Starbucks Social Media Strategy

Sydney Denninger September 22, 2016

Table of Contents

Executive Summary…………………………………. Slide 3 Social Media Audit……………………………….…Slides 4-7 Social Media Objectives…………………………..Slides 8-10

Online Brand Persona and Voice…………………Slides 11-13 Strategies and Tools………………………………. Slides 14-17 Key Dates and Timing…………………………….. Slides 18-19

Social Media Roles and Responsibilities………..Slide 20 Social Media Policy…………………………………Slides 21-22 Critical Response Plan…………………………….Slide 23-24 Measurement and Reporting Results…………….Slide 25-26

Executive Summary

• Starbucks major social media priorities for 2016 will be to grow Starbucks’ online following and community

• Primary Focus: To drive sales by encouraging traffic on our social media platforms with creative and unique content that will nurture relationships with our customers

• Two social media strategies will support this objective:

• 1) Increase the volume of content we publish to our social platforms.

• 2) Encourage sharing and posting of the content to create noise

Social Media AuditSOCIAL MEDIA ASSESSMENT

WEBSITE TRAFFIC SOURCES ASSESSMENT

AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC ASSESSMENT

COMPETITOR ASSESSMENT

Social Media ObjectivesOverall Business Goals:In 2016, Starbuck’s social media strategy will be to support revenue goals by driving traffic to our social media channels via video content and an emphasis on interaction within these channels.

SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES TO SUPPORT BUSINESS GOALS:

To Increase unique visitors to website by 30 % in 6 months via:

1. Increase brand awareness through 40% more video content on Facebook2. Engage and respond 30% more often to consumer’s comments on Facebook and Twitter3. Engage consumers through visual strategies on Instagram in order to produce 20% more “likes”

Social Media Objectives

Quantitative KPI’s:1. Number of unique visitors from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram2. Number of Instagram likes3. Number of weekly original video posts on Facebook

Qualitative KPI’s1. Sentiment analysis of comments on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter2. Response and engagement of Starbucks on Twitter and Facebook

Key Supporting Messages: (Focusing on the Fall/Winter season for the next 6 months)1. Starbuck’s seasonal flavors warms your heart, warms your soul2. The Spice of Life3. The essential coffee for Fall and Winter 2016

Online Brand Persona and Voice

Adjectives that describe our brand:

High-Quality

Innovative

Superior

Good Taste

Trendy

International

Friendly

Examples of Brand Voice in Social Media Interactions

TWITTER:

#CurrentFallMood coincideswith coziness and homey-ness adjectives.

Examples of Brand Voice in Social Media Interactions

INSTAGRAM:

Trendy post (Nail polish, shoes, accessories and strategically placed leaves)

Examples of Brand Voice in Social Media Interactions

FACEBOOK:

Starbucks has seen an extremely rude comment and criticism but chooses to be classyand friendly and responds appropriately.

Strategies & Tools: Paid

1. Starbucks will use Facebook Ads every Monday to promote their most recent and popular video content of that week. In this way, throughout the long work-week consumers will have access to, awareness of, and hopefully an attitude and behavior change toward buying Starbucks products. The post must have an organic reach of 3,000.

Strategies & Tools: Owned

Introduce the use of #CurrentFallMood to Starbucks

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts. Encourage adoption of

customers to post their “current fall mood,” and then Starbucks will have

the oppurtunity to engage and respond to customers. Starbucks will retweet a user-generated Twitter post

once per week.

2. At stores across the U.S. (since this is where it is fall / winter right now),

have signs at the kiosk encouraging customers to share a picture of the item

they just bought with the #CurrentFallMood hashtag on their own

social media networks to generate traffic. Monitor platforms to see if the

signs at Starbucks counters are generating at least 2,000 user-

generated posts per week.

Strategies & Tools: Earned

1. Through the use of the #CurrentFallMood hashtag, Starbucks will have earned media on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and hopefully Snapchat. People, especially young-adults and women, continuously share “trendy” pictures of their coffee. Hopefully this trend will catch on to these platforms to drive traffic and generate sales for Starbucks. Starbucks will direct message 10 people per week who use this hashtag with a “free large coffee” discount.

2.Capture a story on video of how Starbucks coffee gets the average person, an army officer, a CEO, a

construction worker, a couple on their wedding day and someone going

through grief through their day. The media will then pick this story up and run

with it.

Strategies & Tools

APPROVED: Hootsuite for Editorial

Calendars Google Analytics

Instagram Analytics Twitter Analytics

Starbucks Newsroom Starbucks App

Rejected: N/A

Existing Subscription / Licenses:

Buffer Canva Adobe

Photoshop

Key Dates and TimingKEY DATES: Halloween

Thanksgiving Black Friday

Small Business Saturday / Cyber Monday

Hanukkah Christmas

New Year’s Eve and Day Valentine’s Day

Internal Events:

“Upstanders:” first original content serious that aims to

inspire Americans to engage in acts of

compassion, citizenship and civility

Date of Upstanders is usually weekly, TBD by

producer and CEO

Key Dates and Timing

LEAD TIMES: Need to think about Holiday content and key dates 4 weeks in advance in order to

develop content on time.

REPORTING DATES: Reporting will occur once every three

months, starting January 15th

Social Media Roles & Responsibilities• Global Social Media Director: Stephanie Marx

Responsibilities:• Lead the social media team—provide thought leadership and strategic voice for the social media strategy and community management teams who are responsible for the day-to-day social media execution.

•Coach our international markets, teams across the organization and agency partners to immerse them in our social media strategy and best practices.

•Partner with the Creative Director to provide guidance, oversight and approval to our social creative teams on the development of our social content.

•Manage social listening, metrics and monthly scorecard; communicate social insights across the digital marketing organization and cross-functionally.

• Collaborate with Public Affairs, Marketing and Customer Care to develop social media narratives, communications and response plans in support of brand initiatives and issues management.

•Director of Global Digital Marketing: Alexandra Wheeler•Responsibilities:

Led digital marketing campaign strategy and planning.

Responsible for digital insights and analytics.

Responsible for digital ad tech strategy.

•Executive VP: Chief Technology Officer: Gerri Martin-FlickingerResponsibilities:Gerri leads the global Information Technology function and plays a key role in shaping the technology agenda across the Starbucks business.

•Director of Global Social Media and Digital Creative: Ryan TurnerResponsibilities:Built and led the Starbucks social media practice as it evolved from a lead market model to a global shared services model; from low-fidelity internal creative to fully integrated, high-end internal and agency creative expression; from retrospective reporting of ad hoc metrics to full-fledged insights development and performance accountability; and from promotion-driven content planning to multi-threaded, evergreen brand storytelling.

•Social Media Manager: Kelly Broili•Responsibilities:• Lead a team of community managers responsible for content, media,

execution and relationship management across all social channels for Starbucks, Evolution Fresh, Frappuccino and Teavana.

• Launched Starbucks presence on Pinterest. Help drive ongoing strategy and manage day to day global execution.

• Contribute and execute against marketing plans, digital strategies and campaigns. Partner across brands, functions and markets to ensure all are well informed and receive the right level of exposure across our social channels.

• Partner closely with global teams to drive standardized communities of practice for social worldwide.

• Drive close collaboration with public affairs and customer support teams to maintain close alignment around company announcements, crisis communications and FAQs.

• Manage 3rd party social media tools and vendor relationships - evaluation through execution.

Social Media PolicySocial Media Guidelines to demonstrate best practices, ethics and etiquette:

•Handle criticism with grace and respect •Politeness •Kindness •Helpfulness •Encourage •Show excitement •Have class •Be friendly •Share your passion •Work comes first •Mike it yours •Truth be told •The world is getting smaller •Be safe •The internet does not have a “delete” key •We can work it out

DO NOT:• Be rude • Fight back • Belittle a person or the competition • Be negative about the Starbucks

company and products • Don’t use other people’s stuff • Don’t give out personal info about

customers or other partners • Don’t distribute or share future

actives, trade secrets, internal reports, etc.

• Don’t distribute financial information • Don’t bully others • DOn’t create social media accounts

using Starbucks brand to communicate with customers on behalf of the company

Social Media Policy

Starbuck’s mission statement centers around the ideas “to inspire and nurture the human spirit- one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”

Starbucks is serious about the our social media strategies relating to our mission statement. Social media and our accounts must be taken seriously by ALL employees. Starbucks social media issue will result in corrective action, up to and including punishment, suspension and termination. Starbucks reserves the right to use legal action if necessary. Please contact the social media team for questions about how to use Starbucks social media accounts.

Critical Response Plan: Scenario One

• Scenario: Inappropriate post or response to a comment on one of Starbucks social media platforms

• Action Plan:

Step 1: When inappropriate post or response is detected…. take screenshot

Step 2: Delete comment or post

Step 3: Alert SM Director. If unavailable, alert SM manager.

Step 4: Gather SM team. Assess reach of comment or post, assess severity of damage to company brand, evaluate further action.

Step 5: SM team will set up and distribute apology, will accept responsibility. Wil reiterate that Starbucks does NOT condone such action, and further action will be taken upon the employee who committed the comment or post.

Step 6: If post or comment has gone viral, and a crisis commences, get in-house PR team involved. Director and Manager must be available at all times to handle media.

Step 7: Take necessary disciplinary action on guilty employee.

Pre-Approved Messaging: Pre-approved messaging will vary depending on the severity, reach and outrage over the post or comment. Will be determined by SM director and manager.

Critical Response Plan: Scenario Two

Scenario: Unsanitary factors found in a retail store or company product, backlash on social media from consumers

Action Plan:

Step 1: When unsanitary factors are discovered and backlash begins on social media, Alert SM Director, Marketing Director and SM Manager.

Step 2: Gather SM team. Assess severity of critical response from public.

Step 3: Draft press release and Twitter response.

Step 4: Set up apology if necessary, or take responsibility. State that not much is known at the time, but upon further investigation, a full report will be released to the public.

Step 5: SM team with Director as lead will post updates at least twice a day on Twitter to update public about evolving situation. Marketing director will concur with posts.

Step 6: Once source of problem is identified, SM director will release on social media the corrective steps Starbucks will take to prevent this. Starbucks will have to campaign on social media to prove they are taking corrective action and will prevent this in the future.

Pre-Approved Messaging:Press Release or Facebook:

“An (incident or factor) regarding hygiene has been recognized in (the given situation city, etc…). Starbucks is working around the clock to figure out what exactly has happened in this situation. Starbucks will be sure to keep the public in the loop and aware of the situation as it unfolds. At this time, all we know is (…TBD depending on situation..), and we will investigate thoroughly.”

Twitter: “(..Depending on situation..) has occurred. We are currently investigating into further details. We will keep the public posted as soon as we know more.”

Measurement and Reporting Results

Measurement and Reporting Results

Results Assessment:One of our Social Media Objectives was to raise Facebook “likes” 30%, which we completed successfully. Starbucks also wanted to grow engagement on Facebook, which we did through video content. On Instagram, through video and more creative visual content Starbucks was able to meet the goal of a 20% increase in followers as well. On Twitter, Starbuck’s engagement did not reach our goal of 30% increased engagement, so the follower count was only half of what we had expected. We were particularly proud of the website traffic data results. We found that because our video content was so engaging, the overall traffic increased expansively, especially for Facebook.

Sentiment Analysis:Not only did our followers interact positively with Starbucks more through the use of our #CurrentFallMood hashtag on Twitter and Facebook, our followers shared more visual content they found favorable on Instagram and Facebook. This generated traffic to our website and also increased sales. We even found that many customers shared pictures of our products and seasonal snacks and beverages on Snapchat.

We suggest future action should be taken to sustain video content on Facebook and Instagram, and keep attempting to engage and respond to customers on Twitter. We hope that more measurable analysis of Snapchat will become prevalent in the future, and we hope to create a Snapchat geotag for Starbucks on specific holidays, specifically referencing pumpkin spice and candy-cane flavored products for the upcoming season.