Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Integration for McDonald’s

Technological advancements and the utilization of the social media platforms has helped in enhancing the communication systems in organizations. Development of communication in the organizational context has helped in upholding the efficiency of the organizations while operating in the international markets. The discussion will be aiming at accepting the impact of the utilization of social media platform, Twitter, by McDonalds and the manner in which the effectiveness of the social media campaign can be retained.

The purpose of the report is to examine the different advantages and disadvantages of the utilization of social media platform by McDonalds and thereby identify the different stakeholders involved in the process. On the other hand, the manner in which the effectiveness of the social media campaign can be enhanced through the formulation of a proper communication plan is being stated in the research.

1. The utilization of the social media platform helps in maintaining the efficacy of the organization while operating in the international markets. The different advantages that are offered by utilization of the social media platforms have helped in maintaining the promotional functions in an inexpensive manner (Macnamara  and Zerfass  2012). The utilization of the social media platforms has helped the organization in improving the marketing communications that are planned by the businesses. On the other hand, the utilization of social media platforms will be helping the organizations in maintaining the analytic services figure. McDonalds will be able to identify the preferences of the consumers through the utilization of the social media platform. The digital promotion practice will be helping the organization in maintaining the efficacy of the systems of the business while operating as per the objectives (Trainor  2012). The involvement of the community stakeholders in the processes will be helping the organization in improving the functions and promote the diversity of products.

Alternatively, the active participation of the organization in the social media platforms requires the proactive approach of the employees of the business to update information in the platforms and respond to the queries of the customers. Lack of the proactive approach will be affecting the goodwill of the organization among the customers of the business. The different opinions of the customers and their ratings on the services and the products that are developed by the organization help in identifying the different aspects of the utilization of the social media platforms on organizational performance (Peters et al.  2013). One of the severe disadvantages of utilization of the social media platforms are based on data security and fraudulent activities related to imitation of the company profile in the social media affects the goodwill of the business.

2 . The different stakeholders that are associated with the business’ social media integration have helped the same in developing a more detailed structure of the business idea. The consumers of the organization are one of the chief stakeholders of the business (Majchrzak et al. 2013). The developmental functions that are run by the business are based on the identification of the preferences and concerns of the customers (Huang,   Baptista  and Galliers  2013).  On the other hand, the social media integration is undertaken by the organization with the view of communicating with the consumers in order to identify the different issues that are faced by the same. The social media integration of the organization is often negated by different other organizations like the Peoples for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which is required to be considered by McDonalds before undertaking steps of utilizing the social media campaign through Twitter (Trainor et al.  2014). Maintaining suitable relations with the media will also be helping the organization in making the consumers aware of the nutrition value that is proposed by the business. The suppliers of the organization hold an important position in the smooth functioning of the business applications (Treem  and Leonardi  2013). Maintenance of proper relation with the stake holders of the business will be helping in making progress as per the expectations (Andzulis,   Panagopoulos  and Rapp  2012).

Stakeholders Involved in Social Media Integration

3. The efficiency of the social media campaign could be enhanced through the increased involvement of the community stakeholders in the process (Barger  and Labrecque  2013). Community stakeholders form the major part of the marketing campaign, as the social media will be helping the business in establishing effective communication lines with the consumers directly (Malthouse et al.  2013). Maximization of the involvement of the community stakeholders of the business will be helping the same in maintaining the efficacy of the functions as per the objectives of the business. The twitter campaign that is planned by the organization will be helping the organization in receiving feedbacks from the customers. It will be helping the organization in bringing forth improvements in the line of product offerings (Dabbagh  and Kitsantas  2012). The proactive approach of the employees and the customer assistance team of the organization will be helping the business in maximizing the functions of the organization as per the objectives of the business. On the other hand, the updated information of the processes and the product offerings that are provided by the organization through the social media platforms will be helping the business in maintaining their offerings as per the expectations of the customers (Leonardi,   Huysman  and Steinfield  2013). Therefore, the organization must take steps to improve the involvement of the community stakeholders of the business, which will be helping the business in maintaining the efficacy of the systems of the business while operating in the international markets.  

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Conclusion: 

Therefore, from the above discussion it can be stated that social media integration of the organization, McDonalds, will be helping the same in maintaining the efficacy of the marketing communications. There are different pros and cons identified in the process of the social media integration; however, the social media integration will be helping the organization in reaching out to its target customers through inexpensive advertisement media. The discussion also enumerates different stakeholders that are required to be considered by the organization while undertaking the integration. The effectiveness of the social media plan and the manner in which the communication is to be undertaken by the organization are also enumerated as per the objective of the study.

References:

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Barger, V.A. and Labrecque, L., 2013. An integrated marketing communications perspective on social media metrics.

Dabbagh, N. and Kitsantas, A., 2012. Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. The Internet and higher education, 15(1), pp.3-8.

Huang, J., Baptista, J. and Galliers, R.D., 2013. Reconceptualizing rhetorical practices in organizations: The impact of social media on internal communications. Information & Management, 50(2-3), pp.112-124.

Leonardi, P.M., Huysman, M. and Steinfield, C., 2013. Enterprise social media: Definition, history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), pp.1-19.

Macnamara, J. and Zerfass, A., 2012. Social media communication in organizations: The challenges of balancing openness, strategy, and management. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 6(4), pp.287-308.

Majchrzak, A., Faraj, S., Kane, G.C. and Azad, B., 2013. The contradictory influence of social media affordances on online communal knowledge sharing. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), pp.38-55.

Malthouse, E.C., Haenlein, M., Skiera, B., Wege, E. and Zhang, M., 2013. Managing customer relationships in the social media era: Introducing the social CRM house. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp.270-280.

Peters, K., Chen, Y., Kaplan, A.M., Ognibeni, B. and Pauwels, K., 2013. Social media metrics—A framework and guidelines for managing social media. Journal of interactive marketing, 27(4), pp.281-298.

Trainor, K.J., 2012. Relating social media technologies to performance: A capabilities-based perspective. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), pp.317-331.

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