How To Disrupt Social Media (With Lessons From The Experts)

Creating high quality content for a client can be one of the most exciting jobs in the world. Time everything right and get everything into place and you have the ROI you are aiming for. And as we all know, a great piece of content can really push a client way ahead of their competitors.

The best content on social doesn’t have to be expensive or flashy. It just has to be disruptive, as in something that makes people stop and take notice. We’re going to have a quick look at some of the best posts in the food and drink arena.

Burger King. Just darn funny

Any agency looking for an inspirational piece of content to get their creative juices flowing would do well to look at this recent post from Burger King. The post relies on a lot of things in order for it to be right.

One of these is the fact that BK has long had the image of a fun, bright company. This fun and brightness are conveyed in the post, and the audience loves it. It’s also the post that received the most engagement.

The post received more than 10,000 engagements.

The real reason it works is the humour. Burger King takes away the focus moving it from ‘we’re the best’ to ‘we don’t even have to try’. It’s just humour that shows established confidence in the brand. And we get that disruptive feel through the image.

It’s enough to make anyone stop what they are doing and look at the post.

McDonald’s. A billion dollar brand shows it is real

The most effective social media post for this powerhouse brand is a sombre one. We’re not going to trivialise any of this, it just works because McDonald’s is able to show that it cares without seeming insincere.

The recent Hurricane Harvey has been truly monumental, and McDonald’s states in the post that it has donated a million for relief efforts. There were almost 900 comments on this post alone (at the time of writing).

Familiarity and integrity are what the best brands use to make themselves popular. But when something like the hurricane happens, the brands use the opportunity to connect. McDonald’s announces the donation with a simple visual of the brand logo.

There’s nothing being sold here. Instead, the brand is offering warmth.

Coca-Cola. Timely

You’ll like this one. This brand is very much about enjoyment, whether it’s enjoying the taste of the product or enjoying life. It does everything right on social media. It uses brand colours so that people immediately identify the brand’s work when it shows up.

As if to say that they’re even more on the ball than they used to be, the brand posted this, which shows you how to make an eclipse viewer. It was one of the most exciting events in America for decades, and Coca-Cola effortlessly makes it a Coke thing.

It has more than 700 engagements. This makes it the clear winner on Coke posts during the summer. We like the way the post chimes in on the eclipse, and then turns it into a presentation video that oozes with Coke’s friendly, fun style. If you have a client who works on the same emotions as Coca-Cola, take a look at the post, and see if you can marry up fun and happiness in the same way.

The brand knows that timing is everything, but teaching something as well is even better.

Starbucks. Social media savvy

The thing about Starbucks is that the brand is perhaps one of the true brands that are made for social media. The company has always had a wry, cheeky view on life, but while some brands struggle to get that across in social media, Starbucks walks it.

Take a look at this post and you’ll see what we mean. Here we have a beautiful flavour for Starbucks to sell. The redness of the drink is the key point. In addition to this, you also have the product upfront and not hidden away.

But it goes further still. There is no filter being used with this image. This makes it super cool in our books because we know that using filters in an excessive way can reduce the impact of the post. The drink is that exciting and colourful without filters.

Well over 1500 comments have been logged so far on this post alone. This shows that there is great interaction here because the Starbucks team responds to comments promptly, and often humorously.

It’s all stuff we would expect if we were looking at an exemplary post. Starbucks doesn’t seem to put a foot wrong.

Out of all the brands in this post, Starbucks seems to be the one that is just effortlessly getting it right. It knows its audience and focuses on what they want, which will always be, rather simply, the product.

However, each of the brands here is disrupting the social media landscape. They’re putting stuff out there that will grab attention and then reward that attention. And if you’re really good at this, you’ll be taking a leaf out of the Starbucks playbook and responding to comments on a regular basis.

This isn’t rocket science. Just think of the word ‘disrupt’ and work out how you are going to create that impact with the next post you work on. Imagery, colour and humour seem to be the common characteristics. In other words, just make it fun.

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