Like many other big brands, Starbucks has incorporated social media into its multichannel marketing initiatives. It seems the move is paying off for the international coffee house, with recent reports from the digital measurement firm General Sentiment indicating that Starbucks’ social media exposure is worth the equivalent of a $67.8 million media buy.
As MediaPost notes, the firm uses a technology platform to track the volume of brand mentions and sentiments expressed. It is then able convert these numbers into the equivalent of media buys, enabling General Sentiment to determine how much a company’s social media campaigns are worth.
“[Starbucks] drew exceptionally high levels of exposure in the fall quarter, driven by news coverage and social media/Twitter discussion of developments such as its legal dispute over retail products distribution with Kraft Foods and its expansion moves in China,” General Sentiment CEO Gregory Artzt told MediaPost.
Part of the reason Starbucks’ social media marketing campaigns are so successful is the wide follower base they reach. The coffee brand has more than 18 million Facebook fans and nearly 2 million Twitter followers.
