Institutions and the  Media

         The restaurant industry is fully immersed in social.  McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving more than 58 million customers daily. The business began in 1940, with a restaurant opened by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California. Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant.

          McDonald’s large audience definitely plays a role in their success, with almost 70 million followers across all countries, regions, and platforms - a 31 percent greater audience than incumbent Starbucks. With 7,748 brand posts in 30 days, an active audience of 1.4 million, and 104.8 million impressions, McDonald’s’ uses their enormous following as an amplifier for their social media activitie

 

         While important, a large audience alone isn’t enough to guarantee a strong social media presence. McDonalds uses many other tactics and strategies to ensure their social activity is mature and engaging.

         The McDonald’s social media feeds are being constantly updated, in particular, Twitter and Facebook. The company often use current and seasonal events to their advantage.

          As McDonald’s is one of the largest, and well known brands in the world, they have the advantage that all they need to do is not necessarily attract millions of new customers but to retain their current following. It’s safe to say that as a company that completely dominate their segment of the fast food industry they certainly won’t be going anywhere any time soon. However, as an industry that often market towards impulse, it would be interesting to see the results if they shook up their content a little.

          Overall, McDonalds uses their social accounts on both a large scale, growing brand equity, and a smaller scale, tending to specific and local customers. When both methods are used in tandem, the result is a successful and robust social strategy.

 

          As seen by the case of McDonald’s, social can be a powerful tool for the restaurant industry brand and beyond.