McDonald's Vs. Burger King on Facebook

by QIAN XU

As one of the most recognizable brands in the world, McDonald's has more than 73.9 million "likes" and follwers on Facebook. While Burger King only has more than 8 million "likes" and 7.8 million followers. The 2 brands has long being main competitor to each other in the burger industry. So how are they actually doing on Facebook? Look at the following aspect:

Post frequency & content

1. McDonald's

·         They post everyday for 1-4 item of content;

·         Various campaigns were introduced on this platform from time to time (community, charity, enterprise culture, etc.);

·         The top of the Facebook page of McDonald’s featured seasonally popular items;

·         As a global brand, McDonald's has separate facebook page feeds for each of the local markets in which it operates;

2. Burger King

·         They post 1 item for every 3-4 days;

·         They mainly post their new products image and advitising;

·         There are also a lot of campaigns based on the products and features;

·         Company responds to a huge number of mentions each day, including complaints, follow requests, compliments and general chitchat- the page was active and they interacts a lot.

Social Media 50/50 Rule

·         Both of them use 50/50 Rule. Half the time they are creating content, make it something new and fresh. The other 50% is content that is repurposed from older content (or curated content) that they remix or reheat into something that feels new, but really isn't.

·         McDonald's post about their brand image and awareness; the other half is to connect the brand to charity, campign, how they serve for different areas of the world.

·         Burger King post mainly on their products and  the features, they probably not using that much as McDonald's

Compare their most successful post

Winner: Burger King.

Obviously they have more “like” and share for their most popular post. Despite McDonald’s obvious success in fans amount, it actually does relatively little in regards to posting content on its wall and makes no apparent effort to respond to the thousands of user comments it receives.

For McDonald’s, this post are a considered a careative connection to its brand image indicate that its brand awarenss is still the core advantage and value.

For Burger King, the post has showed the great feature about its products: pricy and quantity. And it also related to a campign that can attract attention and focus on the products. As customers are so price sensitive today, they will prefer this kind of products and the benefit provided.