Bravo Starbucks, Cheers to Your Java!

Starbucks is a social media innovator. The coffee giant seamlessly bridges the gap between customers’ online and IRL (in real life) experiences, enhancing the brand’s relationships with consumers with every exchange.

QR codes, mobile apps, social media and points of sale form a powerful system of customer engagement, retention and sales when properly designed and executed. Enter ‘My Starbucks Rewards’ program.

Customers earn a Star for every purchase made with a registered Starbucks Card. 5 Stars delivers Green status which gives users:

• a free birthday drink
• syrup or soymilk on the house
• free refills
• buy beans and get a beverage

30 Stars gets Gold status:

• all benefits of Green
• free drink every 15 Stars
• very own personalized Gold Card (love this touch)
• special members offers

Starbucks ties it all together with their iPhone and Android mobile apps and direct-to-fan engagement via social media channels. Once a consumer registers their card and downloads the mobile app they can:

• manage their Starbucks card balance
• reload their card
• track their progress in rewards program
• geo locate the Starbucks nearest you
• keep track your favourite drinks, your friends’ too
• search jobs at Starbucks
• explore the world of coffee

When performed in concert the result is a sales cycle that integrates the POS with social media/mobile apps, earns new customers and rewards existing ones while providing interest based content relevant to all parties. Bravo Starbucks, cheers to your Java!

Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization
SMO is the act of aligning titles, keywords and descriptions with social objects to better the connection of one’s content within social networks to correspond with the keywords people type in search engines so your content is easily found by those who seek it.

Titles
The official name you apply to social objects. The idea is to design your titles to capture attention immediately and in turn induce sharing of that object across the social graphs of those who encounter it. The headline must contain keywords users are searching.

Descriptions
Here is your chance to frame the social object. Use the description to entice viewers to share, further their interest in your brand and enhance the quality of the experience through heightened engagement. Use keywords that target your audience and relate to your brand.

Tags
Tags are keywords relating to your brand and audience that describe the content through corresponding phrases, labels and expressions.

SMO positively impacts your SEO efforts and plays a key role in increasing the search rankings of your site.