Small Business big footprint, a café 's microblog marketing case

There are a number of very small companies abroad that use Twitter to build a global impact story. There are more and more local companies using Twitter Weibo, just to get in touch with native locals, and they think local is the most promising side of Twitter.

Today, the soft sand to share with you is a café in the microblog case. Coffeegroudz is a popular and inexpensive single coffee shop in Houston, selling a variety of locally baked coffees, teas, pastries, sandwich and alcoholic beverages. There are some booth in the store, 16 tables, and 10 on the terrace. If you come to Coffeegroudz, general manager Cohen will try to make sure that you "feel at home" where people really care about your lunch or breakfast, and even what you eat for dinner, if you happen to be working or living in Houston.

The café 's general manager, Cohen, hopes that if you are somewhere near downtown Houston, you will at least come here for a meal. He sincerely hopes you have a good dinner and then tell your friends about the experience.

Part of Mr Cohen's job is to get more locals to spend their time in the coffee shop instead of visiting its rival Starbucks. Social media and Twitter are among the weapons of the customer scramble. For example, Starbucks offers wireless fidelity, but customers have to pay to use it. Coffee areas are http://to customers. Www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/17944.html "> Free use of this technology, and the power plug here is very sufficient, laptop customers do not have to worry about no electricity."

In September 2008, one months after Starbucks opened Weibo, the café 's angel investors urged Cohen to open @coffeegroundz Weibo, and he had no clue what to do on Weibo. Even don't know DM (Direct message, Twitter's letters system! "It was a conversation with a few customers, but nothing special happened." Soon he realized how important Twitter was to his business.

Later on Weibo, Cohen stepped out of his way to interact with his Houston customers. The growth of the followers is flat, but the relationship with the followers is strong. He's going to let his Houston followers "come into the store and look for him." He took the opportunity to meet with every regular customer who called his name, to strengthen the relationship with them. "It's very meaningful if a customer sits on a terrace outside the shop with his dog, do not want to go in when he went to order, the dog left in the place he could not see, then he can send me letters, point he want, I even give my customer dog take a basin of water! "Everyone was impressed by his to-go letters system management, which was very efficient," said one of his customers. ”

For Cohen and his customers, "That's what social media should look like." ”

Then they had new opportunities in the use of Weibo. One morning, a loyal customer named Sean hurried to work, and he was starving to the edge of the coffee strip. Eventually, he sent a letters to Cohen and asked if he could prepare a Mexican burrito in front of the drive-in window. What more do you need? " "This is the first time Weibo has been used to book takeout," said Mr Cohen, a blogger.

Mr Cohen feels that there may be a business opportunity in the online spotlight of these events. He left a message on his microblog that the coffee area was happy to offer a scheduled takeaway service. Not long after, more vehicles in the Drive-In service window in front of the long line.

The incident has boosted the popularity of the coffee-making elite in the Houston area. The café has gradually become the preferred venue for the city's push-and-pull party. All over the world, Twitter is holding events called Tweetup. Such a party is very interesting. People who have only met on Weibo Plan and participate in a real-world event. Even the most enthusiastic supporters of social media have not had this kind of face-to-face interaction. The first time I met a friend who has known her for a long time, it really makes people feel excited.

Their party basically once a month, each time it attracts more than 200 people to the coffee belt, it attracts some of the people who have never been there before. Some end up being loyal customers to the coffee belt. And the parties are usually in the evening, which makes the café add a lot of extra income ( The café offers dinner, drinks and ice cream to the boosters.

"It's a big deal," says Cohen, "without Twitter and the impact it has on us, the coffee zone is not going to be the destination for the push-back, and no one will be driving from far away."

A good thing ensued. On the eve of the presidential election night, a party held by a Twitter-lined coffee strip attracted more than 250 people. The use of Twitter has also attracted media attention: local television and radio broadcasts are racing to cover the way in which Houston's businessmen use the platform.

In the June 2009, @CoffeeGroundz had about 6,200 followers, a lot less than Starbucks Weibo, which was watched by 200,000 people. But in the battle at home, it is likely that there will be more than Starbucks fans in the Houston tweets. Business naturally increases a lot.