Brand of the day: Burger King finds 15 ways to handle the same hurt feelings on Twitter

While some of Burger King's Twitter followers are still moaning about the proposed merger with Tim Hortons, many more would rather talk about bacon or ice cream—or what on earth happened to Chicken Fries.

And BK is there with a soothing @reply. Actually, 15 of them.

A playful marketer going back to its celebrated work a decade ago with Crispin Porter + Bogusky, BK always likes to spice things up. And adding limited-time items like Chicken Fries to the menu gives the brand a reason to load up on social. But take them away, and Twitter wants to know why. Luckily, BK knows just how to explain it.

Social Media Profile (as of 9/24/14)

Facebook Likes: 7.3 million
Twitter Followers: 819,811
Instagram Followers: 78,338

Responding smartly to complaints—serious or not—in social is a useful, underrated skill. Many marketers still copy and paste boilerplate, but a glance at BK's Twitter feed shows how personalized it is.

Yes, the replies to the Chicken Fries outage are all variations on a theme. But the brand whipped up at least 15 different responses, many of them slyly comical. This kind of one-on-one customer service is time consuming, but for a brand that wants to be truly conversational online, it's no longer optional.

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