I read Elaine Wong's Why Starbucks Is the Top Brand on Facebook (Aug 12, 2009) and was enjoying it all the way to the end - but when I got to the answer to the last question I became quite excited.
Q: What are we likely to see from Starbucks on the social media front going forward?
Here's what Alexandra Wheeler, Starbucks' digital strategy director, said:
You will see more of the same. We will only continue to grow and develop our assets in the social media space, but continue this kind of real philosophy of being where the people are but being relevant to them and providing value in those experiences. We don’t want to check the boxes and say we are in all the different channels. It’s not the right thing to do. It’s one of the reasons we were cited in the [Altimeter Group] report as the most engaging brand…It isn’t a marketing initiative. It isn’t a PR initiative. It’s cultivating and creating great consumer value and great consumer relationships. What you’ll see from Starbucks is us continuing to build and scale that up over time in a new way and new chances to converse with the brand.
I thought this answer was such a strong confirmation of all the teachings of the Social Media Academy, and it placed Marketing in the context of brand engagement NOT branding and advertising and campaigns.
Let's break it down:
- She squarely puts social media as part of an overall customer engagement and customer experience model, to be assessed, planned, executed, managed and coordinated across all of Starbucks. This is the essence of the holistic methodologies of the Social Media Academy.
- It's about helping the brand cultivate relationships and engaging with customers.
- It is not about marketing pushing branding initiatives and "messages" out into the Starbucks communities and the places and spaces in the social web where the Starbucks fans meet.
- It's about a continuous program - - and therefore a continuous investment and time and resources and effort i.e. social media is not free!
- It's about knowing which social media spaces and places are important to Starbucks, based on a proper social media assessment. These Assessments are one of the core processes taught by the Academy.
Wheeler's comments also validate a message which I have made at several events and across several sites and posts. That is, that what you see on the surface, which may appear to be a campaign even, is part of something which runs much deeper in how successful companies utilize social media.
Whether it is Dell, or Starbucks, or Virgin America, they have very well thought out holistic programs, which require organisational change, and are managed cross-functionally with a bigger objective in mind. If you copy what you see on the surface, without understanding or doing the hard yards in planning and execution of a holistic program, then you are almost certain to fail.
And you won't see all that you have to know and do by reading articles about these companies, because they know they have a competitive advantage and how hard it is to get it right. Now you need to do your homework and catch up, if you can!
