• First Reference
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • 24th Annual Ontario Employment Law Conference 📣
  • Blog Signup 📨

First Reference Talks

Discussions on Human Resources, Employment Law, Payroll and Internal Controls

  • Home
  • About
  • Archives
  • Resources
You are here: Home / Business / Burger King twitter account hacked: Social media implications for the brand?

By Occasional Contributors | 3 Minutes Read March 25, 2013

Burger King twitter account hacked: Social media implications for the brand?

On February 19th, 2013, Burger King’s Twitter account was hacked. By hacked, we mean totally overhauled to look like a McDonald’s Twitter account, and offensive and indiscernible tweets sent out. The contravention lasted about three hours, until Twitter suspended the account. Burger King sent out the following press release, in regards to the situation:

We have worked directly with administrators to suspend the account until we are able to re-establish our legitimate site and authentic postings. We apologize to our fans and followers who have been receiving erroneous tweets about other members of our industry and additional inappropriate topics.”

Even McDonalds empathized with Burger King, tweeting “Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking”.
So what are the implications for the brand?
The results are invaluable. According to Social Media Today, the burger giant received over $900.000 of free publicity. That value is derived from an approximate cost of a daily trending topic on Twitter: $200,000, promoted tweets: $0.50-$1.50 per click, promoted Twitter account $0.50-$2.50 per follower gained (Burger King gained 30,000). Value of press generated from the whole ordeal? Priceless. Million dollar campaigns often don’t achieve the results that Burger King gained from their ‘social media nightmare’. However, the consequences could have been far worse. Is any exposure good exposure? The HR department, PR reps and account managers will tell you no. A social media consultant for Wendy’s tweeted during the Burger King fiasco:

My real life nightmare is being played out over @BurgerKing”. The implications could have been severe.”

  • Although Burger King’s incident was clearly a hack job, the implications could have been severe. Brand image could have been seriously tarnished, and the company could have lost customers, shareholders etc. A lesson to social media account managers: change passwords regularly and have a social media policy, or procedure in place to tackle a potential breach like this one.
  • Remember that social media is an important communication channel – include it in the crisis plan. At the beginning of February, Twitter announced that over 250,000 accounts were compromised when hackers gained access to email address and encrypted passwords. Policies should be in place to ensure security and privacy, and avoid crises. Firstly, make sure it’s in the budget. Secondly, establish a chain of command so when the crisis strikes, you’re ready.
  • It’s not only social media that can be targeted. The Wall Street Journal and NY Times reported breaches in their systems. Brand security has become a huge liability for companies like Burger King, and with the ease of sharing online, it’s easy for brand image to be tainted by consumers, most obviously hackers.
  • If you find yourself in a social media meltdown, react fast. The response could make all the difference. Burger King responded quickly, once their account was back up, tweeting “Interesting day here at Burger King, but we’re back! Welcome to our new followers, we hope you’ll stick around”…and they did. 30,000 of them.

For Burger King, the Twitter crisis may have provided them with free publicity but for Burger King’s social media account management team, it was a close call. Having a procedure in place, and accepting the possibility of a breach of security is a good starting point.
About The Author
Meghan Tooley is a commerce student and active online blogger from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She often offers her views on social media surrounding human resource development, as it relates to industry trends. She writes on behalf of Metric Marketing, a social media marketing and online marketing firm also based in Winnipeg.

  • About
  • Latest Posts
Occasional Contributors
In addition to our regular guest bloggers, First Reference Talks blog published by First Reference, provides occasional guest post opportunities from various subject matter experts on the topics of human resources, employment/labour law, internal controls, information technology, not-for-profit, business, privacy, tax, finance and accounting, and accessibility in Canada among others. If you are a subject matter expert and would like to become an occasional blogger, please contact us. If you liked this post, subscribe to First Reference Talks blog to get regular updates.
Latest posts by Occasional Contributors (see all)
  • Corporations Canada will begin issuing Notices of Intent to Dissolve to CNCA non-profit corporations that have not filed their Annual Return in 3 years or more - May 30, 2023
  • Why it is difficult to provide an estimate for legal services relating to ONCA transition or CNCA continuance for an existing non-profit or charity or registered charity - May 1, 2023
  • Important new shift in Canadian privacy law: Legitimate interest exception to consent - April 28, 2023

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window)

Article by Occasional Contributors / Business, Privacy / brand, Brand image, Burger King, Business, communication channel, consumers, daily trending topic, encrypted passwords, followers, free publicity, hack job, hacking, huge liability for companies, implications for the brand, legitimate site and authentic postings, lost customers, offensive and indiscernible tweets, potential breach, promoted tweets, promoted Twitter account, social media, social media account management team, social media nightmare, social media policy, Social Media Today, tweeting, twitter, Twitter account, Twitter account was hacked, Value of press generated

Get the Latest Posts in your Inbox for Free!

Electronic monitoring

About Occasional Contributors

In addition to our regular guest bloggers, First Reference Talks blog published by First Reference, provides occasional guest post opportunities from various subject matter experts on the topics of human resources, employment/labour law, internal controls, information technology, not-for-profit, business, privacy, tax, finance and accounting, and accessibility in Canada among others. If you are a subject matter expert and would like to become an occasional blogger, please contact us. If you liked this post, subscribe to First Reference Talks blog to get regular updates.

Footer

About us

Established in 1995, First Reference is the leading publisher of up to date, practical and authoritative HR compliance and policy databases that are essential to ensure organizations meet their due diligence and duty of care requirements.

First Reference Talks

  • Home
  • About
  • Archives
  • Resources

Main Menu

  • About First Reference
  • Resources
  • Contact us
  • 1 800 750 8175

Stay Connected

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

We welcome your comments on our blog articles. However, we do not respond to specific legal questions in this space.
We do not provide any form of legal advice or legal opinion. Please consult a lawyer in your jurisdiction or try one of our products.


Copyright © 2009 - 2023 · First Reference Inc. · All Rights Reserved
Legal and Copyright Notices · Publisher's Disclaimer · Privacy Policy · Accessibility Policy