CHAPTER 12Protect

Identifying and Neutralizing Determined Detractors: Hear Me’s, Reputation Terrorists, and Competitive Destroyers

In January 2012, the marketing team at McDonald’s thought they had the perfect social media campaign to kick off the New Year: they launched a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #McDStories.

The idea seemed innocent enough. The team would launch the campaign, and legions of inspired McDonald’s customers would start sharing heart-warming stories about having their first dates over French fries, celebrating baseball game wins with hamburgers, and recalling their kids’ delight at their first Happy Meal.

To make sure the campaign got launched with a bang, they paid to have #McDStories featured on Twitter’s home page. ...

Get Highly Recommended: Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth and Social Media to Build Your Brand and Your Business now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.