Case Study: United Airlines increases Instagram engagement by 85% with Dash Hudson
Key results
The challenge
United Airlines' Instagram audience spans trend-savvy digital natives, seasoned travelers, and aviation enthusiasts, requiring content that stays culturally relevant across very different follower segments. The social team needed to identify what resonated and to source authentic content quickly enough to react to real-time cultural moments.
The solution
United used a creator-first, in-house content approach alongside Dash Hudson's insights and user-generated-content tools, combined with Meta's advertising capabilities, to source and share content its audience connects with. The team used advanced filters and keyword searches to curate UGC galleries for future content planning and leaned on daily community management.
“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.”
LELauren EidenManager, Social Media Programming at United Airlines
The results, in context
Over the year from October 2022 to September 2023, United Airlines reported an 85.2% increase in Instagram engagements, a 200.5% increase in video views, and a 33.8% increase in net new followers versus the prior year. The brand also reported an average Entertainment Score of 8.4/10, which it noted was 73.2% higher than the platform average.