How Starbucks Uses Created and Curated Content on Instagram
Starbucks is well known for its coffee and social impact. Since its first post on Instagram in 2010, Starbucks has very well understood how to create engaging content and get their audience involved in the conversation. More recently, Starbucks has continued to perfect their indie aesthetic on Instagram through curated content, while keeping their brand identity strong and facilitating conversation through created content.
The photo above is an example of Starbucks’ created content. The photo found in the post captures the attention of the audience with bright, vivid visuals. This gets the audiences’ attention right away and sparks their interest in the message being conveyed. This post uses strong use of writing for social media by using a call to action and referencing the link in their bio to make users click into their profile. Also, Starbucks takes the audience and what is going on around the world into consideration by referencing contactless payments in the caption. This strategy allows the company to appear as human and possibly start a conversation among users in the comments section.
Although this post has a generous amount of strengths, there is a weakness worth introducing. There are no hashtags used in the caption. This was a poor decision because Instagram is the social media which uses hashtags most often. The addition of hashtags could boost Starbucks social media optimization for their Instagram account and increase how often their content is shared.
The photo above is an example of Starbucks’ curated content. Similar to the created content seen in the previous example, the photo found in the post captures the attention of the audience with bright, vivid visuals and showcases strong use of writing for social media. The writing found in the caption of the post is simple, conversational and representative of the Starbucks brand. There is use of emojis and the blogger who created the original content is tagged. The strengths of this curated post are consistent with the strengths of Starbucks’ created content.
The weakness, however, is different and places emphasis on the interactivity of the post. Starbucks does not seem to be starting a conversation with the audience. Rather than asking a question and trying to engage with the audience, Starbucks simply promotes the drink and tags the blogger who took the original photo. Starbucks could have formatted the text differently by asking the audience if they have tried the drink being promoted. This would cause the audience to not only communicate and interact with Starbucks, but possibly other users who they have commonalities with. This could begin to create communities within the audience which could be targeted more easily in later posts.
Starbucks does a good job posting a mix of created and curated content on their Instagram, but there are a few changes that could be made in order to better their content and boost their social media optimization. I think Starbucks should search for and post curated content that talks about the company separate from its products. Starbucks does a lot to lead us towards a sustainable future. They could post more content that relates to this to boost morale and engagement. Also, Starbucks’ created content makes up 60% and curated content makes up 40% of posts on it’s Instagram. If Starbucks were to switch these with their created content making up 40% and their curated content making up 60% of their Instagram feed, they could continue to promote their product without bombarding consumers. Lastly, curated content should use a mix of influencer testimonial and the opinions of those out of the public eye. This will show Starbucks as more human and may possibly increase the amount of curated content being made because individuals want an opportunity to be featured on Starbucks’ Instagram.
Click here to view Starbucks curated content example on Instagram.
Click here to view Starbucks created content example on Instagram.