KFC

Is there such a thing as ‘bad publicity’ on social media?

Today’s consumers are more empowered than ever to raise their voices and speak out when brands do something to spark their ire.

And it would seem that the old adage “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” isn’t quite true in the realm of social media.

But is that really the case?

World Cup marketing in APAC: Which brand has the most innovative campaign?

The World Cup kicks off on June 12 and is a festival of football that Asia’s passionate fans will doubtless enjoy.

Unfortunately every game kicks off at times between midnight and 6am here in Singapore which is going to mean some very sleepy Singaporean and Asian residents.

Many brands are desperately trying to capture the attention of these passionate fans, both official sponsors and unofficial brands eager to capitalise on the world’s greatest event.

But which is doing the best job?

10 major brands with dreadful Google+ pages

Google+ is an interesting conundrum as many people feel obliged to use it in the face of any logic and just because “it’s Google”.

We’re all sitting around expecting that one day Google will unveil its true purpose and all the effort will have been worthwhile, but at the moment I feel that blind optimism is one of the only things keeping it going.

Admittedly the latest updates have improved the usability somewhat and Hangouts are certainly an interesting feature, but in the face of the sheer amount of time spent on Facebook and Twitter’s increasingly important role as a news platform it does seem that G+ is floundering while trying to work out what purpose it actually serves.

Normal users don’t need to fret about this problem and can wait for Google to lure them in with a killer new feature, however for brands it raises a bit of a dilemma.

Social media fast food fight: McDonalds vs KFC

Writing his memoir, ‘Goodbye To All That’, Robert Graves reminded himself that ‘people like reading about food and drink’; so I’ve decided to write about burgers and fried chicken, alongside social media (always adds flavour).

I want to investigate the idea that most people see BIG corporate Twitter accounts as some kind of barefaced shill, only followed by the devout.

I looked at KFC and McDonald’s tweets from October 2012, to see how they do it. This is by no means an exhaustive audit, nor is it scientific. I also add that I’m a pescetarian of six weeks, and following these feeds has been somewhat of a coping mechanism.