5 ways McDonald’s influences the online conversation

It’s no fun dealing with false rumors spread by trolls, but would you rather have them convincing everybody your burger is made of worms? Here’s how the fast-food giant fights back.

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You do your best to get out the message about the wholesome ingredients in your tasty foods. Then you check the internet to see how you’re doing.

If your stomach is turned by the trolling you find there, welcome to McDonald’s world.

Earth’s best-known fast-food purveyor must be doing something right to have 14,000 McDonald’s U.S. locations and thousands more worldwide. Yet it finds itself in a social media food fight for its reputation.

McDonald’s fends off charges that its McNuggets are made of “pink slime” beef (wrong), that its McRibs are ground pig innards and shoe soles (er, no), and that its burgers are made of worms (presumably harvested by hungry robins after rainstorms).

The Golden Arches isn’t the only organization that must deal with online buffoonery. In a Ragan Training session titled “How to go from speaking at customers to engagement and conversation,” US McDonald’s communications manager Tyler Litchenberger details how the franchise giant changes the conversation. It all comes down to transparency.

Here are five savvy practices:

Address their concerns.

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