One of the communities is the My Starbucks Idea, and on the page you can submit any idea you have for Starbucks. You can also comment on others ideas and join a discussion. It also shows ideas that are in the works, under review, reviewed, and launched. Another feature I found cool is it sorts the ideas into different categories and you can see how many have been submitted. It's cool to think that people like you and me are responsible for some of the things that Starbucks is doing.
Another community is Starbucks V2V, and this is a database that can connect your actions that you display in the community to others and get them involved in them too. For example, I am a Chi Omega and our philanthropy is Make-A-Wish Foundation, so if I wanted to post something about what I was doing in the community for Make-A-Wish then others could see it and maybe join my action to get involved. This site is a great way to get the community linked together and involved. I also saw a commercial for Starbucks that says if you do 5 community service hours then you would get a free tall coffee. It shows that Starbucks really is community oriented and it shows that they care about the people.
The last community is Flickr, and flickr is a site where people can upload there favorite Starbucks photos. You can also discuss what the photo is showing and your experience you had while at Starbucks. This site is free advertisement for Starbucks because the customers are doing all the work.
I believe that Starbucks has gone above and behind to promote themselves and show that their customers are what matters to them the most. What do you think? Do you think they could do anything better or do you think they have done a wonderful job?
I think the idea-sharing campaign is the best part of social media. Instead of having to hire focus group leaders and "think tanks" to come up with new ideas, let the consumers do it for you for free. It's a concept called coproduction in marketing and it is a financial win-win when consumers take on marketing tasks.
ReplyDeleteThis is great for Starbucks! By having all these options for their consumers to get involved, it really gives them a competetive advantage if thier competitors haven't copied their idea. I really like the idea of My Starbucks idea and Starbucks V2V.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to give one word to describe starbucks other than caffeine, it would be involved. Starbucks has done a very good job in putting themselves out there. Also, I think doing little things like free drinks for community service hours is great. People notice the little things, and while they keep their fan base along with their social media, they will only grow as a corporation.
ReplyDeleteI think that Starbucks has done an amazing job with their social media. The number of customers engaged in their media efforts is unimaginable for most businesses. By monitoring Starbucks, companies can really learn a lot about how to get customers involved.
ReplyDeleteStarbucks does a great job with their social media. They are on every social media site and know how to get their customers or "fans" involved. Over 15 million people "like" them on Facebook alone. WOW!!!
ReplyDelete