a direct manner with the customers increases engagement levels.

McDonald's Twitter Page

• Involvement of Community: McDonald's has been constantly engaging its customers through competitions, polls and events. One example of this has been the use of Facebook and Twitter to promote the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC). When McDonald's launched the 'Day of Change' campaign in 2010, they used the Social Media to generate awareness and engage customers. The results were impressive as the online donations increased by 130% in August 2010 compared to August 2009 and also impacted the physical donation boxes in a positive manner.  Also, the E-newsletter subscriptions grew by 748% during the campaign, thus providing a way for the charity to keep in touch with new contacts. 

RHMC Facebook Page

Thus, we have seen that McDonald's has worked actively in branding itself through the Social Media and its continued efforts will lead to higher fan interactions, leading to higher traffic at stores and eventually better returns for the brand.