So when it comes to fast-food chains, who is the King on Twitter? McDonald’s? BK? Starbucks?
The answer is, it depends. Do you place more value on followers, or engagement? How important is following back customers on Twitter? Do more active accounts get higher marks?
I found a list of the Top 10 fast-food brands according to QSRMagazine and then used TweetStats to track the Twitter account for each of the Top 10 brands. I then looked at 6 categories: Followers, Following, Tweets, Replies, RTs as Replies, and How Long on Twitter.
Here’s the brands that I looked at, and their Twitter account for each: McDonalds, Subway, Burger King, Wendy’s, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Dunkin’ Donuts, Pizza Hut, KFC, Sonic.
Here’s my assessment of how these brands are using Twitter:
Best Twitter Presence – Starbucks
Starbucks leads 2 of the 6 categories I looked at, and was 2nd in 3 others. The Seattle-based brand has a huge lead in number of followers, Taco Bell and McDonalds were tied for 2nd on the list with just a shade over 123K followers for each. Starbucks has over 1.4 million followers. They also have the most tweets, have been on Twitter since August 2008), and almost 80% of the company’s tweets are replies to others. If there was one knock against the company, it might be that they are only following 79K people, which is the most on the list, but still only a fraction of its 1.4M followers.
Most Active and Engaged: Dunkin Donuts
DD has been on Twitter since October 2008, having left the most tweets on this list (8586), and 70% of those tweets have been replies to others. Also, they have over 78K followers, and have over 52K people they are following. I also think it’s interesting that while DD only has a fraction of the followers that competitor Starbucks has, the rest of its stats seem to closely track with what Starbucks has done. DD joined Twitter a couple of months after SBUX, they have more tweets, and over 70% replies, like Starbucks.
Most Disappointing Twitter Presence: Burger King
BK arguably has the most brand awareness after McDonalds, but you couldn’t tell it from the company’s Twitter account. The chain has less than 10K followers, a full 114K behind rival McDonalds. Of course, The King isn’t doing himself any favors, only following 327 people, with only 223 tweets and roughly 1% of those are replies. This proves that engagement matters, if BK were more active and responsive to followers, I bet its number of followers would spike.
Here’s the complete stats and how each brand ranked:
Number of Followers:
1 – Starbucks – 1,429,917
2 – McDonalds – 123,690
3 – Taco Bell – 123,557
4 – Dunkin Donuts – 78,449
5 – Pizza Hut – 53,306
6 – Subway – 47,821
7 – KFC – 32,808
8 – Wendy’s – 18,821
9 – Sonic – 12,144
10 – Burger King – 9,523
Replies as % of Tweets
1 – Sonic – 86.11
2 – Starbucks – 78.43
3 – Dunkin Donuts – 70.42
4 – KFC – 64.08
5 – McDonalds – 59.69
6 – Pizza Hut – 57.26
7 – Wendy’s – 53.52
8 – Subway – 45
9 – Taco Bell – 12.55
10 – Burger King – 1.79
Number of Tweets
1 – Dunkin Donuts – 8,586
2 – Starbucks – 6,936
3 – McDonalds – 4,946
4 – Taco Bell – 4,251
5 – Sonic – 4,243
6 – Subway – 3,824
7 – KFC – 3,044
8 – Pizza Hut – 2,047
9 – Wendy’s – 1,779
10 – Burger King – 223
Takeaways from these stats:
1 – Engagement matters, and isn’t optional. All of these chains (with the possible exception of Sonic) have national footprints, and as such have to be on Twitter, because that’s where their customers are. If you’re a national brand with a larger customer base (especially a B2C company), then it’s required that you be active on all major social media channels, because your customers will be.
2 – Experience matters. Three of the 10 brands listed here have been on Twitter since 2008, and all three are in the middle or top of all stats.
3 – Social Media is growing up fast. If you look at the Twitter accounts of these brands, you’ll see that most are actively engaging their customers. Remember just 2-3 years ago when it was big news if ANY brand replied to a customer on Twitter? It’s the norm now.
Have any of these brands connected with you on Twitter?
Very interesting post Mack. It really shows that some major brands in the US and worldwide are missing the opportunity to build relationships with customers. Especially Burger King–very disappointing because I see so many of their TV commercials and online videos, but only 9,523 followers?
Interesting timing with a post I just wrote about 2 burger restaurants that aren’t on Twitter and choose to let their very happy customers be their marketers. For this to work, of course, food quality is important, and most of the fast food giants aren’t exactly known for quality!
Looks like all of the brands on your list have a lot of work to do!
Marianne that is an interesting point about 5 Guys Burgers and In-And-Out Burgers. But you could also look at this as they have some brand advocates out there (such as yourself) that they could be connecting with via social media, that they aren’t. I see that as a missed opportunity, perhaps they will begin working with their fans soon!
BTW thanks for your posts, I encourage everyone to check it out by clicking the link at the end of Marianne’s comment!
Great stuff!
The word of mouth strategy works.
The proof: I am now craving a burger, and plan to hit In-N-Out for dinner.
Great post Mack! I think a big contributing factor to the successful brands is also an integrated approach to social. It’s no longer something to do but what they are becoming, more social as businesses–beyond marketing. 🙂
You’re right Maria, it’s a maturation process. I think this is a big reason why Starbucks is doing better than most with their Twitter presence, because they’ve been at it for 3 years now, versus a competitor that’s had an Assistant Brand Manager running their Twitter account for 3 months. Experience (and the lessons that come along with it) really matters.
Thanks Mack,
Great list of brands, will certainly look at most of them and list them to see how they grow in the future. Btw, you should consider @CARLSJR on twitter too. They are better than a couple that you’ve listed Who are you compare to check next? Btw,
Aaron
Aaron I found a list compiled by QSRMagazine (link at top of post) and used that as the reference source. You’re right, there’s several other chains/brands that could have been added to this list.
True. I know more about In-N-Out because I’m in Southern California where the chain started. From the beginning, their strategy has been slow and careful expansion. They do have a Facebook page with 1,744,059 likes even though they’re only in 4 states. Burger King, with a global presence, only has 1,085,516 likes. I’ve never experienced an In-N-Out that wasn’t crazy busy, so perhaps they’re not ready for Twitter yet…
Your study inspired me to test my social analytics skills using another tool to create a brand passion index for fast foods, using your top 7 statistical brands. Just having completed a certification program for Netbase’s social analytics tool, I decided to use their Consumer Base tool with your top 7 brands ranked by number of followers. The brand passion index shows how passionate consumers are about selected brands and the intensity of their sentiments as gleaned from one year of social sound bites. (I can’t attach the pdf’s here but I’ll email separately to you if you like.) While my first “class project” brand passion index supports your takeaways on the value of engagement, presence, following/followers, it’s fascinating to use an NLP engine which doesn’t only measure buzz comparisons, but also opens the door to a new generation of social network sentiment analytics.