Starbucks Coffee Company.Social Media Strategy

Project by: Raegan S. DaleySeptember 27th 2016

UF Social Media ManagementProfessor Lisa Buyer

Table of Contents

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Section Name Page(s)

Executive Summary 3

Social Media Audit & Social media Assessment 4

5

Website Traffic Sources Assessment 6

Audience Demographics 7

Competitor Assessment 8

Social Media Objectives 9

KPIs / Key messages 10-11

Online Brand Persona and Voice 12

Strategies and Tools 13

Key Dates and Timing 14

Tools 15

Social Media Roles and Responsibility 16

Social Media Policy 17

Critical Response Plan 18-20

Measurement and Report Results 21-22

Executive SummaryStarbucks Coffee Company

• Three Entrepreneurs began Starbucks in Seattle, Washington. They wanted to sell whole Coffee beans and so they began experiencing huge growth, opened 5 stores, and each had a roasting facility

• Howard Schultz bought Starbucks from its original owners for $4 million after expanding Starbucks by opening 3 coffee bars

• It now is a multinational coffeehouse servicing over 49 different countries with a competitive advantage over several coffeehouse rivals around the world.

• Starbucks plans to enhance the content placed on all social media platforms in order to promote their new products. 

According to their official website, the Starbucks Mission Statement is:“To Inspire and nurture the human spirit- one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”

1. Starbucks makes sure everything they do is “through a lens of humanity”

2. Starbucks engages with the customer and communities to do business responsibly

3. Starbucks offers a selection of premium teas, pastries and other treats.Source: https://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information

Primary objectives/ Mission

Social Media Audit

The following pages will describe the social media audit of Starbucks to date:

Website Traffic Sources Assessment

Website Traffic Sources Assessment Date: September 29, 2016

Source Volume % of Overall Traffic Conversion Rate

 Twitter  12,000 unique visits  20%  2.3%

 Instagram  15,000 unique visits  15%  3.2%

 Facebook  4000 unique visits  5%  .03%

 Linked In  3000 Unique visits  10%  2%

 Snapchat  NO DATA  NO DATA  NO DATA

Assessment Summary: At this time Instagram has the largest impact on consumers and drives a lot of traffic to the website. Twitter has a little less at 2.3%. Snap chat does not provide any direct traffic a lot of social media interactions do take place on this site.

Audience Demographics Assessment

Age Distribution

Gender Distribution

Primary Social Network

Secondary Social Network Primary Need

Secondary Need

60% 18-30  66% Female 55% Female

 30% Instagram

To see what new flavors or Starbucks promotions were being offered

 To keep informed of new locations that Starbucks may open.

25% 31-40  34% Male  46% Male 10% Facebook    

17% 41-55   30% Facebook  25% Twitter    

9% 56-80  50% Instagram      

   12% Twitter      

Audience Demographic Summary: A large number of the survey respondents ranged between ages 18-30. These respondents prefer Instagram to Twitter. There should be more effort when gathering content for Facebook to boost engagement.

Competitor AssessmentCompetitor Name Social Media Profile Strengths Weaknesses

Dunkin DonutsFacebook- Dunkin Donuts

Each post receives a lot of commentary and likes once posted. Coco Cola does a great job of replying to their customers.

They often times take a long time to reply to customers.

 McDonald’s  Twitter @McDonald’s

 McDonald's readily responds to their customers and tweets very engaging photographs.

 Posts very often, this can lead to very engaging content being lost within a thread.

 Coca Cola  Instagram @cocacola

The imagery on the coco cola page is bright and vibrant which is appealing to the customer.

They receive a lot of negative commentary about the product and often times do not address the comments.

Assessment Summary: The analysis above shows some of Starbuck’s main competitors that have a strong socialmedia presence. Starbucks most continue to produce strong visually engaging content in order to keep up with their competitors, and overall, reply to customers’ concerns efficiently and effectively.

Social Media Objectives• To increase visitors to the Starbucks LinkedIn and Facebook pages by 40% in the

next 8 months.• To actively engage the Twitter audience by making posts engaging and by replying

to as much consumer concerns as possibly in a short turn over.• To increase Instagram followers to 2000 by the end of November.

KPIs

• Number of unique visitors from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

• Number of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook followers (friends)

• Number of weekly photo and video posts to Facebook and Instagram

Key Messages

1. Number one choice for all breakfast foods, hot and cold coffee beverages in the U.S and abroad.2. Happy friendly environment for consumers.

ONLINE BRAND PERSONA AND VOICE

1. Adjectives that describe Starbucks brand: • Unique• Colorful• Trendy• Bold• Fun

1. When interacting with customers we are: • Always smiling• Enthusiastic• Personal

It is evident that Starbucks is fully engaged in replying to consumers on social media and they also post very visually appealing content.

Strategies and Tools• Paid- Boosting and promoting the most organic instagram and twitter posts to

generate consumer engagement.

• Owned- Promote the Hashtag #turnupthevote on all instagram votes during the election season, to promote voter awarness

• Earned: Monitor all keyword posts like: coffee, pumpkin spice, frapaccino, Starbucks etc. to see the converations and comment.

• Tools- Approved- (Hootsuite, Buffer), Rejected (none), Existing subscriptions, (vimeo and photoshop)

Key Dates and Timing• Key Dates• Fall Season (October, November)• Christmas Season (December)• New Year (January 2017)• Valentines Day (February 2017)• Spring Season (March 2017)

• Internal Events• Frappuccino, which recently celebrated its 20th birthday with Starbucks (This was a big accomplishment• Reporting dates• Reporting will happen every quarter, that is February, May, August and November of 2017

Social Media Roles and Responsibilities

• Vice President, Marketing at Starbucks – Melanie Allen • Global Social Media Director at Starbucks – Stephanie Marx • Social Media Manager at Starbucks – Kelly Brolli• Global Digital Marketing at Starbucks- Alexandra Wheeler• VP of Global Digital Products at Starbucks- Ben Straley

Social Media Policy• “Moments of connection - that’s our promise. And we bring that promise to life every day in

unique and special ways.”- Starbucks Official Website.• http://www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/community/partner-social-media-guidelines

TOP SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY LIST (According to Starbucks)1. Don’t use other people’s stuff.2. Just because something is online doesn’t mean it’s OK to copy it (like an image, statement or anything else that’s specifically protected by

copyright laws). 3. Don’t give out personal info about customers or others partners.4. Don’t distribute or share future promotional activities, trade secrets, internal reports, policies, procedures or other private and confidential

information

Critical Response Plan• CRITICAL RESPONSE PLAN • Scenario 1 - Inappropriate Tweet Sent from @Starbucks• Action Plan • When Tweet is detected: Take screenshot instantly • Delete Tweet • Alert (Social Media Manager and Marketing Director.) • If the Tweet has been available for hours to the public, create a follow up tweet to address the issue at hand.• Develop a plan with social media manager and marketing director to eliminate the possibilities of this

occurring again. • Set policies in place that will hold employees accountable for actions as this.NO Preapproved message in this case

The message drafted will be dependent on the marketing department, depending on the intensity of the tweet sent. Possibly, “We apologize for the inappropriate tweet posted previously.”

Critical Response Plan Cont’d• Scenario 2 – Someone is allergic to caffeine in Frappuccino allergic reaction, no injury

e.g. Action Plan• Alert the manager on site• Inform Marketing director on site to issue a statement addressing concerns on social

media• Have the social media director and marketing manager, asses and mediate the

situation on all social media platforms.• Pre-approved messaging: Twitter- ‘There are no reported injuries from today’s

incident. We are thankful of this.”• Facebook: “We are happy that there were no major injuries due to the incident that

occurred today. We would like to remind all our customers to be reminded of the contents within all our products to prevent any kind allergic reactions that could occur.”

Measurement And Report ResultsSocial Network URL Follower Count Average Weekly

ActivityAverage Engagement Rate

Twitter https://twitter.com/Starbucks

11.7 M At least 10 posts every week +10% increase

Between 100-200K likes and 100-1000 retweets

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/starbucks/

11.5 M At least once a day, 8 posts per week +300% increase

Between 100K-300K likes and 200-800 comments

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Starbucks/

36,444,436 Likes At least twice or once a day. (10 posts per week) +200 % increase

79K Likes, 1737 Shares on average.

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/2271?pathWildcard=2271

725,048 Followers Once a week (No change)

Daily comments/ Between 200- 2000 likes on average.

SnapChat @starbucks 4.6 M Once a day (no change) Daily Replies and direct messages

Measurement And Report ResultsSource Volume % Of Overall

TrafficConversion Rate

Twitter 2000 unique visits +11%growth

10% 2.2%

Facebook 4200 unique visits+7% growths

20% 1.7%

LinkedIn 300 unique visits+6% growths

4% .02%

Social Network Analysis Summary• (Social Network Data)The Starbucks Instagram has grown by at least 2000 followers in the past 4 months. • The interactions posts on Instagram have ranged between 200-800 comments depending on the nature of the post,

which is an excellent accomplishment.• The hashtag #turnupthevote received a lot of positive feed back and was utilized over 1000 times.

• Sentiment Analysis- An analysis of posts on 50 Facebook and 50 instagram posts showed that followers of these accounts are extremely engaging in the brand and do feel a connection from the videos and pictures that are posted. When Starbucks replies to queries, it is a sign that they too, care a lot about their customers.

• Performance of other tools used in project (Not applicable)

• Future Actions• Continue the #turnupthevote hashtag as well as the #PSL- for the introduction of the pumpkin spice latte for the fall.• Try to post more engaging items on LinkedIn so potential employees can learn more about the companies hiring process

and schedule.