5 Approaches to Increase Your Social Media Strategy

Summary 

Starbucks Coffee has been able to grow its online presence through a sound social media approach. The giant coffee chain has established itself as the most engaging brand online (Starbucks: Social media strategy, 2013). A look at Starbuck’s online presence reveals its dominance among social media platforms. The brand has around 327,000 followers on YouTube, 438,248 followers on Pinterest, 10.9 million followers on Twitter, 17.9 million followers on Instagram, 2.2 million followers on LinkedIn, over 36 million followers on Facebook, and 212,000 followers on Snapchat. The organization has been successful in applying its successful offline branding to its online platform. The organization has been able to thrive because its social media strategy focuses on listening to the needs of consumers and developing solutions to address the problems. These social media platforms also encompass a human factor where Starbucks demonstrates concern for consumers by engaging with them through the comments section. The approach helps build stronger customer relationships (Starbucks: Social media strategy, 2013). The use of product personality has also been integral to Starbucks' development. The organization also offers drinks unique personality that allows consumers to identify with them easily. 

Critique 

The article identifies approaches that organizations can use to increase their social media strategy. The first approach from the article is organizations need to listen to their customers. Page & Parnell (2019) believe that an effective social media page should strive to know the audience to determine their preferences. Starbucks has improved its social media presence by listening to its customers’ needs and making changes rapidly (Starbucks: Social media strategy, 2013). The approach calls for strong interaction between the organization and consumers. The social media pages should be live, meaning that they should be managed by a team that can respond directly to consumers (Wynne, 2014). Another critical lesson is, the social media strategy should demonstrate care towards the community. Starbucks demonstrates this by focusing on establishing strong relationships and loyalty with its consumers. The organization uses social media platforms to build credibility (Page & Parnell, 2019). The organization personalizes communication and employees use a welcoming language to engage with clients. This helps to establish rapport and trust with clients. Starbucks' social media strategy also highlights the need for developing a positive brand personality and encouraging sharing. The organization encourages customers to take part in the business and share ideas on enhancing the brand. Such an approach has helped the organization to create brand awareness and attract novel clients. 

Application 

Lessons learned from the article can be applied to develop sound social media strategies. Watercutter (2017) believes that twitter is a platform where fear and loathing thrive, and claims that negative comments have affected the interaction between people. This raises the question on how negative comments and messages on social media platforms affect the interaction between organizations and consumers. Businesses with an online presence can employ Starbucks ' approach to handle positive and negative comments on their social platforms (Starbucks: Social media strategy, 2013). The organization uses comments from social media to identify problems affecting consumers. Starbucks then works to solve these issues. According to Jensen (2017), the general public has lost trust in mass media. Only 32 percent of the general public have a fair amount or a great deal of trust in the media. Lessons from the article can help enhance media trust and confidence. Media companies should show they care about the community by establishing a stronger relationship with the general public through regular engagement and developing interventions geared towards improving the community. Applying lessons from the article will help enhance the effectiveness of social media strategies. 

References 

Jensen, E. (2017). Looking to the future: Restoring public trust in the media. NRP Public Editor . https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2017/05/15/528158488/looking-to-the-future-restoring-public-trust-in-the-media ' 

Page, J. T., & Parnell, L. J. (2019). Introduction to strategic public relations: Digital, global, and socially responsible communication. SAGE Publications . 

Watercutter, A. (2017). Fear and loathing on social media. Wired.com. https://www.wired.com/story/social-media-fear/ 

Wynne, R. (2014). Winning social media strategies for public relations. Forbes.com . https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwynne/2014/04/28/winning-social-media-strategies-for-public-relations/?sh=3a1574755f9c 

Starbucks: Social media strategy. (2013). https://community.mis.temple.edu/linfengyang/files/2013/11/Starbucks-Final-Ver.pdf