It’s no secret that competition can get tough among convenience stores. Luckily, social media has emerged as a powerful marketing tool that can help brands stand out among the rest.
CStore Decisions recently released The 2023 Social Media Awards, powered by RivalIQ, which looked at which convenience stores were performing best across social media platforms.
And the convenience store that’s undoubtedly mastered the art of social? Kwik Trip.
Whether it was Facebook or Instagram, Twitter or TikTok, the Midwestern chain never fell below the Top 3 in our ranking of top-performing convenience store brands on social media, notably ranking No. 1 when it came to TikTok.
So, how exactly did Kwik Trip end up on top? Competitive social media analytics app Rival IQ analyzed the brand’s highly entertaining content to identify the top five strategies it used to rack up impressive levels of engagement. Let’s jump right in.
1) Be #Relatable
Creating relatable content has long been a tried-and-true tactic for driving engagement. Most of us are simple creatures, after all. We see a post we identify with and we double-tap “like.”
Knowing this, Kwik Trip’s social team did a stellar job of creating content that would acutely resonate with its target audiences. The convenience store chain never shies away from directly addressing a niche audience. Rather than trying to appeal to “everyone,” the brand embraces a particular segment by unapologetically posting content that’s clearly meant for them.
In the case of the two examples below, Kwik Trip tapped into the experiences and humor of Gen Z college students from the Midwest. By reenacting entertaining scenarios that those students would find relatable, the brand not only captured their attention but also secured impressive levels of engagement, including positive comments from those who were eager to chime in with their own opinions on the familiar experience.
@kwiktrip
With a caption that succinctly encapsulates its goal, the above TikTok made it into the top 5 of Kwik Trip’s most engaging posts across all social platforms with an engagement rate by follower of 47.7%.
Another video, which uses a popular meme of actor Robert Pattinson to express the feeling of awkwardly running into an old high school classmate, saw similar numbers. Boasting an engagement rate of 42.2%, the TikTok performed 30.2x better than the average of every Kwik Trip social post in 2022.
There’s no question that Kwik Trip’s niche targeting had a lot to do with the success of its social strategy. With a crystal clear image of its audience in mind, the convenience store brand was able to create content that was boldly specific and refreshingly relatable.
The lesson here? Don’t get caught up in appealing to the masses. Find ways to connect with your target audience over unique shared experiences, no matter how minor or niche they may seem. When your viewers find your posts relatable, they won’t be able to resist engaging.
2) Embrace the Trends
Trends are a fantastic way to boost exposure and connect with a wider audience over what essentially feels like a shared inside joke. It should come as no surprise then that one of the biggest drivers of Kwik Trip’s impressive engagement levels is its participation in viral content trends.
The beauty of trends is that they grow as more and more creators put their own unique twist on them. In fact, users expect trends to evolve, meaning brands have so many more opportunities to jump on a trend than they usually think. It just takes a little out-of-the-box thinking.
Kwik Trip, for instance, promoted its butter sale, by simply hopping on a viral meme that was trending on TikTok: giant dancing Shrek. The trend was not only easy to join (users would use a filter where a giant Shrek in a catsuit would pop up and “be spotted” dancing in random locations) but it also perfectly aligned with the humor of Kwik Trip’s Gen Z audience.
@kwiktrip
Considering how fast trends move on social, Kwik Trip’s ability to keep up deserves admiration. Not only is the convenience store great at staying on top of the latest trends, but it also does a stellar job of creatively applying trends to its brand in a way that resonates with its audience.
At the same time, though, having a social media team that’s “kwik ” on their feet is only the first step. The team also needs to be empowered to post without having to go through layers of red tape. After all, what’s the point of creating on-trend content if the trend is already outdated once higher-ups finally approve the post?
Fortunately, as the TikTok above seems to suggest, the Kwik Trip social team seems to be fully supported by their boss. And, in embracing trends fully, the convenience store has thrived on social media. Certainly, for any brand looking to up its trend game, Kwik Trip’s approach is worth taking a look at.
3) Humanize Your Brand
Amplifying its strategies of being relatable and trendy is Kwik Trip’s tactic of having actual team members be the face of the brand.
Countless videos feature the same few people from the Kwik Trip social media team, giving viewers recognizable faces that they can connect with. Having real people — not a faceless logo — represent the brand both humanizes it and legitimizes the brand personality, making its actions seem less calculated and more genuine.
On top of having real people represent the brand on social, Kwik Trip also embraces showing common human emotions. Its social team tells jokes, replies to comments and, as seen below, reacts to celebrities DM-ing them, just like any normal person would.
@kwiktrip
Bottom line? Social media is the ultimate opportunity to show off your brand’s personality. Take advantage of it!
4) Stir Up Engagement
Another tactic that’s served Kwik Trip well? The chain is never afraid to stir up some trouble — all in the name of good fun, of course.
With unapologetic quips reminiscent of Wendy’s iconic roasts on Twitter, Kwik Trip has drawn plenty of engagement by getting into it with competitors and fueling some good ol’ Midwest rivalries. Fittingly, its bio on Twitter reads “We roast more than our coffee.”
Kwik Trip’s appetite for good-natured jabs isn’t limited to just Twitter. The video below was posted to both TikTok and Instagram, with both posts making it in the top 10 of the brand’s most engaging posts based on engagement rate by follower.
@kwiktrip (This is a joke, people.) #kwiktrip #midwest #wisconsin #minnesota #iowa
By chiming in on “controversial” topics, Kwik Trip was able to organically drive discussion and interaction among its viewers. While you’ll obviously want to avoid touchy topics that could alienate your audience, initiating friendly debates or asking thoughtful questions in a similar way can be a super effective way to boost social engagement.
5) Repurpose What Works
The final lesson to draw from Kwik Trip’s social media strategy is to repurpose your social content thoughtfully.
A longstanding social media best practice has been to carefully create content according to the nuances of each channel. In other words, rather than having identical feeds across different social platforms, your content style should be fitted to the platform you’re posting on. After all, an Instagram carousel of aesthetically pleasing photos wouldn’t necessarily work well on TikTok.
However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t repurpose content across channels. Instead, being selective about what gets reshared is the way to go — which is exactly what Kwik Trip does so well.
A quick scroll through each of the chain’s social profiles and you can see that not every piece of content makes it across all channels. Instead, only certain — typically well-performing — posts are repurposed, presumably after the social team observes how well it does on the original channel.
Case in point, this Instagram Reel was posted over a week after the same video racked up plenty of comments and other engagements on TikTok. With 12.9K engagements and an engagement rate lift of 7.88x compared to all of Kwik Trip’s social posts in 2022, it’s no wonder that the TikTok was reposted to Instagram.
Kwik Trip’s choice to repurpose its top-performing videos certainly paid off. As seen from the stats below, the same piece of content was able to earn nearly twice the engagements just by reposting it again to another platform.
Like Kwik Trip, your brand likely has plenty of stand-out content that would perform well across channels. Be strategic when repurposing your top posts and you’ll not only save time and effort but also boost your reach and engagement.
Wrapping It Up
So there you have it! Hopefully this deep dive into Kwik Trip’s success on social has inspired you to spruce up your own strategy for the year. Whether you come away with new learnings or are able to validate your own approaches, there’s always value to be found in studying what’s worked well for others.
Download your free copy of The 2023 Social Media Awards here.
Therese Nguyen is a former marketing manager turned freelance content writer based in Dallas. Working with agencies and B2B brands, she specializes in covering the latest developments in marketing trends, insights and strategies. Rival IQ is a Seattle-based social media analytics company that helps social media professionals maximize their impact with competitive benchmarking, comprehensive analytics and automated insight generation.
