Starbucks is certainly no stranger to community involvement and corporate responsibility. Their involvement and awareness with many public issues has gotten them a nod from firms that measure social media exposure and involvement.

There are many campaigns that Starbucks has initiated that have contributed to their social media popularity. Some of those campaigns have been direct community involvement practices, and have increased their social networking exposure:

Ethos Water

Every time a customer purchases an Ethos Water, Starbucks contributes 5 cents to the Ethos Water Fund which helps support water sanitation and hygiene education in countries that have water problems. To date, that campaign has generated over $6 million in grants and affected more than 420,000 people worldwide.

Starbucks Red

By using a Starbucks Red card to make your purchase, Starbucks will contribute to the Global Fund which benefits those people living in Africa who suffer with HIV/AIDS.

Starbucks is actively prominent online at Twitter and on Facebook. Both of these and other Starbucks programs are widely known in the social media community, and to that end has garnered them recognition for their efforts.

General Sentiment, a digital measurement firm, recently produced a report that showed Starbucks social media exposure in terms of dollars is equivalent to a media buy of $67.8 million.

The firm uses tracking analytics like brand mentions and expressed sentiments on social networking platforms. They then take these numbers and convert them into what would be the profitable media buy equivalents.

Much of what drove the numbers so high was the attention that Starbucks received on Twitter and social networking platforms. The company has received a lot of attention with their community programs, but also on things that were not so pleasant. Starbucks was often the topic on social media and Twitter discussions that were focused on the company’s legal dealings with Kraft Foods and the debates with their China expansion.