Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/105573
Business Basics Stor y and p hotos by Dav id Sch lo ss Want social-media success? Be a buddy, not a bot 'LIKE' THIS: Gypsy Donut and Espresso Bar employees regularly photograph the day's doughnuts and coffee for Facebook posts. L ong before there were social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, there was the coffeehouse. It's no wonder, then, that the coffee shop is one of the businesses that can most benefit from a well-crafted social-media strategy. Because the coffeehouse is already well ingrained in the fabric of customers' social lives, those people are primed to engage with the shop through social-media channels. The rewards for a good social-media presence are huge: Engaged customers are loyal customers. The problem is that many shops take a scattershot approach to social media, wasting time and resources that could be better spent in shop upkeep and development. At the shop I own, Gypsy Donut and Espresso Bar in Nyack, N.Y., we've spent a long time considering how to best represent ourselves in the social-media sphere. We've found that the keys to a good social-media strategy are to stay engaged, to connect various tools and to reward customers for social-media loyalty as much as you do for in-store loyalty. And of course, we want to accomplish this all while not taking too much of our attention away from our brick-and-mortar store. SINGULAR PERSONALITIES Every shop has a voice. Walk into a coffee joint and you can tell instantly what its personality is. Wood floors or aged concrete? Exposed timbers or hand-painted sheetrock? Glass display cases or built-in shelving? The individualization of a store's environment must carry over to the social-media program, and this is one of the first places shops tend to stumble. Many stores make the mistake of taking a neutral tone in social media, even though there's a human being (or beings) in charge of posting to various sites. Just as baristas' personalities come through in their latte art and their interaction with customers, it's best to let the personality of the poster come through in the updates. But most of all, it's important to be genuine. Social media is a place where friends and family share stories and open up to continued on page 30 28 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com