How United Airlines Increased Engagement on Instagram by 85%

United’s Opportunity

United Airlines embraces the dynamic nature of social media. The brand's rich history has attracted a broad spectrum of followers on Instagram, from the digitally native, trend-savvy explorers to the seasoned jetsetters and the passionate aviation enthusiasts. United’s social media strategy is rooted in what it calls a “creator mindset,” which allows it to take an entertaining and relatable storytelling approach to content while naturally weaving in the brand. In addition to using a creator-first approach to its in-house content creation, United also leverages Dash Hudson’s insights and user-generated content (UGC) tools alongside Meta’s advertising capabilities to source and share relevant content that its audience connects to most. United succeeds by meeting its audience where they are with culturally relevant creative, native platform features and authentic brand storytelling.

The airline has honed its ability to connect with travelers on a level that transcends the ordinary. As a result, the brand has seen industry-defining social media performance, including a +85.2% increase in engagements and +200.5% increase in Video Views in the past year.

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Expert Social Media Tactics for Industry-Leading Results

Dash Hudson’s Entertainment Score is a proprietary metric that gives marketers an idea of how entertained audiences were by a Reel or TikTok. According to Dash Hudson’s 2023 Social Media Benchmarks, the Avg. Entertainment Score for all brands on Instagram is 3.9/10. United sees significantly higher results with an Avg. Entertainment Score of 8.4/10 — +73.2% higher than the social media platform average — meaning that all of the brand’s content exceeds in KPIs such as engagement and retention, with many posts even achieving a perfect score — a monumental feat. But how does United’s social team do it?

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United is a real-time participant on social media, adapting its voice and content to be culturally relevant and relatable. Structured for proactive agility, this cross-functional Advertising and Social Media Team is always ready to pivot or jump on a new opportunity.

Community management is the cornerstone of United's organic social strategy, and it is the secret to how the brand has achieved such a loyal following. United is committed to making its followers feel "seen," responding to comments and queries with a blend of humor and positivity. The airline flies above and beyond the standard practice of responding to comments on its own posts by interacting regularly with other accounts, even showing up in the comment sections of viral content.

The goal? To show up in the social media landscape, and popular culture, in a way that is both fun and authentic, thereby building a stronger community of brand advocates.

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"Community management is a big part of our always-on social media strategy. We always try to make our followers and viewers feel seen by responding back with positive, clever and engaging responses that encourage further conversation. We are also commenting daily on others’ posts — both United-related content and general viral content."

Lauren Eiden
Manager, Social Media Programming at United Airlines

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United jumped on a cultural moment after the finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty, the Prime Video mega-hit, by creating a graphic with a boarding group sign changed to the show’s love interests. The post received an impressive response — nearly 10x more than the brand's benchmark — and received comments from Amazon Prime, the TV show itself and one of the actors, as well as a reshare from the show and book's author. The post’s creative and community management responses show United’s ability to join culture and connect with niche audiences quickly and with relevance.

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Elevating Organic Reach Through Curated User-Generated Content

Customer experiences are a significant driving force in brand awareness, with United seeing 475.5 million in organic reach in the past year from users' posts that tag the brand. On social media, nothing speaks louder than authenticity. United has harnessed this power through a robust UGC strategy. Utilizing Dash Hudson, the brand sources Reels and photography UGC that aligns with its messaging priorities. With the help of advanced filters and keyword searches — be it a specific aircraft like the Boeing 787 or thematic scenes such as "window views" or "fall foliage" — United curates Galleries in Dash Hudson that serve as reservoirs for future content planning.

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United also has a comprehensive always-on influencer strategy, which plays an equal role in both its paid content and UGC strategies. These aren't just one-off collaborations; they're long-term partnerships. United’s content creator strategy even extends inwards to its own employee base. The brand has creative resources and activations for volunteers who share United-related content, and it offers internal social media education opportunities to make it enriching for any employee who wants to participate.

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"We heavily rely on Dash Hudson to source Reels UGC. It’s just so helpful to save videos and everything in Galleries. We’re finding that aviation content always does great if we can pair it with a sound that’s picking up."

Lauren Eiden
Manager, Social Media Programming at United Airlines

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Leveraging Organic Insights to Maximize Paid Media

United’s social media team incorporates its best-performing organic content in its always-on paid plan, using audience insights to make informed decisions about the best assets to promote more broadly.

The brand also amplifies more niche content in order to better engage with the desired audiences, such as aviation fanatics. This hybrid strategy ultimately drives much higher engagement rates, accomplishing United’s goal for more meaningful brand awareness.

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Seeing Eye Dogs Boosted Reel

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United boosted this feel-good Reel based on organic performance and ultimately saw a total of 3 million impressions and 129K engagements from paid support alone, along with an engagement rate of 4.3%, nearly 7x higher than the brand's average. The Reels placement received a 5.5% engagement rate, nearly +50% higher than the brand's average.

When the team identified that the Reels placement was receiving greater engagement, they optimized the campaign to focus on the higher performing placement.

In the end, this post saw a 15% ThruPlay rate on a 50-second-long video, +36.4% higher than United's average, demonstrating the power of putting paid spend behind the brand’s best content and optimizing in real-time.

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Corporate Natalie Promoted Reel

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As part of its long-term content collaboration with comedy influencer Corporate Natalie, United created a “Girls Trip There vs Back” Meta ad promoted in-feed and via Reels, receiving over 2.2 million impressions and 40K engagements. This ad saw a 1.7% engagement rate on Instagram, with the Reels placement contributing an impressive 90% of all engagements and ThruPlays in this campaign.

Notably, this Reel significantly outperformed the rest of the brand's Instagram ads in ThruPlay rate — seeing a 48% ThruPlay rate, 4.4x higher than the brand's average.

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"Our larger brand campaigns are Meta-heavy. It’s been a place of consistent growth for us, and from there we learn how to work successful brand messaging on other channels."

Lauren Eiden
Manager, Social Media Programming at United Airlines