Maura Welch on Social Media

Starbucks "R" Us?

If you vote tomorrow, Starbucks will give you a free cup of coffee.

WWSPD (What would Sarah Palin do)...about that? Take a swipe at elitist, Starbucks-sipping voters?

Or maybe not...we know she favors Starbucks Mochas based on her stump rhetoric:

"I'm reading on my Starbucks mocha cup, okay? The quote of the day... It was Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State [crowd boos] and UN ambassador. ... Now she said it, I didn't. She said, 'There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't support other women.'"

Even though that's not what Albright really said...insert "help" where Palin said "support" which puts a different spin on it.

But hey, Starbucks isn't just a cultural indicator, it's increasingly referred to as an economic indicator.

Salon notes that you don't need to chart foreclosures or rising unemployment to know how badly the economy is really tanking...you just watch how many Americans are "cutting back on their morning lattes at Starbucks."

On Halloween The Motley Fool named Starbucks the World's Scariest Stock due in part to "a bone-chilling outlook for consumer discretionary spending."

But why stop at the US economy? Slate's Daniel Gross has a theory that there is "a close correlation between a country having a significant Starbucks presence, especially in its financial capital, and major financial cock-ups," er...meltdowns.

"Having a significant Starbucks presence is a pretty significant indicator of the degree of connectedness to the form of highly caffeinated, free-spending capitalism that got us into this mess. It's also a sign of a culture's willingness to abandon traditional norms and ways of doing business (virtually all the countries in which Starbucks has established beachheads have their own venerable coffee-house traditions) in favor of fast-moving American ones."

Hmm...I'll have to think about that over my free Starbucks coffee tomorrow.

Starbucks wants you

Source: The Viral Garden

…and not just because you're addicted to those grande half-caf soy lattes. Mack Collier points us to a new site, MyStarbucksIdea which is closely patterned after Dell's Ideastorm community. The big idea? Starbucks takes "suggestions from customers on what changes they would like to see Starbucks make. The community then votes on their favorites, and comments on them."

The Starbucks idea with the most votes? A Starbucks card system that offers customers a free drink, after purchasing a set number of drinks. Also, free drinks on your birthday. These are loyal customers looking for rewards.

Starbucks, like Dell, is looking to tap into the collectiv e intelligence of their customers. It can be scary and unpredictable to give your customers a public voice, but companies like Dell, Lego and others are discovering just how powerful it can be.

At WeeWorld we start every day reading and charting our user feedback and checking the conversation flow (while sipping our Starbucks coffee).

Your customers are out there having conversations. Make it easy for them to talk to you.

Mack – it was great to meet you in person at SXSW!

Pop vs. Soda

Speaking of maps, here's a favorite of mine.

I grew up in Rochester, NY, where we call it pop. Now I've been in Massachusetts so long I've crossed over and call it soda. Take a look at this fascinating map (click to see it up close).

Look at all the soda transplants in the Midwestern university towns. And what's with the south calling it Coke?

What do you call it? Take the poll on the side bar.

The site where I originally got this map is not active anymore, but here's a link to a blogger that wrote about some interesting soda/pop research.

Interactive wine bars

Springwise reports on an upscale wine bar that takes advantage of three hot trends - ubiquitous computing, wine and infolust. Located at the chichi St. Regis Hotel in New York, the Adour has a 4-seat wine bar that goes way beyond cork and zinc. "Computer menus are projected from the ceiling onto the bar, and patrons make their choices by pressing on the bar's surface." Select a wine and "a rosette-shaped image is projected with information about the wine on each of its five petals, including details about the producer and the grapes."

I've gotten into wine over the last few years. And there is an unending lust for info and nuance with each glass. Every time you think you know something, there is more to know. I'm sure quite a few over privileged infolusters will lay out their devalued dollars to try it.

Speaking of wine, my friend Angela Natividad just launched a new wine blog, Soleil en Verre, giving us even more wine info to lust over.

Vending machine 3.0

Last week I covered Vending machines 2.0. And this week we have an entry for another vending machine that's pretty far from the typical stale Snickers and Cheetos variety. Although they could consider a snack food add-on for this one to address any munchies that follow from your purchase...