#BrandsTalkTwitter - @KFC_UKI

In this second #BrandsTalkTwitter, we ask @KFC_UKI how it gets the most out of Twitter when it comes to connecting with its customers. 

KFC has done both the tactical and the strategic when it comes to campaigns on Twitter. Typical examples include its #Wheresmychicken campaign and the recent Twitter Video Cards for its Supercharger spicy mayo. 

Here the @KFC_UKI social team gives away its secret Twitter recipe to @TwitterMktgUK: 

What role does Twitter fulfil in your social media strategy?

Twitter is very much an engagement platform for us. It’s where we get to have a lot of fun with our followers and push our cheeky tone of voice. It’s actually where our tone of voice was developed and has since been adopted across the rest of our advertising.

How do you handle direct messaging from consumers?

We have an in-house community manager who will engage with all of our followers although direct messages tend to only be our superfans. We’ll always make time to speak with them as we often get lots of ideas!

However, customer care is a huge part of Social for us. For that, we have a dedicated account - @KFC_UKI_help. We have five external agents who man the channel round the clock. They respond to messages directed at the main account and pull them to the customer care channel’s direct messages. This allows us to keep the main page for all the fun stuff.

How do you split planned activity vs tactical? 

Our split has typically been 75% planned, 25% tactical. Although this isn’t where we want to be. We’ve recently begun to produce content in-house with the aim of bringing it closer to 50/50. At the moment the majority of our content is to support wider campaigns and product launches like the recent Supercharger “like to remind” post.

However, it’s always our tactical work that drives the most engagement, like the below, so we’re going to put more focus on this going forward.

What is the most important thing to bear in mind before you Tweet?

Does the brand have a right to comment? Twitter is all about what’s happening right now and it can be easy for a brand to jump in to a conversation it has no right to, which always ends badly. Does KFC have a right to talk about Brexit? Probably not. Does it have a right to talk about the new iPhone release? Well, maybe…

The key for us is to make sure the brand is integrated in a way that is natural and not forced. If we can’t thread the brand into a conversation in a way that our followers will appreciate then we won’t post it.

What’s your most successful Tweet?

The most successful tweet we’ve ever posted, which may have gotten us in quite deep water with our U.S. counterparts, featured a certain president. He’d posted a lengthy tweet about the leader of North Korea and his red button. We jumped on it straight away, made it relevant to KFC and layered in some of our cheeky tone of voice:

It went crazy and the tweet alone got over 27m impressions. Not to mention the coverage from FOX news, sorry U.S team…

What gets the most engagement from your followers?

Puns. Puns always do well.

But really it’s the tone of voice, relevance and timing. Oh, and anything that features gravy.

And at @TwitterMktgUK, anyone who can work gravy into a Tweet by the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth should get a pat on the back. 

But, on top of that, @KFC_UKI is well worth a follow too, and see the conversation in a thread on Twitter here.

Last week's #BrandTalkTwitter - @paddypower