Do you follow your favorite brands on social media? What about those brands you have some ill will towards? Do you follow them too? Usually, when someone is following a company or brand on social media, they either like the brand, want to know more, or possibly have a complaint about the brand. I have reviewed four brands on Facebook under the lens of engagement and paid content. You will learn a little more about Starbucks, the Puppy Bowl, Chewy.com, and Custom Ink in the post below.

Starbucks and Engagement

Starbucks is a great example of a company and a brand that is actively engaged with their social media followers.

I went through about two weeks of posts from Starbucks on Facebook and was quite surprised at the number of comments they responded to. The example below was as simple as a green heart emoji. The second comment was sharing a link to help Jean navigate something.

Figure 1

 

Social media followers feel empowered when a brand gets back to them. Even with something as simple as a heart emoji.

“Engagement is defined as “the collective experiences that readers or viewers have with a media brand” (Mersey, Malthouse and Calder, 2012, p.698, quoting their earliest study)” (Lipscultz 2018). Social media has become an experience for people. They want to feel connected to the content they are reading or looking at. Engagement in social media is very important.

Puppy Bowl and Paid Partnerships

“In social media, reading is an important behavior, but it is not the only behavior,” (Lipscultz 2018 p. 25).  People want to see pictures and videos. “these stimuli are consumed and sometimes result in reactions,” (Lipscultz 2018, p. 25).

The Puppy Bowl gets a lot of attention around the Super Bowl timeframe. Don’t you just love all the pictures and videos of the cute dogs they post? The Puppy Bowl does a nice job on Facebook of interacting with its sponsors and partners. This is an example of a paid partnership and what their content looks like on Facebook. In the post in Fig. 2, the Puppy Bowl has tagged Subaru of America, Inc., as well as their nonprofit partners the ASPCA and Pet Helpers Adoption Center.

Figure 2

Use this link to view the video on Caesar – Puppy Bowl Video

Chewy.com Where the Rubber Meets the Road

The Chewy.com Facebook page is a great example of both rich engagement and sponsored content. Keeping on the theme of cute puppies, Chewy.com stays engaged on social media. They also happen to be a partner with the Puppy Bowl. Collaborations and partnerships are important on social media as it helps grow the reach.

Since Chewy.com is a partner with the Puppy Bowl, they also tagged Animal Planet in the screenshot on the left and talk about giving back through an adoption event. It is a feel-good post that draws more engagement and interactions. The screenshot on the right is in the comments. Chewy.com’s response is not stock. It is custom and thoughtful.

Figure 3

“Frequently, a social media campaign goal is to increase engagement to grow to reach and build fan loyalty – asking questions and commenting help build social media relationships,” (Lipschultz 2018, p.25).

Custom Ink Sponsored Content

Sponsored or paid posts will appear more frequently in your feeds on social media. The company or brand is able to select certain criteria to boost its sponsored content to a particular audience. “A brand may purchase promoted posts on Facebook, which function similar to paid searched appearing atop a feed,” (Lispschultz 2018, p. 105).

 

Figure 4

This screenshot of Custom Ink from Facebook shows this is sponsored content.

Sponsored content usually makes it pretty easy to navigate to an actionable page. In this example, the reader can simply click on the “learn more” tab to be driven directly to the Custom Ink website.

The goal of sponsored content is to reach more people to ultimately buy a product.

As we look at the different variables we consider when looking at engagement and paid or sponsored content, we begin to realize, “valued content was created to raise awareness, inform consumers, strengthen brand loyalty, build trust and manage reputation,” (Lipschultz 2018, p. 105). This content is strategic and purposeful. The brand wants to showcase its best side and build a relationship so-to-speak with the consumer. Understanding that building brand awareness is an important step in the relationship-building process will benefit many brands at the end of the day. Therefore, engagement and paid content are a valuable element in the world of social media.

 

References

Lipschultz, Jeremy Harris. (2018). Social Media Communication; Concepts, Practices, Data, Law and Ethics. New York: Routledge Publishers.

Chewy.com – Facebook   –  – Fig. 3

Custom Ink – Facebook   – Fig. 4.

Starbucks – Facebook page – Fig. 1

Puppy Bowl  – Fig. 2