Digital Cafe: Learning social media lessons

Mar 4 2010 By Anna Latif

Talking last month about how we can use social media at Cafelicious, I said, “You need to be realistic about who you are and where your customers are likely to come from. We’re a friendly neighbourhood café in Rubery.”

We’ve been thinking about this a lot since then and comparing our experience to that of shops like Urban Coffee Co in Birmingham, who are big in social media circles. Our digital mentor Donato Esposito says the comparison can only go so far.

“Urban Coffee Co are poles apart from Cafelicious in almost every way,” said Donato. “The location, customer base and opening times are different – and so is the offer in terms of food.

“But that doesn’t mean that social networking won’t work for Cafelicious or any other café or business. The campaign so far has definitely raised awareness and I have a lot of people asking me on Twitter and in general conversation about the café, but the suburban location defines the potential customer base.

“Many local businesses already use Cafelicious for breakfast and lunch so marketing themselves directly to businesses – as they are doing with their upcoming mailshot – is a good idea. The initial approach may work better as a postal mailshot but that’s another way of capturing potential followers on Twitter and Facebook.”

Donato also thinks we can use social media to help build our reputation as a community hub:

“I can see a virtual community being built around Rubery with local businesses working in a more co-operative way and Cafelicious being at the hub of that business community,” he says.

Birmingham blogger Dave Harte, another friend of Cafelicious, agrees with this: “Remember your social media network isn’t just there to build business,” he says.

“You may need to call on them for other things – campaigning on some issue that’s affecting your business for example. If you think of them purely as customers then your approach is probably wrong. They’re friends who enjoy spending money in your establishment.”

“One of the key aspects about social media is that you can reach a point where the network you have built up can do the work for you. However, reaching that point can take a lot of effort. But once you notice people talking about you, rather than you having to re-broadcast your message all the time then you know you’re doing the right thing.”

* Anna Latif runs Cafelicious, in Rubery. Digital Birmingham is helping the café build new business using social media