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!

Starbucks orders up AT&T WiFi

Source: WiFi Net News

AT&T who upped their brand value with an exclusive deal with the iPhone, is now locking up another addiction of the tech elites…Starbucks. AT&T is now the WiFi provider for Starbucks in a deal that "turns AT&T from "McDonald’s plus," with a relatively small footprint of other locations, to a 17,000-location giant." AT&T WiFi will rollout to Starbucks starting next quarter. Starbucks card holders will get two hours of free WiFi with no purchase necessary - even though we know you'll order that half caf extra dry cappuccino anyway.

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