A few weeks back I wrote an article for the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) about social media and how it relates to them.  I like doing these kinds of articles because I get to talk about social media but I get to make it specific to a particular sector.  The SCAA is the trade organization for all those coffee retailers we frequent on a daily basis (Starbucks, Peets, Coffee Bean, etc.).  They put out six issues a year and this most recent issue was centered around social media.  It's not available online and you have to be a member of the SCAA to get it, but I've reprinted my article below.  For those of you who read my stuff on a regular basis, you'll notice some of my recurring themes.  Grab yourself a Venti Mocha and have a look:

Launch a Social Media Strategy for Your Coffee Business by Listening, Planning and Responding Today (attached and pasted below)

By Larry Weintraub

The coffee industry is an incredibly competitive space. So, the first question you probably ask yourself on a regular basis is, “How do I distinguish myself from the competition?” Right? Wrong. The first thing you need to ask is, “What is my customer saying about me?”

The great thing about social media is that you can find out the answer to that question…immediately.

Social media is the term used to describe the way people are conversing, openly on the Internet. It includes well known places like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and hundreds of others. It also includes the countless blogs and Web sites where people openly discuss topics that interest them. Millions of people are having conversations on the Internet through these social media outlets, and the best thing about it is that you can actually see what people are saying.

What you will discover once you dive in is that there are numerous conversations already being had about your brand. Meanwhile, trying to be everywhere and participate in all of those conversations is impossible. Knowing where to start can be daunting, but don’t be frightened; here are some steps to make it a little less scary and much more manageable.

LISTEN
The first thing you want to do is listen. Just take some time to read conversational threads and, with an open mind, listen to your customer. Start with the free tools. No need to spend money yet. Just do a Twitter search (www.search.twitter.com) and see what comes up. For example, pop “Peet’s Coffee” into the Twitter search and you’ll see a stream of conversations.

Some will be good: “lalitd: Enjoying Peets Coffee at CVG again. The line at Starbucks is missing out. #fb”

Some will be bad: “mel_1981: 1 manager looking around 2 ppl at register & 1 person making coffee for 7 ppl...oh Peets get a clue!!”

Some will just be mundane:"superbetch09: At Peets Coffee on Broadway. Cute Barista!”

But within a matter of minutes you’ll have an idea about what people are saying about your product, right now!

You can apply this to blog searches as  well and discover what larger conversations are being had. Use free tools like Ice Rocket (www.icerocket.com) and Blog Pulse (www.blogpulse.com) that will list and link to all
the conversations on blogs taking place that invoke your brand’s name.

And go a step further than even many of the social media savvy do and pop your brand’s name into the search bar of Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. See what people are doing with your name. Either they’ve dedicated a group to you or just tagged you in their descriptions of what they were doing or thinking when they uploaded their photos and videos.

If you are willing to shell out a few bucks, you can enlist the support of some paid tools such as Radian6. These give you greater depth and insight into the people who are talking about you and can sometimes help
you find your die-hard brand evangelists. As you will see if you follow these steps, finding out what people are saying about you is quite simple and quite eye-opening as well.

PLAN
Now, hold yourself back from the immediate tendency to send an e-mail telling your detractors why they are wrong. Do that and you’ll quickly find yourself the butt of many jokes in the Twittersphere. Your customer is just letting you know how they feel. They are entitled to their opinion. Rather than being angry at them, you should reward them. Thank them for their patronage and encourage them to tell you other improvements they would like to see.

You don’t have to over think this and don’t feel a need to come up with the ultimate social media strategy. Just think about what you would like to accomplish.

Here are three recommended areas of concentration for your coffee company’s social media strategy:

1. Customer Satisfaction – Ultimately you want your customers to be happy and to return regularly. There are great social media tools to help you with this. Create polls and surveys that ask your customers for valuable feedback using free or low-cost applications such as the ones you’ll find at Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com) and Soda Head (www.sodahead.com). There are numerous companies that provide these services and many will even give you the capability of popping the poll on to your Facebook page or company Web site.

2. Customer Loyalty – Without diving into an entire loyalty tracking program, simply reward the people that populate your social networks. Ask yourself the question, “Why would I follow me on Twitter?” The number
one reason is because of the rewards: the coupons. So reward them. You’ll see the effects immediately, which will help you decide what rewards work best.

3. Positive Word of Mouth – This is the holy grail. This is what you want more than anything. You want happy customers that tell others how great you are. This comes from making the customer feel heard, thanking them for their opinion, rewarding them for speaking up, and incentivizing them to tell others about you. This can all be accomplished by devising a pro-active social media strategy that makes your customers feel special.

RESPOND
Now that you have the road map for how to interact with your customer through social media, you need a voice. The voice needs to be human, not someone from the corporation, someone like them. Make sure it is someone who has the time to commit and the knowledge and access to get things done. Do not go into this social media plan passively, it needs to be considered as important to you as your advertising, market research, public relations and customer service. It is all those rolled up into one. Put someone in charge who can make people feel special. Someone who really cares. If done right, that person will emerge as a focal point of the company and people will look to this employee as someone they can trust.

And trust is what makes people return. Trust in your service, trust in the quality of your product, and trust in the value they will receive by purchasing your product.

GET STARTED TODAY
Social media is one of the greatest innovations for all industries and the specialty coffee industry is no exception. It is incredibly cost-efficient and the results will most likely trump many of the marketing tactics you’ve used to date. By utilizing even the most modest of social media tools, you can hear what your customer is saying, which will enable you to improve your product dramatically. If you create a simple plan to utilize the free and easy to use social media platforms, you will see results quickly, foster loyalty and ultimately create positive word of mouth about your brand. Finally, if you do this, and you should, do it with the same passion that you put in to running your everyday business. Don’t dabble in this, really make an effort.

Social media isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it is growing and getting better every day. Jump on board now while it’s still early and your competitors are looking the other way.

Larry Weintraub is the chief executive officer of Fanscape, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based marketing agency focused on reaching and activating the newest generation of Web and mobile savvy consumers through
online and wireless media. He can be reached via www.fanscape.com.