The main focus of marketing is to get the attention of present and potential consumers. One of the best ways to achieve this is to actively build a conversation around your brand. Fostering genuine dialogue with customers makes them to feel connected, strengthening your consumer base and growing engagement via new prospects.

Although it sounds simple, this is no easy task. Consumers are constantly bombarded with advertisements and promotional material, and often react adversely to brand-related content.

So what is the right way to go about building brand conversations?”

This past week, three of the largest food chains in the world showed us the key to encouraging one-on-one dialogue with potential consumers: tapping into pre-existing conversations which are relevant to your brand.

According to TechWalla, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King got involved when Apple and Google had a social media tiff concerning cheeseburgers:

Apple and Google can’t agree on whether the cheese goes on top of a hamburger or below a hamburger, as demonstrated by their slightly different versions of the cheeseburger emoji. As Twitter user Thomas Baekdal pointed out, Apple’s cheeseburger emoji places the cheese on top of the burger, while Google’s places it on the bottom.

Once the debate started to spread web-wide, the three food chains saw their chance to engage with potential customers.

Burger King added this to the conversation:

Wendy’s made a play for their signature burgers:

https://twitter.com/Wendys/status/925099734263582720

And McDonald’s pulled multiple parties into the conversation to keep it lively, reminding people that they deliver for their customers:

With thousands of people contributing to the conversation, it’s obvious that consumers are delighted to have large companies interact with them on such a personal level and with such brevity.

We think this is definitely the way to go to increase engagement and customer loyalty. What do you think?