Should McDonald's Serve Billions and Billions on Twitter?

I stumbled across the verified McDonald’s Twitter account (@McDonalds) and an unverified sight that seems to be the official Burger King Twitter account (@BurgerKing). As of 9/21/10, @McDonalds has about 47,000 followers and @BurgerKing has about 1100 followers.

These numbers are hardly a reflection of the overall Social Media strategy for my two favorite restaurants from 1980 through 1998. But it leads me to believe these two rivals have two different approaches to Twitter.

With a little bit of unscientific research, it seems like McDonald’s reach is much broader and more intensive. They have a PR team that also tweets under the umbrella of the Golden Arches. Each member is semi-focused on customer and franchisee satisfaction, as well as the general interests of their core consumer. Basically, it’s a textbook strategy for a method of communication whose textbook is still being written.

But BK (again without too much of a deep-dive research effort on my part) seems to be taking a bit more of a laissez-faire approach. They’re responsive to the customer, but with only 1100 followers, I can’t imagine they’re aggressively seeking to grow this number. There are also quite a few localized BK accounts; I assume these are their franchisees. It’s an interesting and exciting move for the franchisee committed to PR.

I think both McDonald’s and Burger King recognize that the Twitter community is comparatively a small part of their target, and most of their true fans probably already follow them on Facebook. But does BK have a Whopper of a Twitter problem? And is 47,000 McDonald’s followers a satisfying number for a company that loves to tout the fact that they’ve served “Billions and Billions?”

There are plenty of ways for both to grow Twitter followers exponentially (for starters- hire creative copywriters in order to give the King his own Twitter feed and give The Hamburglar a new lease on life online). It may not be their most pressing need today, but it wouldn't hurt. After all, you never know when Google will start optimizing their search engine by total of Twitter followers. Or some other such business nonsense that continues to keep us all on our toes.

The King and The Colonel Seeing Eye to Eye...Sort Of

A quick tip of the cap to The Colonel and The King. KFC and Burger King have both taken different paths of innovation, but I believe each will end up with their own success stories.

By now everybody knows that KFC went back to its roots to create the Double Down, which is chock full ‘o so many unapologetically fried calories they had no choice but to exclusively use burly men in their TV commercials. It may not be the best thing for society, but KFC believes its responsibility isn’t to society, but rather it’s to people who like to use meat as their bread. I even love that the name implies that you’re gambling with your health by eating one. They’re throwing caution to the wind, and I salute KFC for staying true to its brand.

On the other hand, you’ve got Burger King. They just announced they’re going outside their wheelhouse in order to start serving brunch. Traditional brunch is best summed up by an old quote from The Simpsons. Its not quite breakfast, and its not quite lunch, but it comes with a slice of cantaloupe at the end. And now, BK is putting its own twist on brunch. Only time will tell if it works, but we’ll no doubt soon be seeing The King extolling the virtues of their tweener meal offerings. And I have to applaud BK for finding fresh ways to peddle their grub during off-hours. But will it come with a slice of cantaloupe?

So there you have it. The Colonel and The King are taking two different approaches for building growth and buzz. One is doubling down on its reputation, and one is going after an untapped weekend institution. Will any of their hearty faithful live to see the day these approaches are deemed success or failure?