Starbucks' Use of Digital Technology: A Social Media Marketing Report

This report examines Starbucks' utilization of digital technology across various social media platforms, highlighting both quantitative and qualitative data. It analyzes the brand's engagement on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, detailing follower counts, posting frequency, and engagement tactics such as content promotion, customer service, and hashtag campaigns. The report identifies successful strategies, including visually appealing content and timely customer interaction, and provides recommendations for improvement, such as relatable content and consistent branding. Ultimately, the report concludes that digital technology plays a crucial role in enhancing Starbucks' business through effective social media marketing.

Digital technology

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Social Media statistics of Starbucks.......................................................................................3
Recommendations..................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References .......................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Digital technology is referred to as a tool for counting. When the information is required
to be stored, transmitted or forwarded in a digital format then it is converted in form of numbers
which is at the most basic machine level (Li And et.al., 2021). Digital technology comprises of
working principles, standards that are applicable to the technological industry. Digital
technology states several electronic devices, automatic systems as well as technological
resources that focus upon generation, processing as well as storing of information. Such as
smartphones, website, artificial technology, cloud computing, e-books, video streaming, etc.
The report focuses upon the use of Digital Technology by Starbucks. Starbucks is an
American brand that deals in the chain business of Coffee houses as well as roastery reserves.
The headquarters of Starbucks is at Seattle, Washington, United States [Starbucks, 2019]. The
report will analyse the social media analytics of Starbucks in the report further (Vargo and et.al.,
2021).
Main Body
Social Media statistics of Starbucks
Quantitative data
Starbucks can be considered as the most engaged brand in terms of social media. The
social media statistics of Starbucks through different platforms have been discussed below.
 More than 37 million Facebook likes
 Nearly 12 million followers on Twitter
 Approximately 16 Million fans on the Instagram
 More than 150 thousand subscribers on YouTube
The data themselves are enough in order to reveal the performance of Starbucks on the several
social media platforms. The several social media platforms used by Starbucks along with the
justification of the engagement have been discussed below.
 Facebook- Starbucks has gained nearly 710 thousand new followers on Facebook in
comparison to the several other brands which are their competitors. The activity of
Starbucks has not been so frequent but still they have managed to engage with their
customers as they are aware of the requirements of their customers. The brand posts

photos of the latest products that are launched recently. There were 84 photos posted by
Starbucks on Facebook which generated nearly 4.2 million likes and 547 thousand shares.
 Twitter- Starbucks has understood the importance of twitter engagement for the brand.
There are approximately 12 million followers of the brand page on Twitter. Twitter is a
social media platform that has helped in better engagement for customer service.
Starbucks has been using Twitter in order to have effective and efficient engagement with
their audience. Starbucks has over 57 thousand tweets which has resulted in adding up of
nearly 134 thousand new followers. On an average Twitter has sent 155 tweets while
focussing upon replying to the 99% tweets that has increased the value of the
organisation through social media.

 Instagram- Starbucks have been launching the products that have been specially designed
with the intent of posting upon Instagram. The brand has been launching products that
are photogenic as well as vibrant such as Unicorn Frappuccino which was a hit on the
social media instantly. Starbucks had witnessed a growth of nearly 26% by gaining
approximately 3.3 Million new followers on Instagram. Starbucks has posted
approximately 250 times out of which 75% were pictures. Starbucks has been quite active
on social media as it posts picture of its products in a quite unique way and attractive
settings along with witty captions that are helpful in creating a consistent imagery for the
brand. Also the brand has shown highest engagement between 9 AM to 10 AM and
further the posts are done mostly between 11 AM to 12 PM.
Qualitative data
There are several qualitative approaches that have been adopted by Starbucks in order to
engage in the best possible manner with the audience as well as potential customers and existing
customers. The qualitative approaches include the following (Vuorre, Orben and Przybylski,
2021)-
 Content promotion- Starbucks has been focussing upon promotion of the content through
the limited time deals and offers in order to attract the customers which have led to higher

engagement of the brand with its customers. Starbucks posts videos of their employees
making their famous brews and promote them through the video campaign and teasers
which are posted online through several social media platforms.
 Customer Service- Starbucks makes sure that their customers are being heard and further
responds to the messages whether they are positive or negative. The brand requires time
to reach out to several customers in order to make them feel appreciated and consider
them as a part of the Starbucks community. Starbucks focuses upon replying to almost 11
thousand tweets out of 34 thousand replies within 1 to 6 hours.
 Campaigns- Starbucks uses several hashtags that help in creation of excitement among
the several users and further transforming them to create content for the brand. Starbucks
has introduced nearly 15 hashtags in order to enhance the engagement. Several hashtags
that have been quite popular are #icedcaramelmachiato, #pinkdrink, etc.
Recommendations
 Starbucks can post the picture regarding the relatable stuffs with which the customers or
the viewers can easily connect.
 The brands can focus upon building a narrative that helps in creating a prioritised
personal experience of the customers while sharing the moments of the customers.
 Another recommendation is that the brands must be consistent over the several social
media channels in order to reflect the personality of the brand ( Jang and et.al., 2021).
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the report that digital technology play an important role in
enhancing the business of the organisation through social media platforms. There are several
quantitative as well as qualitative measures in order to promote the products of the organisation
through social media tactics. Qualitative data that can be collected through digital technology
over social media is through campaigns, customer service and content promotion whereas the
quantitative statistics can be analysed through the followers and reach of the pages of the brands.

References
Books and Journals
Li, J.P.O. And et.al., 2021. Digital technology, tele-medicine and artificial intelligence in
ophthalmology: A global perspective. Progress in retinal and eye research, 82,
p.100900.
Vargo, D. and et.al., 2021. Digital technology use during COVID‐19 pandemic: A rapid
review. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 3(1), pp.13-24.
Vuorre, M., Orben, A. and Przybylski, A.K., 2021. There is no evidence that associations
between adolescents’ digital technology engagement and mental health problems have
increased. Clinical Psychological Science, 9(5), pp.823-835.
Jang, M. and et.al., 2021. The impact of literacy on intention to use digital technology for
learning: A comparative study of Korea and Finland. Telecommunications
Policy, 45(7), p.102154.
Online
Unmetric, 2019. Available through: <https://blog.unmetric.com/starbucks-social-media-
strategy>
Starbucks, 2019. Available through: <https://www.starbucks.in/>