MNG81001 The Incorporation of Social Media

Analysis finds questions where there seemed not to be any, and it makes connections that might not have been evident at first.A business case study ‘is a description of an actual situation, commonly involving a decision, a challenge, an opportunity, a problem or an issue faced by a person (or persons) in an organization’ (Erskine, J.A. and Leenders, M.R., Learning with Cases, © 1997, Richard Ivey School of Business).

Cases contain relevant data about the issue available to the key person in the case, plus background information about the organisation.

Your task is to analyse a business case study that chronicles a series of social media events that had negative consequences for McDonald's Corporation (McDonald's). This case places you directly into the role of Rick Wion, director of social media.

The case highlights the need to:

• Recognise the potential for negative consequences when using social media.
• Evaluate how an organisation can develop a positive relationship with the media.
• Devise appropriate strategies for developing social media campaigns.

Answer:

The incorporation of social media for the advertising by companies poses several advantages and limitations in equal measure. Social media usage is a cheap means through which the company can use to create awareness among the consumers and also market their products. The companies may use the advantage of getting to reach out to new consumers that have never tried the use of their products before and thus widening their market.

  The companies can use the social media platforms to increase the expectations of consumers when launching new product or improving the existing products. Social media can also be used by the companies to help in having honest and frank discussions with their customers. The companies can analyze the data on their social media platforms to find out the number of people who have their interests in their products (Tsimonis, and Dimitriadis 2014).

Social media, however has proved to have its disadvantages to the companies that have embraced and used the social media platforms. The limitations are equally challenging to the companies that use social media. Employees are frequently engaged in the activities involving advertising on social media or having the social media accounts taken care of to ensure the customers get feedback when they desire.

The engaging nature of social media takes a lot of time and therefore, the company has to employ people to take care of that which reduces the company’s revenue. The employees are engaged at all times making updates on social media and answering the needs of clients. Social media also does open up an avenue that enables the consumers who are dissatisfied to express their frustrations which some of the consumers express in all kinds of manners that may be intended to frustrate the business (Sunstein,2018).

Question Two.

In having the social media campaigns, Mc Donald’s needs to address the fact that not all people do have a positive attitude towards them. Mc Donald’s needs to believe in the fact that there are people who have a positive attitude towards them and equally,there are those with a negative attitude towards them.  The frequent and positively inclined consumers will always, most of the time, join competitions to have discounts, vouchers and take part in competitions that the company organizes.

The company has the need to have the constant promotions in order to maintain the loyal customers as they will believe in the company and will be loyal, at all times to the company. It would be also essential for Mc Donald’ to maintain a positive partnership with institutions that are willing to partner or are partnering with them. The partnerships will help foster great relation with the companies and impact them positively to a great extent (Tuten, and Solomon, 2017).

Mc Donald’s should maintain a relationship with the associations that have a negative stigma towards them. Such an institution may be the Peoples for Ethical Treatment of Animals or other organizations that consider consuming of flesh to be a vice. The relationship can be maintained by the advertising of products that are free of flesh on their social media handles. Mc Donald’s should also cooperate with the organizations that focus on writing about nutrition in order write on the beneficial impacts of consuming their products. It is of importance for Mc Donald’s to do so to ensure balance between those who love their products and those who dislike their products (Lubin,2012).  

Question Three.

In my opinion, it would be wise for Wion and his team to first analyse the marketing strategies that have been employed by their competitors in the market and find out why certain ideas worked well and which ones failed to work. The team should also be more creative and original in their strategies. The #meet the farmers was quite successful but was not creative enough.  A good campaign should have made the people and consumers to come out more than using tweets only. A good campaign would have made the people belive more in the company for a while. The campaign therefore turned out negative when the people should have been left with a positive aspect of the company for a while (Ashley, and Tuten 2015).

It also would have been important for Wion and his team to share their idea with others working in different companies about the run and have their perspectives into consideration. The other people would easily detect the negative aspects of the campaign and have them repaired or looked into before official implementation of the given idea.

Question Four.

Wion’s team can cooperate with the media prior to the establishing of the run. The team can work with the advertising if their runs especially during prime time to capture a large audience.  Such activities will increase the awareness concerning the run and additionally increase the people’s positive aspect towards the run. Their views on the run will be made positive as they will be able to identify with it. Such a plan will help to ensure that the negative campaigns are prevented. Wion together with his team should also work with organizations that are not biased in furnishing the, with intelligence on their run.

References.

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), 15-27.

Lubin, G. (2012). McDonald's twitter campaign goes horribly wrong# McDStories. Business Insider.

Sunstein, C. R. (2018). # Republic: Divided democracy in the age of social media. Princeton University Press.

Tsimonis, G., & Dimitriadis, S. (2014). Brand strategies in social media. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 32(3), 328-344.

Tuten, T. L., & Solomon, M. R. (2017). Social media marketing. Sa