Burger King social Media Strategy

Introduction:

Burger King was founded in 1954. It is the second largest fast food hamburger restaurant chain of the world based upon number of outlets. It both owns and franchises hamburger restaurants. As of 2017, Burger King (BK) had 16,767 restaurants throughout the globe in 100 countries. BK is a chain of QSR restaurants that serve a menu of flame-grilled hamburgers, chicken and other specialty sandwiches, french fries, soft drinks and other affordably-priced food items.  Burger King is a subsidiary brand of Restaurant Brand International (RBI) which also owns Tim Hortons and Popeyes. RBI is a large and global chain with more than 24000 restaurants. All the three brands of RBI are managed independently. There are several leading brands in the QSR industry that are competing with BK. Some of them are McDonalds, Subway, Wendy’s, KFC & Domino’s. Due to the intense competition in the industry, each of these brands spends a large sum each year on advertising and promotions. The channels BK uses for marketing include traditional and modern channels. Digital networks are now among leading channels of promotion across the QSR industry.  Among the promotional channels that QSR brands use, most common are digital advertising, company websites, blogs and social media. This is a discussion of the social media marketing strategy used by BK for the promotion of its brand and products as well as events and deals. 

Facebook :-

Facebook is the leading social media platform with the largest number of users. Number of Facebook users is higher than 2 billions. It offers attractive reach and several tools for marketing of your brand and products. Burger King has several accounts on Facebook. The main BK page (USA) has around 8.3 million followers and Brazil page around 7.8 million. Facebook can be used for branding and marketing as well as communications. There are several tools to help you build connections and maintain strong relationships with your customers. You can share content, build connections and communicate with your fans and followers regularly. However, there are a few things you should care about your marketing communication strategy when marketing through Facebook. You must not send too many messages or share too much content since it can mess up your communication and leave a poor impression on your customers/followers. However, BK seems to be careful about its marketing strategy. It generally makes no more than a post a day. These posts are mostly promotional in nature. BK promotes its deals and communicates with its fans and followers regularly. Each post receives thousands of likes, shares and comments. It shows a nice level of follower engagement on social media. BK has been able to engage its users well through its Facebook posts. Users can post complements as well as grievances in the Facebook account of BK. However, BK’s staff show minimal interaction with the users.  Facebook is good for sharing multimedia content as well as discussions and for marketing campaigns. 

Twitter :-

Twitter is also a good social media platform to market your brand and products. Burger King has several accounts on Twitter and an impressively large base of followers. Its different accounts target different markets and customer segments. USA is the main market of BK. However, there are other important markets like UK  and South Africa too which it reaches using Twitter. Twitter is a nice platform for targeting followers in all these markets.  BK has around 1.7 million followers on Twitter in its main account.   The company sends around a tweet daily through Twitter. Twitter posts are called Tweets. These tweets are mostly promotional in nature. Each of these tweets receives thousands to hundreds to thousands of likes and an attractive number of shares and responses. BK has managed a nice level of user engagement on Twitter. These responses include both comments and complements and sometimes show gratitude and affection of loyal customers. User connection and customer relationship management have become essential in the modern era. Companies have to take care that they regularly communicate with their followers using all the right channels. You will find the largest base of users on these social media channels. Twitter is quite good for real time connection and for real time marketing. Sharing promotional content on Twitter is easy. Upload your multimedia content and click to send a quick Tweet. In seconds your posts will have reached millions of your loyal followers.

Instagram :-

Burger King has a nice large base of followers on Instagram as well. The company has made around 900 posts and has around 1.6 million followers. Insta is an attractive platform for sharing multimedia content and to launch marketing campaigns. Each of these posts receives thousands of likes and hundreds of responses. Several posts receive more than 100 thousands of likes. The level of follower engagement on Insta is also high. It is used for sharing and discussions. Excited users complement the brand and if there is any complaint, they put it forth without hesitation. 

LinkedIn :-

Linked In is mainly a platform for professionals with a large base of users. Apart from hiring, businesses use it for marketing and branding. Linked In is owned by Microsoft. BK has a smaller follower base on Linked In. Its number of followers is around 136 lacs. However, when it comes to branding, Linked In is an effective channel.  Companies use it to promote their business and work culture. Burger King shares posts related to its culture and CSR on Linked In. The social media site is also good for creating better recognition and goodwill with your followers. BK has won several accolades and rewards which it regularly posts about on Linked In. On Linked In, BK markets important events and achievements. In 2018, BK won the Advertiser of the year award at Clio Awards. It also organised several more events like Beach run in 2018. BK highlights these events and other major milestones it has achieved through Linked In. It does not miss complementing its followers regularly on this social media channel. 

YouTube :-

YouTube is excellent for video marketing and to share video content with your followers. The user base of Youtube is growing and has reached close to 2 Billion followers. Apart from a large base of customers, YouTube offer excellent features for creating and sharing videos. In the modern era, most brands are using videos for marketing their brand and to share video content. BK has around 100 K followers on social media. It has shared around 54 videos on YouTube. Most of them are promotional videos that it uses to promote its products, deals and brand. It also uses videos to promote its culture and work style. Number of shared videos is small but yet the company has managed an attractive level of engagement. Each video has received thousands of views. The best thing about YouTube is that it allows users to comments and express their like for the business.

Conclusion:

BK has used several social media channels for marketing of its brand. From Facebook to Twitter and Insta as well as Linked In. The company uses all these channels to market itself and promote its products. BK has achieved a nice level of engagement through social media communication. It communicates regularly with its followers and sends regular Tweets or messages to its customers. The company also markets its work culture and business strategy through these networks. Its main promotion channels are Facebook, Insta and Twitter. However, it also uses video marketing techniques to reach its fans on YouTube. Linked iN is mainly for promoting the company culture and grow its influence. Overall, BK is effective in terms of marketing itself from social media websites.

Sources:

Burger King Social Media Accounts.