Social Media Revolutionising the Market: McDonald's

by Gareth
4 minutes
Social Media Revolutionising the Market: McDonald's

Social media is revolutionising the way companies interact with their customers. Despite this revolution, one would think that many of the biggest companies have already hired into their ranks a community manager. However, still this often doesn't seem to e the case.

McDonald's only appointed a director of social media in 2010, when they hired Rick Wion, greatly increasing their efforts in the digital field.

Wion, came from GolinHarris, and had been managing social media projects for McDonald's since 2006, being a founding member of the McDonald's Digital Task Force, which established the company's digital strategy.

As a perfect sample of the objectives that a company could have in the field of social media, Wion said that its goals involved three aspects:

  1. Use social media to build the business 
  2. Manage consumer problems 
  3. Extend the reach to reach target groups such as, for example, mum bloggers

Wion, as director of social media, worked with the media relations team, which included a team of support staff and reported to McDonald's director of external communications and public relations. It is a great example of how the role of the community manager is structured and how it fits into a larger company.

McDonald's suggested the step as the next in a social media strategy that has taken a year: "Now is the time to have someone dedicated 100% of the time to these matters."

Among the achievements of Wion was to establish the brand's Twitter position, @mcdonalds, and set a process to respond to consumer complaints.

One of Wion's first major projects was, as already mentioned, to extend the service to mum bloggers, whom the network has been courting for several years through its Mums Quality Correspondents. McDonald's will reached out to the group through several avenues, he said in a statement.

In Golin, where Wion was vice president of social media, he developed strategies for other major advertisers such as Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and BP. Prior to working at Golin, Wion was director of client technology at Smithbucklin Corp., where he advised clients in digital marketing, e-commerce and content development.

When we see that the conglomerates move in a certain direction, we are likely to see others follow suit, taking due consideration of their marketing strategy and future projection, The social media manager is already, more than a reality; it is a necessity.

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