When I logged in to Typepad today, the following "Question of the Day" was on my dashboard:
What was the first job that changed your life?
What an interesting question, I thought. It was honestly something I hadn't thought about in a long time; but now that I am thinking about it, I would say the first job that changed my life was one I had back in college, working in the cafe at a local Borders Books. Anyone who knows me well knows I'm a big coffee geek, and working in the cafe making perfect shots of espresso and lovely, frothy cappuccinos allowed me to live out that persona. I read books about coffee (after all, I did work in a bookstore) and worked hard at refining my skills everyday.
Then, an opportunity came along.
I was promoted to cafe lead clerk, which is like the assistant manager. I got to work with the manager on cafe promotions and merchandising. I was able to combine my love of coffee with my knowledge of and passion for marketing.
And that's when it all clicked for me. It's been a helluva ride ever since.
Most working adults have had a job at some point that served as a major turning point in each of their lives. It may have changed it for the better, or even for the worse - either way, it made them take a different path that led them to something brand new.
Now it's your turn to tell your story: what was the first job that changed your life?
When I lived in the UK in 2004, my go-to online source for coffee beans was a roaster called Hasbean. This UK coffee e-tailer was recommended to me via the CoffeeGeek forum (see my siteroll for a link), so I knew they had to be good.
I may be living in Washington DC now, but I still keep up with Hasbean – thanks to Twitter. This has prompted me to write a case study profiling the business’s use of social media for marketing.
The Company
Hasbean has been in business online since 2003 and consists of a compact team of 5 – which includes the owner and chief coffee roaster, Stephen Leighton. In the land of tea, where the gourmet coffee culture is just coming into its own, freshly roasted coffee is the name of the game – and something Stephen is passionate about.
Stephen has actively used social media to promote Hasbean for as long as he can remember. “In the first days it was forums and newsletters, now it’s a different media to transport the same message,” according to Stephen. “It’s fun and I have made so many new friends…and that’s a motivator, to meet people I would not otherwise meet.”
Basically, Stephen’s decision to use social media was not necessarily business-motivated; however, his passion for coffee and his friendly, outgoing personality translate well through social media, and he’s able to easily engage customers through those channels. How Social Media is Used
Stephen uses a mix of different social media platforms to convey his message and interact with customers, including Twitter, 12 Seconds TV, a blog (the Hasblog), and a weekly video blog. His goal with all of these is to put a face to his business and make it easy for customers to interact. Through his use of social media, Stephen has become the face of Hasbean.
His video blog, In My Mug, is a particularly good example of this. Each week, he posts a video of his newest coffee offering of the week. In each video, he talks about the coffee itself and where it came from – he smells it, tastes it, describes it in detail, and gives honest opinions. He then displays a special discount code to get people to try it.
The Results
Although Stephen measures clicks on blog posts and sales generated from posted discount codes, it’s all about customer engagement and using social media for what it was meant – being social. “We have had great results from most of our efforts… but that isn’t the motivator for me, it is to find friends and spread the knowledge,” he says. “I think frauds are very easily exposed in social media, but I think people can spot honest passion and enthusiasm and I hope that’s why it works for us.”
What Have We Learned?
Passion is the best promotion. It's your business, and you should be its chief evangelist. When you're passionate about your products, that passion becomes contagious - and rallies your customers behind your brand.
Personality counts. Your business isn't just a website or a logo - it's you. Don't be afraid to put a face to your company and use social media to inject some personality.
It's not all about ROI. Being able to actively engage in conversation with people who you wouldn't usually meet is the whole beauty of social media - and should be the driving factor behind your social media efforts.
It's a portafiler-shaped, portable espresso maker. No electricity required - just hot water and espresso pods.
Now I'm what you call an "espresso snob". I like freshly ground coffee (preferably roasted within the last week), and a perfect shot of espresso crowned with dark, golden crema (see my profile pic above - that's what's called a "God shot"). Espresso pods are not my idea of freshly ground or roasted; however, this intrigued me.
I had to see it for myself:
This looks cool! You can make a shot of espresso anywhere!
OK, I have to have one. HandPresso - send me a free one and I'll try it out and review it right here on The Caffeinated Blog!
Many of you might have been unpleasantly surprised when you walked up to your local Starbucks
yesterday evening and found they were closed for "barista training". And if you were like me, you went to 3 different local Starbucks, only to find out later that all 7100 Starbucks stores in the US closed for emergency training.
It's no secret that even though Starbucks has a store on every corner of every street of every city in the here United States, their drinks are, well...kinda crappy. They've slowly spiraled down the ol' mediocrity funnel ever since they replaced their semi-automatic espresso machines with fully automatic ones, basically making the barista's job so easy, a monkey could do it - just press a button, and there ya go. So, Howard Schultz decided to "re-train" all the employees so they would know how to make a perfect shot, steam milk properly, etc.
They've also changed their focus - now they're trying to get back to their roots with a "Best Espresso in the Neighborhood" campaign. I revisited my "local" again today to find the front doors plastered with these "Best Espresso" signs, the big specials board proclaiming "if your drink isn't perfect, let us know and we'll make it again...", and signage everywhere about the art of espresso, blah blah blah.
Now, I frequent real neighborhood coffee bars, locally owned and trained to the hilt on quality espresso and coffee-based drink-making, and no matter what Starbucks does to re-train its employees and gush on about the art of making perfect espresso, they'll never compare. However, I also think that the vast masses of people who only go to Starbucks, day in and day out, won't be able to tell the difference. They've gulped down so much Starbucks, their tastebuds have become de-sensitized.
Although that's probably what Starbucks is counting on - if we tell you it's the best espresso in the neighborhood, you'll believe it.
Mmmm, espresso. Image via Wikipedia![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=77e10311-40a5-4bef-b6f7-0f368c596c6b)
yesterday evening and found they were closed for "barista training". And if you were like me, you went to 3 different local Starbucks, only to find out later that all 
