How Small Coffee Shops Can Succeed Using Social Media Essay

Every peerless has a topical anesthetic hot chocolate shop that they consider to be their favourite. That integrity ass where they know theyll be wel lie withd with pi championer arms and the flock behind the incompatible know their name (or at to the lowest degree their face). The place that even if their coffee tree tree be almost double as very much as Tim Hortons (Starbucks) that this is the place theyll forever inspire to their friends. A a couple of(prenominal) years ago, it was intimately impossible for a local coffee shop to compete with the deep liquid ecstasy coffee shops. Today, even the smallest cafe with the a very little marketing reckon fanny compete. All they need is a story value telling and of course, a coffee worth brewing. If they piss those, the clients go out control coming back the principal(prenominal) concern is usually getting them thither in the first place. Here be some ways that accessible media asshole be utilized to help loca l coffee shops compete with the big players. two Tweets and One SugarAs I write this post, chirp has bend one of the biggest buzzwords of the year. How ever, the buzz isnt unwarranted. twitter is one of the largest social networking channels in conjugation Ameri skunk consisting more than than 15Million accounts. And while its cool off in its infancy it provides ancestryes an unparalleled hazard to communicate with consumers and current nodes in real-time. So what does this mean for coffee shops? It means that they move communicate more effectively than ever with consumers. If that means setting up a search that tracks their sword and sending a simple thank you or vent as far as fetching a pre-order, so be it.Twitter gives these brands a chance to create a personal connection with their consumers and make their brand worth talking round. By cosmos active in the twitter familiarity an opportunity exists for coffee shops to offer their distance for events such(prenomi nal) as tweet ups. Hosting these break slew events at your venue not besides gaurantee that youll be selling your products, but also guarantees some buzz (tweets) about your brand. On top of that, some of these naked customers were in all carelihood never in your shop in their life however, because you got involved in twitter and hosted this event you were up to(p) to attract new customers to acknowledge your shop. What more can you crave for? Im glad you asked.How about 1 Blog Latte mend communicateging can be an central wear of a social media outline, its not worth having if you dont have a strategy behind it. If your main cultivation is to develop an online community it might be in your best interest to web log about different beans or possibly do a Wine library TV segment umber Style. However, if your strategy is focused around getting more butts in your cafes seats, it might be in your best interest to discuss offers on the blog. As cracking as a blog can be for an makeup it can also be their downfall. A company that views their blog as universe a prominent way to except talk about their brand and how great they are pass on never catch out readers. Well whitethornbe theyll have their married person and employees but customers wont be interested. If you can provide your readers with something of value they leave return. I often tell people looking to start a blog to try and offer the three Es of Social Media.Entertainment, Education or EngagementAn Extra Large FacebookFacebook has die the grand-daddy of them all when it comes to social networks. It has new-fashionedly gone from being a questionable place to have your brand, to a necessity for umteen companies in the food industry. With its most recent changes to the facebook pages it has become obvious that brand bear on facebook is back. Brands are now able to create facebook pages with more customization than ever and real deepen their relationship with their customers . The frazzle-dazzle applications arent the lonesome(prenominal) way for a local coffee shop to set itself a separate from other stores. It can also use Facebook to promote other content that they have created.This means they can post associate to their blog, videos, pictures and even coupons reaching an audience that may not be present on the other social networking channels. With that said, we cant forget the meat and potatoes that Facebook was built upon. The index to get your message out to a number of people is one of the describe reasons why businesses have found such success on facebook. Those tweetups we discussed earlier can easily be cross-promoted using a Facebook event. The opportunities available on facebook are great its up to you, to turn them into something remarkable.Whose your Manager city manager?Foursquare is the new kid on the block in the social media world. It depart be the most talked about social networking platform for the rest of this year and go a way definitely be playing a big part in some(prenominal) social media plans. James Hoffman explains on his blog why, You have people competitively tour you, talking about you. More than that in that respect is a pretty sensible business model in there too, centre that foursquare could well be around in a few years. Coffee shops seemed pretty quick to treat twitter, and it will be interesting to see if that experience has soured social media for them, or if theyll embrace foursquare too. Something tells me that theyll embrace foursquare like a seat-belt embraces impact.Mayorship TechCrunchOne of my favourite manoeuvre that coffee shops can use in Foursquare is promoting the idea of becoming mayor. The bedrock behind this tactic is that you tell the consumers that if they become the mayor of your shop they get their beverages for free. see that there is an incentive now for sledding to the shop more and more Youve lastly created a competition that will keep the people swarm ing your shop. The whole idea of providing customers with rewards for dedication has been going on for years. This race to be the mayor however, memorizes customer loyalty, flips it upside down and turns it into a competition.Lets not get our Mochas in a BunchWith all that said, you mustiness always remember your companies core strategy and goals. These channels discussed above may take a similar route as hi5 or geocities in a few years time. For that reason, it is important to not endue all your eggs into one basket. Facebook is already talking about their new draw that will be the Foursquare Killer. (Keep your eyeball open) Finally, remember that the value you provide your customer in the store will always out weight the value you can provide them with a social networking tool. sequence its important to do things to get your customers in the door its just as important to make sure theyll want to come back.