When you are asked to name some businesses which have great success in social media marketing, what company first comes up in your mind? To me, the first business that I can think of is Starbucks. Starbucks has over 2,200,000 followers on twitter and over 29,400,000 fans on Facebook up to date. You could say that they’re doing something right on the Web. What is it about Starbucks’s social media strategy that makes it so successful?
Here are some of my analyses of Starbucks’s social media success:
1) Starbucks on Facebook & Twitter
Starbucks updates their Facebook page very often. From their page, you can easily see a lot of videos, blog posts, photos. The company also invites people to events and contests. Fans are welcomed to have open discussions and commends posted on the Wall.
Starbucks engages with customers on Twitter by answering questions and retweets their followers. People can follow Starbucks’ latest products or promotion on twitter without spending time to search from the search engineers such as Google or Yahoo. It creates a perfect open communication channel to speak with the public.
2) Starbucks on YouTube
Over 13,000 people have subscribed to Starbucks YouTube Channel. They regularly upload videos of commercials as well as informational videos explaning the origins of the different coffee blends and some of their charity work videos. They also upload videos showing their history thus enabling people to relate more to the brand. This strategy has proven to increase the positive exposure for the brand.
On the Starbucks website, you can see that the company connected with its customers by asking them to share their ideas on anything related to Starbucks. The site gives users the ability to see what others are suggesting, vote on ideas and check out the results. Users who are part of this network feel that they have some role in the decision making process of the company and it makes them feel a part of it. This is a brilliant social media strategy to interact with customers.