Social media might seem like fun and games, but it’s becoming a serious business for restaurant chains, and for good reason. It’s where a significant portion of the population now spends a significant portion of its time. And going viral on social can transform a brand’s business almost overnight. (Just ask Popeyes or Chili’s.)
It’s no surprise then that a lot of chains are making social media a central part of their marketing strategy, dedicating more dollars to it and forming teams to create content and monitor social chatter.
So who’s doing it best? We decided to find out. Or at least get an idea.
To do that, we took the top 50 U.S. restaurant chains, as measured by Technomic, and looked at their activity on X (formerly known as Twitter) during the month of May.
We counted the total number of posts by each chain and the total number of engagements—replies, reposts and likes—to calculate the average engagement per post. That gave us a framework for understanding how active each brand was on X, and how much that activity was resonating with people. We also recorded how many followers each chain has. (We did our tally on June 1, so the numbers may have changed since.)
This was by no means an exhaustive study. It was limited to one social media platform, one month, and only 50 brands. Given unlimited time, we’d have looked at more posts, as well as other social media sites, particularly TikTok, where so many trends are born these days.
But X has historically been a popular place for restaurants, with brands like Wendy’s and Denny’s carving out memorable identities there that paved the way for others. On a more practical note, the format of X made it easier to tally up the numbers when counting by hand, as we did.
And despite the limitations I think we ultimately learned some valuable lessons.
For instance, the data challenges at least one piece of conventional wisdom about social media success: that brands have to post regularly to be successful.
It also revealed that a number of large restaurant brands seem to no longer be using X at all, which is interesting.
Given all the variables, it was difficult to pick a hands-down winner. But there were some clear standouts, along with some stragglers. Let’s get into it.
MVP (Most Valuable Poster): Chili’s
Despite posting just three times in May, Chili’s racked up nearly 69,000 engagements last month for an average of nearly 23,000 per post. That was the highest average of any brand analyzed.
Most of it came from a single post, in which Chili’s quoted a post from the Daily Loud that read “The average cost of a date for a Millennial is now $252 [eyeball emoji].”
Chili’s commented: “y'all aren't getting $6 margs at Chili's and it shows.”
y'all aren't getting $6 margs at Chili's and it shows. https://t.co/8b7utZbp5d
Chili’s has spent the past two years or so using social media to argue that it offers a better value than fast-food chains like McDonald’s. Its strong engagement shows that that message is continuing to resonate with consumers. (So do its recent sales.)
Making this all the more impressive is that Chili’s has just 442,000 X followers, below the average of 850,000 across the top 50 chains.
Most consistent: McDonald’s
McDonald’s has 4.5 million followers on X, the second most among chains we looked at. It leverages this audience well: Across 18 posts in May, the burger giant averaged nearly 8,000 engagements per post, the third most of any chain.
A series of mysterious posts featuring NBA star Devin Booker were particularly popular. They were part of a campaign for a shoe collaboration between McDonald’s, Nike and Booker, which included a giveaway at a McDonald’s location in Sedona, Arizona. The posts featured Booker searching for the “turquoise arches” in the Arizona desert.
do you seek the turquoise arches? pic.twitter.com/nFPKuQM78L
McDonald’s large following certainly helps with engagement, although that is not always a guarantee, as we’ll find out later.
Honorable mention: Wendy’s. Wendy’s pioneered the off-the-cuff, often-unhinged voice that is now standard for brands on X, and it continues to see a lot of success with that approach. In May, the brand averaged nearly 6,000 engagements across 23 posts, and has the third-most followers of any restaurant brand at 3.5 million. Wendy’s business is struggling right now, but its social media is still [fire emoji].
Least efficient: Wingstop
Wingstop posted 74 times in May, by far the most of any large chain. (The average was 12.) And yet it averaged just 161 engagements per post, 15th out the 50 brands we looked at.
Most of its X content consists of low-effort, text-based posts like this: “2 AM wings are the most important meal of the day.” That earned four replies, six reposts and 27 likes.
Wingstop has only 288,000 followers, but for a brand so seemingly plugged into internet and youth culture, its X account leaves something to be desired. (It does have more than 1 million followers on TikTok.)
Dishonorable mention: Subway. The sandwich giant has a lot of followers (2 million) and made a lot of posts in May (35), but ranked 22nd in terms of average engagement. The chain has been struggling to regain relevance, and saw sales decline nearly 6% last year, per Technomic data.
This brings us to one of the most surprising conclusions from our research, which is that quality seemed to outweigh quantity in this exercise. There’s a school of thought that if brands simply post a lot, engagement will follow. But it may be more effective to pick your spots.
Biggest surprise: Little Caesars
The pizza chain had a strong May on X, averaging 7,578 engagements across just five posts, the fourth best average of any brand. It is the 23rd largest restaurant chain in the country but did better on X than almost anyone, including larger rivals Domino’s and Pizza Hut.
It didn’t do anything fancy, either. Its most successful post was a three-word birthday message on May 8:
it’s our birthday 🎉
Little Caesars may have benefited in this study from May being its birthday month. On the other hand, maybe more brands should make a bigger deal of their birthdays.
Honorable mention: KFC. Like Wendy’s, KFC’s business has struggled in recent years, but it is thriving on X, averaging more than 7,000 engagements per post in May. That was better than its Yum Brands sibling Taco Bell, which looms larger in the zeitgeist and has done much better sales-wise.
The one-hit wonder: IHOP
IHOP posted just once in May, but it was a banger. I will just embed it below instead of attempting to explain it, but it has something to do with goths, and it racked up more than 11,600 engagements. That was almost as much as Wingstop did posting twice a day for 31 days.
we see your Goths and raise you Goth IHOP https://t.co/4OPIdSguzl
IHOP seems to have stopped posting regularly on X last August, but will apparently still emerge when opportunity strikes.
Best single post: Buffalo Wild Wings
Like Wingstop and Subway, B-Dubs was a high-volume shooter, putting up 59 posts in May. Many of them were about its limited-time Bottomless Apps promotion, but its top post was a reference to the new Drake album, “Wingman” (and not the new Michael Jackson movie, as it might appear at first glance).
wingman 😤 pic.twitter.com/q7bmUQClBC
Regardless of what you think of him or his music, Drake never fails to get people talking online, and Buffalo Wild Wings appears to have its (chicken?) finger on the pulse. The post was reposted nearly 5,000 times and garnered 32,000 likes and 1,000 replies.
Notably absent: Starbucks
With 9.6 million followers, Starbucks has the biggest X following of any U.S. restaurant chain, more than double the size of the next largest, McDonald’s.
And yet it has not posted since February 2025, and only did so sporadically before that. It’s been far more active on Instagram and TikTok, where it has 17 million and 3 million followers, respectively.
Still, it’s curious that the coffee giant would go silent on one of its largest social media channels.
Then again, it’s not the only chain to do so. Chick-fil-A, Dunkin, Domino’s and Papa Johns also have not been active on X for months, among others.
Many businesses have left X in recent years over issues with its advertising policies and its shifting ideology under owner Elon Musk. That could explain why some restaurant chains have gone dormant there.
But maybe they’ve also determined that the juice on X is not worth the squeeze. As this data shows, the vast majority of restaurants posting on X are getting minimal engagement, with only a handful of posts really taking off.
Not only that, but there also appears to be little to no correlation between online engagement and real-world success. Chili’s and McDonald’s are doing well, both on X and IRL. But Wendy’s, KFC, Buffalo Wild Wings and IHOP also had some big moments on X last month, and their business has stayed average at best. On the other hand, chains that are rocking it on sales, like Dutch Bros and LongHorn Steakhouse, had little to no footprint on X.
So what are we really doing here? Maybe just having some fun, with a slight chance of going viral. And there’s nothing wrong with that.