This post was written by Erin Hoffman, a social media analyst at Cision.
There’s a lot of talk about engaging social media, but every now and again, social media engages you.
Last week, a Burger King customer in Florida was caught on video inciting a small riot, standing on the counter and attacking employees with sucker punches and water jugs. The YouTube clip had an immediate impact on overall Burger King buzz, lifting it 50 percent from 7,000 to 10,500 mentions at its peak.
Its distribution across social media was exceptional. Usually, a sensational episode like this would find 50 to 75 percent of its activity on Twitter, but activity was almost equally spread between Twitter, blogs, forums, Facebook and comments. The high participation in forum conversations also doesn’t fit the mold, implying one of two reputation management scenarios: either the episode will have high impact for a moderate amount of coverage (the interactivity of forums correlates strongly with real-world consumer behavior), or its Twitter heyday has yet to come.
Though the video itself is fairly harmless, buzz about it is not. Should an explosion be waiting in the wings, current conversation themes indicates that it will have heavy racial overtones, an association that could damage Burger King in the long run despite its role as a neutral venue.
On the other hand, this was an isolated incident that few BK customers can relate to. At its core, all it offers is an interesting visual without a purpose or call-to-action. Since many have seen it in traditional media and don’t have a reason to seek it online, its social media life may have been curbed rather than catalyzed.
