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Coffee & Social Media
Posted on Dec 22, 2009

Starbucks does it. So does Jumpin Goat Coffee Roasters, Dave’s Coffee, Melitta, Caribou Coffee and Gloria Jean’s Coffees, to name a few. Are you among the numerous coffee businesses that are taking advantage of social media and networking sites—such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook—to connect with existing and new customers and to share your brand experience?

 

Today, social media is widely used for marketing, to gather news and information, for research and to connect with other professionals. In fact, in a Business.com survey, nearly 65 percent of respondents reported using social media as part of their normal work routine, including reading blogs, visiting business profiles on sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, or using Twitter to find information and/or to communicate about business-related matters. Micah Walker, regional development manager for Gloria Jean’s Coffees International, believes that the social media phenomenon is making our world a smaller and more exciting place to live, work, connect and socialize over a cup of coffee. “The coffee industry should be taking notice of this wave of new social media in a big way,” says Walker. “Social media systematically addresses one of the major global trends in retail today, which is enhancing speed and efficiency of information to your marketplace.” At Gloria Jean’s Coffees, many of their 37 operating markets are using Facebook events, tweets and even YouTube to introduce new marketing campaigns, build brand awareness and interact with their national and global guest networks online, live and 24-seven. Gloria Jean’s also takes the networking aspect of social media and applies the concept to its own global portal, which they call Gloria, where the company’s 20,000 team members and franchise partners connect and share ideas live through forums.

 

Defining Social Media

 

Indeed, many coffee industry companies like Gloria Jean’s are diving into social media to connect with customers. And, according to Business.com’s Business Social Media Benchmark Study, the average company has a presence on three different social media sites. But what is social media? Tara Shenson, the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) marketing manager and social media

expert-at-large, says, “Social media is any platform that allows people to transfer information that has the potential to become viral, or re-transmitted exponentially. The first manifestation of this was the e-mail. Of course, now there are literally thousands of variations of the idea, but not unlike the wild, survival of the fittest will claim most of them. A big part of success in the social media world is selection.” Shenson says that social media is much more than a fad because of the potential it holds. “I would liken the development of social media to any other extinction of a technology,” she explains. “I’m sure most of us are old enough to remember the death of the vinyl record. I can remember thinking cassette tapes were cutting edge. Now, I couldn’t play one portably unless I had a ‘vintage’ walkman. And even then, it would only be out of nostalgia. Why would you use a cassette if you had an iPod? Social media will overtake other forms of communication, albeit gradually, because of the power it offers the user. And, 99 percent of the time, it’s free.”

 

Are You New to Social Media?

 

If you’re feeling a bit uneasy about all this, you’re not alone. Marketers are mostly new to social media, reports author Michael Stelzner in his 2009 white paper, “How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Business. “A significant 88 percent of marketers surveyed are using social media to market their businesses,” says the study, “but 72 percent have only been doing so for a few months or less.” In Business.com’s survey, most respondents were relatively new to business social media with 35 percent having spent less than one year managing or involved with social media initiatives and another 30 percent having between one and two years of direct experience.

 

Living the Brand via Social Media

 

While it’s clear that many companies and professionals are newbies when it comes to the social media scene, others are off and running. One company that’s undoubtedly a social media authority is Biggby’s Coffee, which is taking its efforts to a higher level. Bob Fish (known by his Twitter followers as “BiggbyBob”) is CEO and co-founder of East Lansing, Mich.-based Biggby Coffee, a leading coffee retailer in the Midwest with 106 stores in five states, including Alabama, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina and Wisconsin. Fish began his social media efforts about 18 months ago with a simple blog (www.biggbybob.com), to extend his personality as CEO to the online world. “When I’d visit the Biggby stores, I’d meet customers, staff or franchisees,” says Fish, ”and when I met them, I’d carry this little flip digital camera. I’d ask them some questions and then post that to the blog. That was my first foray into social media.” From there, Fish added Facebook and Twitter to Biggby’s repertoire, but admits it didn’t appear to be a perfect fit at first. “I wasn’t really a social media kind of guy. Although, retrospectively, I was because what one does in a store when they’re operating a coffeehouse is very similar to how you might engage on social media.” Looking back at the first time he sat down to write a tweet, Fish recalls how he wasn’t sure what to say. “People don’t want to know whether I’m brushing my teeth or not,” says Fish. “That’s sort of the common thing that you get. They don’t want to know that I just woke up, but they would be kind of interested in knowing what my favorite coffee is, or what I just drank last, or if I was in a store and what happened at that store.” It took Fish about six months to find his social media “voice” and for everything to fall into place. Today, he has about 3,000 followers on Twitter and he’s exchanged his corner office to travel the United States in an effort to visit all 105 of his franchise locations and share his experiences through various social media networks. “Part of the strategy of using social media is to have a dialogue with customers directly,” says Fish. “Typically, a CEO sits behind a desk and might give reports about customer comments, customer surveys or general information from franchisees or managers from stores. What’s different for me is I have a really strong relationship with customers directly. Here we have a one on one dialogue from customer to CEO.” Fish, who’s having a ton of fun meeting Biggby customers through social media, also takes his social networking face-to-face when he hosts “Spot Bob” events at stores. He uses the events to interact with employees, customers and fans, and to buy everyone coffee for two hours. Of course, anyone can follow those events on Fish’s blog, through his Tweets or through the Biggby “Be Happy Lounge” (at www.bhappylounge.com), which acts as a social media portal for the company.

 

Get Started Today

 

Certainly not all coffee businesses are going to embrace social media on the same level as Bob Fish and Biggby’s Coffee. However, experts say that it’s important to consider social media and determine if it’s right for your business. “I think that many people are scared of using social media, and it certainly can be intimidating if you aren’t a regular computer user,” says SCAA’s Shenson. “But the reality is that most, if not all, of your customers and your potential customers are using it. If you aren’t a part of the conversation, how do you monitor it? This is not a situation where you can pull the covers over your head and hope that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you.” Shenson points out that like it or not, members of the numerous social media sites are probably already talking about your business, product or service. “Don’t you want to know what they are saying?” she asks. In this issue of The Chronicle, you’ll find lots of inspiration from coffee companies like Caribou Coffee—who recently topped 22 million viral impressions on Facebook—and advice from experts, including the digital marketing pros at Los Angeles-based Fanscape. Use these stories and wisdom as a launching pad, and get started on your social networking journey today.

Original article: http://www.lambert-edwards.com/assets/Specialty_Coffee_Chronicle_12-1-09.pdf