The new Internet era is also known as the "Fans Economy" era. Fans are equal to customers. Social media marketing has become a necessary tool for marketing, with over 97% of marketers using it. But there are thousands of social marketing methods. What do you do most to be favored by consumers? When it comes to social media marketing, we have to mention the faithful believer - Starbucks.
Look at a few of the eye-popping Starbucks social media statistics:
These staggering numbers speak for themselves. Starbucks has taken its successful offline branding to its online platform. How do they do it?
Facebook + Twitter: Promote New Products
In 2011, Starbucks set up a Facebook account to promote the new Blonde Roast coffee beans. Consumers can get new product information, enjoy free Blonde Roast, and repost information to friends via Facebook. Starbucks also promoted this activity on Twitter and used a link to direct consumers to the Facebook page.
（Starbucks introduces Blonde Roast on Twitter）
Two-pronged: Seasonal Product+ Sales Promotion
Pumpkin Spice Latte
is the fall product of Starbucks. The seasonal offerings make pumpkin latte even more appealing, especially to fans who love this taste.
Starbucks knew this rule very well, so they launched a campaign to "Cheer for Your City" on Facebook. People only need to vote for their city or complete other tasks on Facebook, and the winning city will be given priority to Starbucks' seasonal product Pumpkin Spice Latte.
Twitter: Gift coupons for consumers and access to user information
Launched on Oct. 28, 2019, Tweet-a-Coffee let you give a $5 gift card to a friend by putting both "@tweetacoffee" and the friend's handle in a tweet. To do so, users had to link their Starbucks account to Twitter and their credit card to the account.
Research firm Keyhole tracked all the instances in which someone used "@tweetacoffee" in conjunction with a friend's Twitter handle and found that more than 27,000 fans used the program. Some 34% of users bought multiple gift cards and 32% of the purchases occurred on the first day.
A Starbucks program that lets consumers buy coffee for friends on Twitter, has prompted about $180,000 in purchases to date since it launched in late October, according to a researcher. More importantly, Starbucks gained access to Twitter accounts, phone numbers, and customer ids of 54,000 customers.
Instagram: Top Campaigns
Starbucks also uses hashtags to create excitement among users, transforming their customers as content creators for the brand. The brand curated 15 hashtags which it used to drive engagement. Some of their most engaging themes were #Icedcaramelmacchiato, #IcedCoconutMilkMochaMacchiato, and #PinkDrink.
(Source: Instagram)
Starbucks not only accurately targets marketing content to its target audience, but also uses product features to create topics, and then widely uses social media communication channels to fully penetrate consumers' lives. The ever-changing marketing approach allows consumers to accept advertising and promotions naturally.
Which brands do you think are also doing well in social media marketing? Comment below!
I've actually never heard of the tweet-a-coffee campaign until now. This is a really great idea to drive engagement because as we learned in class: the value of gaining another customer or maintaining customer loyalty is much more important than the cost of a single coffee.
ReplyDeleteHi phoebe,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your sharing. I am always watch the sale information or new products ads of Starbucks by social media in china. Actually,I think that Starbucks company already able to master the various social media to attract customers. It has a competitiveness in the business world.
The "cheer for your city" campaign is genius to me! Not only does it get people in the groundswell to engage with Starbucks on social media, but it creates the association with their pumpkin spice latte being a special treat. According to this mindset, the very opportunity to pay to receive this drink is valuable. I didn't know they had that many followers either!
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