12 best brands with great social media strategies

Glossier — a skincare and makeup brand — is one of the best social media brands of the past decade. Unlike traditional airbrushed advertisements, Glossier thrives on showcasing real-world product experiences through user-generated content (UGC). This approach authenticates their offerings and resonates deeply with potential customers by demonstrating how their products perform in everyday situations.

With over 3 million Instagram followers, Glossier's social media prowess is undeniable. Following a successful Series E funding in 2021, the brand reported significant awareness among women aged 18-34 in the US and boasts a global customer base exceeding 5 million.

Central to Glossier's strategy is its innovative use of influencer marketing. Through partnerships with brand ambassadors like Phillippa Mevik, who engages with audiences via platforms like YouTube and Instagram (with 178K followers), Glossier extends its reach far beyond traditional advertising channels. By leveraging these relationships, Glossier expands its audience and builds trust — a crucial factor in the competitive beauty industry.

Glossier excels at understanding and catering to its audience's social media preferences. Recognizing the visual nature of its products, it prioritizes authentic photo and video content. This approach showcases product quality and reinforces trust, as consumers are more likely to rely on endorsements from influencers they already follow.

For decades, Nike, a dominant force in sports apparel and footwear, has seamlessly translated its leadership into the digital age. With a massive social media presence encompassing over 300 profiles across platforms, including a staggering 305 million followers on its main Instagram account, Nike ranks among the top influencers in the digital sphere.

Nike's social media strategy is comprehensive. It incorporates the latest trends while maintaining a strong focus on high-quality customer interaction. A standout example from their Instagram below illustrates their proactive approach to customer service.

Even within lengthy comment threads, Nike responds promptly and informatively, ensuring users receive timely updates and directing them to reliable sources for more information. This customer-centric approach enhances the user experience and promotes Nike's digital assets, such as their website and app.

Nike’s branding strategy truly sets its social media apart from others. Rather than focusing solely on product showcases, Nike emphasizes the athletes who wear and use them. Nike fosters a deeper connection with its audience by aligning its brand with health, fitness, and wellness. This deliberate association, coupled with extensive coverage of global sporting events, reinforces Nike's identity as more than just a product brand — it's a beacon of inspiration and aspiration for a healthier, stronger future.

Netflix’s streaming service boasts an impressive 269.9 million subscribers worldwide in 2024. It also has 22.6 million followers on X, making it one of the most well-known social media brands across platforms.

Central to Netflix's social media success is its consistent and distinctive brand voice, carefully cultivated to resonate across diverse audiences. At the heart of this strategy is Netflix's social media team, renowned for their witty comments and engaging interactions. They leverage memes, trends, and polls to create a dynamic and personal connection with followers, fostering an interactive community.

Take, for instance, this meme promoting Netflix's show about an NFL cheerleading squad — a perfect example of the brand's cheeky and often blunt humor. While not explicitly informative, the post captivates existing fans with its humor while intriguing potential viewers. This ambiguity encourages engagement: existing fans enjoy the joke, while newcomers might be enticed to discover its context, potentially leading to further exploration of the show's content.

Starbucks is a global coffee powerhouse working on its social media presence since 2008. Back then, Mystarbucksidea.com was its own mini social media site that allowed Starbucks customers to share ideas for improving the company’s products and services, making an early commitment to engaging directly with its community. Starbucks was also one of the first brands to join Facebook and Twitter when they began.

This early investment in social media has paid off, shaping Starbucks into one of the most dynamic and influential brands in the digital landscape today. As of 2024, Starbucks commands a substantial following across platforms: 17.8 million on Instagram, 34 million on Facebook, and 10.8 million on X. Their YouTube channel, boasting 416K subscribers, is a great example of their success with visual storytelling.

For instance, in a recent YouTube Short, Starbucks showcased a Las Vegas store where volunteers came together to prepare free meals for a local homeless youth organization. This narrative highlights Starbucks' community involvement and underscores its commitment to social issues, as seen in its "To Be Human" campaign. By sharing authentic stories like these, Starbucks fosters conversations that transcend coffee, engaging audiences on topics ranging from humanitarianism to sustainability.

Moreover, Starbucks humanizes its expansive brand by featuring employees prominently in promotional content, showcasing their expertise and dedication. This strategy enhances authenticity and taps into the credibility of frontline staff (baristas!) who embody Starbucks' commitment to quality and customer service.

Airbnb, a platform for booking vacation homes and experiences, has some of the best social media accounts. Targeting travelers and adventure seekers, it leverages positive customer feedback as one of its main social strategies. This feedback comes in many forms, from sharing good reviews to user-generated content from small and large influencers.

Airbnb’s YouTube account has 650K subscribers and features videos like those shown above, highlighting real-life stories derived from customers. These narratives often address social issues, aligning with Airbnb’s broader content strategy. The aesthetic appeal of their posts on platforms like Instagram creates a serene atmosphere that resonates with users seeking relaxation in vacation homes.

One of Airbnb’s standout achievements is managing multiple social media accounts effectively. After all, they have 5.6 million Instagram followers, 876.9K X followers, 302.6K TikTok followers, and that's just the beginning. With the help of Khoros’ social media management software, cross-channel posts and comment management are a breeze. This tool lets Airbnb offer quick responses to user comments across all social platforms such as Instagram, X, Facebook, and others. In addition, Khoros calculates accurate data that brands can use to curate their strategies, create campaigns, and automatically publish planned content across platforms.

National Geographic is an informational entertainment magazine and channel that specializes in nonfiction stories, travel pieces, scientific finds, and archeological discoveries. Established in 1888, the brand relies heavily on global photography, making Instagram a vital platform for digital marketing. Notably, Nat Geo is the 14th most followed account on Instagram.

National Geographic implements various social media strategies to promote its shows, physical products, and awareness of human and conservation issues. It maintains a consistent brand voice, continually delivering stunning images that captivate users. Recognizing that highly visual platforms suit its content best, National Geographic extends its educational brand voice by leveraging expert content to enhance user curiosity.

In this example, National Geographic posted a startling image paired with a factual history lesson, giving context and making users feel they are learning something while browsing online. The post racked up 11,234 likes in just one hour.

Additionally, National Geographic's photo contests are a key aspect of their social media strategy. These contests, which span various geographical areas and subjects, invite photographers to submit their work for to win a prize. Nat Geo promotes these contests and showcases the winning photographers to their massive following. The contests attract thousands of unique submissions, making them a highly successful user-generated content campaign.

This burger food chain uses its social network voice to stand out. Their most extensive strategy — embodying a snarky brand voice — is very popular with X users. By doing so, Wendy’s has gained more social media followers than other burger joints. They remain fairly unique, as not every brand can call out competitors with a humorous tone.

Not only is this repost funny, but it’s also promotional. This post had 244K engagements and 436 retweets, showing how two short, quippy sentences spread the word about Wendy’s free fries to hundreds of thousands.

The brand’s 3.7 million followers on X is impressive. However, this isn’t the only place they have implemented excellent social media strategies. Their Instagram has 1.1 million followers and is full of shorts, memes, and more, all giving off the same brand voice. Some comments receive quick responses, continuing the witty banter. These quick responses are part of another strategy — promptly responding to customers to prove they are dedicated to customer satisfaction.

BarkBox is a monthly subscription delivery service for dog necessities and accessories. Customers can pick a plan and receive a box of toys and treats for their furry friend. Pet owners love to spoil their dogs and post their cute animals on social media. 

BarkBox understands its audience and leverages this insight to execute excellent marketing strategies across social media platforms. Their brand is all about puppies, dogs, and humor. On top of this, they also have a particular social media prompt that comes in their boxes. Each one includes tailored hashtags to inspire the dog owner’s post about the contents of their box, like this:

A strong hashtag strategy like this generates user-generated content, extends conversations, and allows BarkBox to respond promptly. Interestingly, not all BarkBox’s followers are customers, and they’ve embraced this fact. If you visit their Instagram, you’ll notice that not every post directly promotes a BarkBox or one of their products. Instead, they share a variety of humorous, trending, and even nostalgic dog-related content. This approach helps establish their brand voice more broadly and demonstrates their understanding of what users want and where they are active.

Fenty Beauty is pop star Rihanna’s makeup, skin, and hair care brand, “made for everyone”. Products are 100% cruelty-free and are designed for people of all ethnicities and skin types. Their social media presence spans all major channels, with 12.9 million followers on Instagram, 802.5K followers on X, and 2.9 million followers on TikTok.

Fenty's most unique social strategy is its brand voice, which demonstrates a consistent celebration of diversity and inclusivity. You can see examples of this throughout their branding and social media posts. For example, this Instagram reel showed a performer applying her Fenty makeup before a show:

Reels and shorts like this encourage users to celebrate diversity in the comments. Users who see a brand that represents them feel more comfortable and loyal to the products. This connection can lead to social media followers becoming loyal, paying customers.

Target is a well-known department store brand with 1,963 locations in the United States alone. Its social media marketing strategy is largely based on Pinterest. Since Pinterest is highly visual, it’s a great place for Target to give off a more holistic brand voice, apart from its mainstream customer service-centric tone.

Target’s Pinterest account has 4.7 million followers. They curate all kinds of themed mood boards, inspiring users for their next Target run.

These boards are full of GIFs, static images, and shorts. These unique pieces of content help Target customers find products they may not realize Target carries. It may inspire them to change their home, wardrobe, or lifestyle by using the products touted on the boards.

Across other social media channels, Target prioritizes customer satisfaction on a large scale. Given the steady stream of content and reactive comments on each platform, managing this is complex.

Burger King is another major fast food brand that directly competes with Wendy’s and McDonald’s. Like Wendy’s, Burger King uses non-traditional social media marketing tactics and is highly active on X. They use memes, collaborations, and the latest 2024 social media trends to boost engagement and promote their food.

In this example, Burger King collaborated with an influencer to create a “Burger King Draft” Reel following a popular video trend. Users were prompted to share their top five draft picks for Burger King offerings, further building engagement.

GoPro, known for its versatile cameras designed to capture every adventure, excels on social media with a robust strategy centered around user-generated content. Their most active platform is Instagram, where they boast 20.8 million followers, a natural fit given the visually stunning content their products create. Additionally, their TikTok following stands at 3.1 million, and their YouTube channel has 11.2 million subscribers, ensuring users enjoy great content across these video-focused platforms.

GoPro's social media strategy harnesses the power of user-generated content in a unique way. While other brands might share photos or videos of customers using their products, GoPro shares the footage captured with their cameras. This approach allows potential customers to see firsthand what their purchase can achieve.

For example, GoPro frequently features high-adrenaline activities, such as a mountain biker riding deep underground. These videos demonstrate the camera's capabilities and align with GoPro's extreme sports-based brand voice. The shock value of these clips underscores the durability and versatility of GoPro cameras, proving they can withstand even the harshest conditions.

A comprehensive social media strategy is essential for your brand’s online presence. Leading brands leverage online tools to manage posts, comments, and interactions in real time. While this is just one part of a brand’s overall marketing operation, Khoros’ social media management software can efficiently handle various aspects.

Khoros offers capabilities such as social listening, social planning and publishing, analytics reporting, and more — simplifying social media management for the most complex brands.

• Social listening allows your brand to monitor online conversations about your company in over 187 languages

• Social planning and publishing streamline cross-channel campaigns from a single dashboard

• Analytics provide insights into ad spend, custom metrics, audience engagement, and campaign performance

Experience all that Khoros can do for your brand by requesting a demo today.