McDonald's: A Cautionary Social Tale

In light of the recent Twitter hashtag backlash that fastfood giant McDonald's has dealt with in the past week, it sheds some light on to just how carefully a brand, business or individual must tread on the eggshells that is social media.

McDonald's backpedaling isn't the first (and certainly won't be the last) time a major brand name had to put their foot in their mouths. Everyone is sure to remember Kenneth Cole's distasteful words about Cairo's revolt. And who could forget Netflix and their many many missteps last year regarding their prices and naming restructuring ideas. The fact is these companies are huge, and they're going to mess up whether of their own accord or otherwise.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, with as many followers as McDonald's has, 290k, misfires are bound to happen. In this modern age of instant gratification, people need to keep a watchful eye on their social campaigns. Granted, the #McDStories hashtag fiasco wasn't directly their fault. They had the best intentions that unfortunately went awry. In fact they handled it in spectacular fashion by pulling the trending tweet within a couple hours. But taking into consideration the majority of Twitter users (read: teenagers and young adults), negative and unnecessary comments were almost certain to rear their ugly heads all over the internet.

 If we can take a lesson from these examples, it's time: watch what you say, how you say it, and when you say it. You never know how's watching and how they'll react.

Be well,