So, McDonalds had a great idea – jump in on promoted tweets. If you’re not familiar with promoted tweets, it’s basically paying to have your tweet appear on the top of a feed. It’s kind of like the sponsored ads at the top of Google, or on Facebook if a company you’re not friends with or didn’t “like” paid to appear at the top of your feed with their post. It’s generally kind of obnoxious, but sometimes, a company can get it right. McDonald’s didn’t.
Basically, they tried to get people talking about their “McDonald’s Stories.” Oh, people did. Here’s four I just found within about 10 seconds:
bwsmithna McDonald’s food will kill you. #McDStories
eegriff #McDStories hahahahahahaha
Stryse No joke. BF asked for his food fresh. Employee seemed genuinely taken aback that people would want fresh food.#McDStories #McDReno
denisrochac Because of the massive need for cheap beef 50 acres of rainforest is destroyed every minutes #McDStories
And you can read about a whole bunch more of these stories here: McDonald’s Fail
Yes, McDonald’s failed bad. Here’s the lesson: you can’t just force social. You can interact with people, you can ask questions, but you can’t control a social media conversation. Here’s what brands need to realize: the game has changed. TV and radio let you control the message, the internet does not.
So, instead of trying to control a conversation, or force something that isn’t there (especially when you’re the subject of ridicule and controversy to begin with), why not try to help instead of promote? Why not try to serve someone else’s need first? Why not try to be a part of something that’s already happening rather than point to something that’s not?
