Starbucks Online Video Marketing: 1 Simple Strategy Anyone Can Use

One of the goals for video sharing via social media is to engage customers. Often businesses will develop and produce a promotional video for their organization, post it to their website and social media outlets, and then ask the questions of themselves, now what? How do we get the customers coming back to our social media sites? The answer is: you have to continue to create new online video and other tools of engagement, which also means you need to be constantly coming up with new and creative ideas.

I recently watched a video by Michael Stelzer, Senior Editor of Social Media Examiner, interviewing Alex Wheeler, Director of Digital Strategy at Starbucks about their online video and social media marketing. As you may know, over the past year Starbucks rolled out a new instant coffee product they call Via. Wheeler reports that for the original launch of Via (in just 2 markets) they predominantly used social media to listen to customers who were trying the new product and then when they had the national roll-out a few months later, they asked the consumers to share “Via moments” – whether out in the wild or at the office through both photos and videos. She states, “[social media] technology is a way to extend the brand presence.”

This is a great strategy that businesses can use no matter how big or small you are! How are your customers using your product? Ask them to share that with you and create a photo montage or video with brand stories they send to you. It’s your brand, but it’s fun to let other people market if for you.