Advantages of social media

Title: Twitter Case Study

To: McDonald’s management

From: Rick Wion

Date: 1 September. 2018

Subject: Course of action

Purpose: The primary aim of the given memorandum is to discuss about the failed social media campaign of Mc Donald`s and the manner in which a course of action for the improvement of the scenario can take place. The report will be describing the manner in which the social media campaigns are held and their advantages as well as disadvantages. Moreover, the target market for the future campaigns will be discussed which will then be followed by the recommendations which will deal with the manner in which the campaigns can be designed according to the audience preferences and company objectives. The memorandum will discuss the different aspects of the Twitter campaign in form of four questions and each of them will be supported by adequate theories.

Social media advantages and disadvantages

According to Armstrong et al. (2015), Social Media can be utilized as a useful tool for bringing about various advantages to the business organization as it assists the business in successfully engaging with the target audience and boosting the website traffic. Although there are various advantages of the Social media campaigns, they are subject to certain disadvantages as well. A thorough knowledge of both the advantages as well as the disadvantages will assist in the understanding of the best approach for the social media which can be used for the business.

Advantages of social media

The advantages of social media are as follows:

Customer interaction: Customer interaction is at its maximum when the social media channels are used and they tend to respond well to the advertisements laid down by the firm which improve the feedback mechanism.

Cost effective: The social media advertising is much cheaper than the original advertising and traditional promotional activities. Moreover, the cost of maintaining the page of the company on social media platforms is very low (Stephen 2016, p. 17-21). The paid advertising on social media allows expenses as per the budget of the company. Moreover, the benefits of the medium are many in number which makes t cost effective.

Brand awareness: Social media promotes brand awareness which allows the audiences to grab the focus of the target market. It also goes a long way in assisting the organization to increase and improve the brand visibility of the firm.

Disadvantages of social media

The disadvantages of social media are as follows:

Disadvantages of social media

Resources: A business planning to use social media will be required to have adequate resources which will allow advertising feedback reporting and new content.

Evaluation: Very often, it becomes increasingly difficult to evaluate the amount which has been spent on the social media advertisement and whether the company gained the results as per the amount invested or not (Hollensen & Raman 2014).

Ineffective use: Very often social media is used ineffectively to negatively push the different customers for sale.

Audience / Stakeholders

Stakeholders and Target Market forms as essential aspect of the different marketing activities which are undertaken in order to design the marketing activities as per the needs and preferences of the audience. The stakeholders and audience for Mc Donald’s should be as follows:

Internal:

• Management: The interest of the management needs to be taken special care of as they have a high stake.
• Employees: The employees are the key resources of a company
• Delivery Staff: They are the link between the customers and the firm.

External:

• Customers

1. On the basis of the demographic segmentation, the millennials need to be targeted.
2. On the basis of the Psychographic segmentation, the technological savvy people as well as the socially active people shall be targeted. Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch 2017, p. 118-126).
3. On the basis of behavioral segmentation and lifestyle, the corporate professionals can be targeted.

• Suppliers: Those who supply local materials for the products. The company`s success is linked with them.
• Media: The media tends to form the link between the customers and the firm and their stake holds high value.
• Activists: Those who are considered about to social and health aspects of the meals sold by the firm.
• Twitter Campaign Design

The previous Twitter campaign which was undertaken under the leadership of Wion which was based on the McDStories, was a failure and they received various negative backslash from the audiences which were based on the poor services which were provided by certain audiences and the food problems (Iveycases.com. 2018). The target audiences are the millennials, tech savy individuals and the corporate professionals. They received various negative feedbacks which spoilt the brand name of the organization. Hence, this time the following different methods can be used to reach out to the target audience as a part of the Twitter campaign:

Live competitions: Through the Twitter medium, Mc Donald’s can hold live burger eating competitions which shall attract large audiences at the outlets as well.

Celebrity public relations: Mc Donald’s can get paid public relations done by using certain popular celebrities (Ashley & Tuten 2015, p. 15-27). The choice of the celebrities often has a positive impact on the audience, Moreover, certain celebrities are quite popular on social media which is another positive aspect.

Heroes of Mc D: Through this the management can share the stories of certain employees who have been working for a long time and honoring their service.

Social Media Limitations

However, although the design of the campaign can be attractive in nature, there are certain limitations of the social media which limit an organizations capabilities to perform well:

• Negative feedback: Just like the previous campaign of Mc Donald’s, was exposed to various negative comments where the efforts of the company were not appreciated.
• Low market penetration: The market penetration of Twitter is not as wide as that of Facebook (Chang, Yu & Lu 2015, p.777-782).
• Negative word of mouth: Moreover, the negative feedbacks could lead to a negative brand name of the organization.

Communication Plan

The communication plan for Wion has been given as follows. This plan needs to be used in order to encourage better media relations and accurate reporting.

Communication Plan
1. Timing	The timing of the plan should be around 3 months, which can begin from October`18.
2. Audience	The audience for the different public relations activities will be as follows: Millennials Corporate workers Tech savvy people
3. Sender	The sender of the plan needs to be the marketing team at the Mc Donald’s.
4. Key message	The key message of the campaign needs to portray that Mc Donald’s cares about providing the audience with good quality and affordable fast food.
5. Desired Outcome	The desires outcome are as follows: Large followings on social media channels Large footfall at the different outlets
6. Medium	Social media channels and digital platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other food blogs
7. Materials	Digital posters, videos, photographs, Blog contents
8. Frequency	The advertisements shall be updated once every 10 days.

Conclusion:

Therefore, from the given analysis of the case study of the failed Twitter campaign of Mc Donald`s, it can be stated that the social media has become a popular mode of advertisement for the organization, however it is exposed to several negative aspects as well. The memo examined the positive as well as negative aspects of the social media, which is then followed by a revised campaign design for Mc Donald`s, moreover, the relevant audience has been stated along with a communication plan. It can be learnt that planning tends to form an essential aspect of the social media campaigns.

References:

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. & Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson

Ashley, C. & Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), pp.15-27.

Chang, Y.T., Yu, H. & Lu, H.P., 2015. Persuasive messages, popularity cohesion, and message diffusion in social media marketing. Journal of Business Research, 68(4), pp.777-782.

Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P.A. & Hinsch, C., 2017. Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.118-126.

Hollensen, S. & Raman, A., 2014. Social Media Marketing. Marketing Canada-Journal.

Iveycases.com. ,2018. Ivey Publishing – Product View. [online] Available at: https://www.iveycases.com/ProductView.aspx?id=60811 [Accessed 1 Sep. 2018].

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

Tuten, T.L. & Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage.