This social media case really shows the power of social
media and more specifically, the power of the hashtag. I honestly initially didn’t
think that there was anything wrong with the hashtag “McDStories” but then it
seemed like a no-brainer once I started reading the different articles on the
topic. It’s easy to see how McDonald’s executives saw the hashtag as a fun way
for people to share positive stories from their McDonald’s experiences.
However, just because the executives see McDonalds in a positive light doesn’t mean
that everyone else will. This was proven to be true when the hashtag was established.
I also thought
it was interesting to compare the two hashtags that McDonald’s used and the
different effects that each one had. They also used a hashtag “#MeetTheFarmers”
to talk about the fresh produce that they use. This hashtag wasn’t talked about
much in the different articles that I read, but it seemed to have a positive
effect because it was very specific. However, the “#McDStories” hashtag is a
lot more vague and caused people to talk about their negative rather than positive
experiences with McDonalds. Studying this social media case made me realize how
important it is to consider other peoples possible reactions to a hashtag and
how important it is to have specific hashtags that can’t be interpreted many
different ways.
The
power of social media is so huge in this case. The negative tweets about
McDonalds with the hashtag “#McDStories” happened within minutes of the hashtag
being released, according to Hannah Roberts for Daily Mail. Although McDonald’s
pulled “#McDStories” after realizing the negative impact it had, the damage had
already been done. If you search #McDStories on Twitter there are still negative tweets that come up in
2017 and the campaign happened back in 2012. This shows that you should really
think about what you are going to post on social media before you do, because
once it’s out there it’s there forever.
Of
course, after something like this happens there is usually a statement released
by the company. You can find the statement from McDonald’s social media director
Rick Wion here. I thought that it was very interesting that he used the statement
to try to make the hashtag incident seem like it wasn’t as big of a deal as it
was. He talked about how that day there were 72,788 mentions of McDonald’s and
only 2% of those were with the hashtag “#McDStories”. Wion ends the statement
with saying that the “ability to change midstream helped this small blip from
becoming something larger.” Do you agree that it stopped the whole incident
from becoming “something larger” or no?
Great job Jayci! I completely agree with you that the power of social media is huge and that once information is on social media it is there forever. I really like how you mentioned the other hashtag #MeetTheFarmers and how it had more of a positive effect because it was more specific.I It's true that when a comment or hashtag is really vague, it results in more people talking about it.
ReplyDeleteNice job, Jayci! I think your reflection was great. I completely agree that perspectives is an important aspect to consider when creating these social media campaigns. #MeetTheFarmers has a naturally positive feel to it, especially considering that most consumers are thrilled to find out more about where their food is coming from. However, #McDStories clearly did not have the same positive perspective that McDonald's corporate office thought that it would. I agree with you in that it is crucial to consider possible reactions to a hashtag. Obviously, these hashtag reactions were not considered very thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteI feel like McDonald's tried to take the stance that there is no such thing as bad publicity. I usually agree but in this case, there was definitely bad publicity. This whole debacle only gave light to the bad #McDstories. There were probably some good stories. It's not like the incident ruined business for McDonald's. It is is still thriving five years later. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post, I think that when you said they didn't understand the power of the hashtag you were exactly right. I think that they were wise to pull the hashtag, and doing that did help it to not grow as much.
ReplyDeleteI think that you are right in saying that the hashtag was very vaguely executed. It would have been better if they gave better examples for what they were trying to go for. But I really appreciated your comments.
ReplyDeleteYou know, it's interesting to me to see how people reacted to this situation because I've always heard that people would rather make negative remarks on social media and perhaps in general than they would want to make a positive one. This Hashtag definitely proves that. My hats off to McDonalds for thinking optimistically and having a little faith that people would mention good experiences. Nevertheless, it's a lesson learned to think twice before posting things on social media.
ReplyDelete