Starbucks Social Media Public Relations (PR) Campaign - Essay Sample

In the recent past, social media have been an essential tool for promoting products. The platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn, among others, serve as the fundamental pillars for public relations (PR) campaigns in organizations. Starbucks Coffee Company is one of the organizations that have employed successful use of social media in enhancing public relations and building the brands’ images. Thus, Instagram has improved Starbucks’ public relations locally, but also on a global scale. Because of the significance of social media in promoting products, the paper investigates Instagram as a public relations tool and how Starbucks has utilized this platform to their advantage.

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Instagram is the most vital and preferred platform is social media when moving public relations campaigns. Statistical research on the significance of Instagram has revealed that over 800 million individuals are active users of the platform every month (Sharma, 2020). Out of these, over 80% of the people follow one or more business accounts (Sharma, 2020). Therefore, it serves as a conducive platform for the micro-influencers who sees it as an excellent opportunity for public relations and social engagement globally. Unlike other social media platforms, Instagram stands out as the best as over 60% of the users visit their accounts daily (Clement, 2019). What is even more unique about Instagram and public relations is sharing short videos and pictures of products. In public relations, the short videos, usually 30 seconds to a few minutes, consume less of users’ time, hence preferred than the lengthy advertisement videos (Sharma, 2020). Recently, Instagram has been at the forefront of introducing several hashtag challenges giving influencers an excellent opportunity to promote their public relations campaigns.

Various advantages of using Instagram in public relations as opposed to other social media platforms are available. Firstly, Instagram benefits from being the pioneers of employing the use of mobile apps. In public relations campaign involving the use of social media, this is a vital aspect as market researches have proved that over 80% of social media subscribers use mobile apps and devices (Clement, 2019). Secondly, Instagram enhances brands’ reach for the global community by using unique visual contents of products. Thirdly, engagement and conversation rates are typically high on Instagram compared to other social media platforms.

The benefits, as mentioned earlier of Instagram in public relations campaigns, have made it critically essential in Starbucks’ campaign. Starbuck is an organization that concentrates on the servicing of enthusiastic coffee needs of its customers. The main products sold in the organization include hot and cold handcrafted beverages and snacks such as chips and crackers. Additionally, the company sells merchandise such as the brewing equipment for tea and coffee. The nature of the products and services that the organization sells makes Instagram an excellent platform for public relations campaigns. Evidently, the company has been a leader in the use of this platform. As a result of the magnificent use of Instagram for social strategies and public relations, Starbucks in 2018 got the silver award of the IPA Effectiveness (Bonaparte, 2020). The “Instagrammable” displays of foods and drinks have been the foundation of the use of Instagram in enhancing public relations for the organization. One such campaign is the social influencing that the company made during the launch of “Unicorn Frappuccino” in the United States (Bonaparte, 2020). The hashtag “PumpkinSpiceLatte” has been trending on Instagram as a public relations campaign on Instagram run by Starbucks. Initially, the organization used the campaign to push the brand as a hyped seasonal event promoting its drinks in social media. Since the start of the campaign, Starbuck has managed to influence a multitude, as evident in the over 500,000 posts relating to the hashtag (Bonaparte, 2020).

Starbucks has a shrewd perspective on social media and an understanding of public relations campaigns. The company uses Instagram to target the young generations, particularly millennials, in its campaign. Starbucks has been successful in social media platforms, especially Instagram, due to its strategic segmentation and design of the posts to reach the target audience. The hashtags pushed by the company, such as “PumpkinSpiceLatte,” have successfully conquered the online population and developed the organization’s public relations base (Bonaparte, 2020). The method and use of Instagram have been useful due to the focus on a selected target group. As a result, the Instagram campaign has increased the appreciation of Starbucks’ services and products, fostered consumer-brand engagement, and overall elevation of brand loyalty. Despite the success, Starbucks can do more to improve PR in social media. Much of the PR has been running through the company. However, the organization can use influencers in marketing and social media relations. Additionally, Starbucks can invest in the social media ambassadors and program that will increase its online penetration and survival. Finally, Starbucks can incorporate journalists’ to drive its public relations as these individuals have an excellent following on Instagram. A combination of these aspects is critically essential in Starbucks’ public relations in social media.

In conclusion, social media, especially Instagram, is a useful tool for public relations campaigns. Instagram provides a global audience with millions of users globally. In addition to that, the platform is outstanding in social media as it creates an opportunity for sharing short advertisement videos and pictures. Organizations using the platform create hashtags and challenges that aims at developing their online audience. Starbucks effectively uses Instagram in the promotion of its products and services using excellent visual content. The use of Instagram for public relations in the company has been effective, as evident through the ever-growing social media audience. However, Starbucks can increase this effectiveness by incorporating traditional means of public relations campaign to the process.

References

Bonaparte, Y. L. (2020). A Starbucks Blend: Race, Social Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1440&context=ama_proceedings

Clement, J. (December 3, 2019). Number of monthly active Instagram users 2013-2018. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/

Sharma, G. (2020). Why Do Brands Prefer Instagram Over Other Social Media Platforms. Social Pilot. https://www.socialpilot.co/blog/instagram-over-other-social-media-platform