Last week I received a tweet, asking “how would you like coffee businesses to leverage WiFi and social media?” Before I suggest a few ways in which they can be leveraged, let me first provide some context as to why I believe coffee businesses, in particular, can benefit from using WiFi (where appropriate) and social media, and how doing so continues a tradition that started a few centuries ago.
When coffeehouses emerged in London during the mid 1600’s, they became synonymous with trade and news—quick and reliable access to it—establishing themselves as the home of merchants, people of science (natural and political), and philosophers. They ultimately provided a location for the overlapping interests of commerce and politics, simulating debates and conversation.
While nothing can replace the newspaper, magazine, and pamphlet, the Internet is allowing more people to access different types of information, and doing so in warp speed. Many coffee establishments, specifically caffeinated conversation friendly places, have continued the coffeehouse tradition by providing their customers with Internet access via WiFi (free or managed). With WiFi enabled, coffee shop customers can read news online, get work done, and enjoy online caffeinated conversations with people near and far, including those who are also enjoying a cup of coffee in a coffee shop.
WiFi is a perk, a way to keep customers coming back. Much has been written about the overuse of WiFi of recent, and it’s affect on coffee shops. In particular, free WiFi (and sometimes fee based) has been argued to decrease turnover, as customers browse the web and only make enough purchases to stay mildly caffeinated. These are valid and legitimate points of view. While I genuinely respect coffee shops that choose to pull the plug on WiFi or not offer it in the first place, let me suggest that browsing the web is little different than reading a newspaper or book for hours on end, debating the politics of the day, while slowly savoring a cup of coffee. As for turnover, there are numerous ways to hold “squatters” more accountable.
What differentiates the Internet and the powerful social media tools it makes possible from traditional media, is that coffee shops can now join the conversation online. The following are a few examples of how coffee shops are and can further leverage social media, specifically Twitter. Offering WiFi (free or fee based) makes them even more viable:
- Coffee shops can take orders online via Twitter from customers, and Coffee Groundz (@coffeegroundz) in Austin, Texas is known as being the first.
- Numerous coffee shops are doing Tweetups, sending out invitations to its coffee loving customers. Kaladi Brothers (@KaladiBrothers hosted one earlier this month.
- Offer discounts to customers who follow you on Twitter. Fuel Coffee (@fuelhigh5) is one of many coffee shops who do.
- Simply get to know your customers. Ask for input, let them know about new offerings, and simply join the online conversation.
- Hold WiFi using customers more accountable. Send a tweet.
The next issue of SCAA’s The Chronicle will be focusing on coffee and social media. If it’s made available online, I’ll probably read and tweet about it at a WiFi enabled coffee shop. Let me know if you’d like to chat about it.
12 Comments
I see a lot of coffee shops using Twitter for promotions and special offers and I think the customers should reciprocate. Next time I’m at a coffee shop that follows me I’ll tweet them “if you guess which customer in store I am within the next 15 minutes I’ll buy another drink”.
I like your idea. Since Twitter launched its “lists” function, I have noticed a few coffee shops (e.g. http://twitter.com/21streetcoffee/status/5370048658 asking their customers to send them a tweet or direct message so that they can be added to their list. It will be interesting to see how these are used.
On Nov 4 I will be releasing a Pew Internet report that includes national stats on WiFi use in coffee shops and other public/semi-public spaces. Also includes information on the relationship between use of these spaces and social interaction. It is in the second half of the report, behind a larger section on social isolation and core networks.
@Keith I am very interested in this report. Will it be readily available as a PDF?
How fitting that coffee shops and social media are converging… since coffee shops are the original “social places.”
Very nicely done my friend.
@Greg And its where WiFi got popular.
FourSquare for Businesses now enables businesses to offer discounts to customers when they “check-in” or take other actions / achieve other milestones on their service. Bedlam Coffee offers the following:
“For every ten checkins to Bedlam, get a free donut! Mayors get 20% off with each checkin!”
As for electronic vs. paper-based activities, I disagree that “browsing the web is little different than reading a newspaper or book for hours on end”. Others can view the newspaper title, book cover or magazine cover when someone is reading a more traditional source of information, making the person more approachable than if he / she is reading the same information on a laptop, in which case others cannot discern the activity one is engaged in (or the information one is consuming (or producing … vs., say, writing in a notebook)).
That said, Keith Hampton and Neeti Gupta, in their fascinating study of Community and social interaction in the wireless city: wi-fi use in public and semi-public spaces, found that laptops and other technologies only functioned as “portable information shields” for people – they call “true mobiles” – who do not want to interact with others in the coffee shop, and coffee shop customers who desire social interaction – who they call “placemakers” – can just as effectively use laptops to initiate conversations as the true mobiles use them to prevent them. I would still argue that for those who are not intent on initiating social interactions (even if they are not, like true mobiles, intent on preventing them), the laptop makes one less approachable.
@Joe I totally agree with your point about paper media being more public, making a person more approachable. I was trying to suggest that people can spend as much time reading as they can browsing the web, and hence occupying a table without making a purchase.
I would like coffee businesses, owners and baristas to share a little bit of their daily lifes, concerns and interests; educate about coffee, the industry and what it means for them personally to work in it.
I would *not* like them to use social media to sell me stuff. In good coffeehouses before the information society, employees were buddies with customers, interacting and having conversations at the same level, not in a seller-buyer relationship.
People abuse free WiFi because they don’t know or don’t care that they are hurting the employees. I think this wouldn’t happen if there was a personal relationship. As wonderfully explained by Amanda in her comment to http://caffeinatedconversations.com/2009/08/12/pulling-the-plug-or-leveraging-the-perks/ the good salesperson is genuinely interested in their customers.
The musician Kristin Hersh goes a step further: she shares so much about her personal life and interacts with the fans through twitter.com/kristinhersh that the connection with the fans is so strong that they are willing to support her financially http://www.kristinhersh.com/strange-angels-2/ They do it not because of the perks but because they love her and want her to continue doing what she does. Wouldn’t that apply to coffee businesses too?
I very much agree! At the end of the day, it’s all about relationship building. If you want loyal and respectful customers, show genuine interest, get to know them, and they will ultimately reciprocate. The more I get to know a coffee shop and their staff, the more I buy, tip, and tell my friends to go. And social media (online conversation) is simply a continuation of what happens face to face.
@Jason, it will be available as a PDF and HTML on the Pew Internet Website at around 2:00pm (ET) on Nov 4. http://www.pewinternet.org/
@Keith Thank you. I’ll send you an email after I give it a read.
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