RightSpot Media | Digital Performance Marketing

Got social media? Cafe’s so successful, it ran out of milk—here’s how

Posted on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 at 11:59 AM by Simon Smith  |  Comments (0)

They were hoping for success. But in preparing for the grand opening of their cafe, Cafe Novo, Elizabeth Wimbush and Sadie Wilson hadn’t accounted for the impact of a well-orchestrated social media campaign. Half way through their first day, they ran out of baked goods. The next day, they ran out of milk—and had to raid local grocery stores to continue serving their steady stream of customers.

Trust me, I’m as skeptical as anyone when it comes to social media. But that makes me even more attuned to seeing it done right. And here, I also saw it done right before my eyes, as Cafe Novo is about 20 steps from where I live. When it began its metamorphosis from an abandoned restaurant, I saw the kraft paper signs on which Elizabeth and Sadie drew pictures and encouraged people to follow their story on Twitter, Facebook and their blog. And I did.

Since it opened, I’ve been a regular. So Elizabeth and Sadie were kind enough to endure me asking about their success. Just how did two women with—in their own words—”little to no”  digital marketing background use social media so effectively? Here’s what we can all learn from them:

Be passionate and personal

If you take nothing else away from this post, remember this point: passion is infectious. In fact, I’d argue that passion is the most viral of all viral marketing. Elizabeth and Sadie exude passion, and the cafe reflects it. They serve organic and fair-trade drinks, and homemade baked goods, with an emphasis on vegan and gluten-free items. Why? Because it reflects their beliefs, with Sadie being a vegan and Elizabeth gluten-free. ”We want to keep it simple and make damn good coffee, tea and treats,” says Elizabeth. Their passion comes through in their tweets and blog posts. Takeaway: passion and personality matter. Not everyone will like the owners’ style. For those people, there’s a Tim Hortons or a Starbucks nearby. But people who resonate with Elizabeth and Sadie’s passion will be loyal customers.

Be engaging and interactive (online and off)

When Elizabeth (right) and Sadie (left)  found their cafe space and moved in, they covered the windows with kraft paper, wrote their names and a blurb about their favorite drinks, and encouraged people to follow them on Twitter, Facebook and their blog. Then they asked people questions—such as about their best and worst cafe experiences—and put their suggestions into practice. “Most effective was engaging people,” says Elizabeth, with tactics that also included giving away free samples, and alerting followers on Twitter and Facebook to those samples as well as freshly baked goods. (Example tweet: “SPECIAL TREAT ALERT !!!! Chocolate brownie truffles just put out – folks I’m ready to close the cafe and just eat these all afternoon they are so ridiculously good. Come get some!”) “If you think it’s too trivial to post about, it’s probably not,” says Elizabeth. “Also, most important, reply to people! If they comment, email you or otherwise engage you, talk back!” Takeaway: don’t lecture people; have a conversation.

Don’t worry about inexperience

Elizabeth and Sadie didn’t take courses in social media or read books on the subject. And they’re by no means technophiles (I endured Christmas music one morning as they’re apparently, and endearingly, more adept with Twitter than iTunes playlists). Elizabeth started the blog to keep her family in the loop, and was encouraged by a mommy-blogger cousin to get on Twitter.  ”She gave me the nudge to get Twitter going,” says Elizabeth, “telling me to just tweet what I was thinking, doing, etc., in regards to the cafe.” Sadie took charge of Facebook and ran with it. “Our only real plan was to keep everyone interested as much as possible by telling our story and keeping it personal,” says Elizabeth. Takeaway: just do it. Speed of implementation is important, and if you’re inept with the technology, be open and honest as it may actually endear you further to your audience. “Admitting you don’t know something and want others’ advice is a pretty great way to connect with people through social media that you wouldn’t otherwise have access too,” says Elizabeth. “And go all out! Be real, and people will appreciate it.”

Just one week in, that approach has already given Cafe Novo a massive following. ”For sure our opening was hugely impacted by what we’d been up to online ,” says Elizabeth. “One in three customers would come in saying, ‘I’ve been following your blog!’ or ‘I was the one who commented on your Facebook post about such and such!’”

And there’s no sign that initial success is wearing off.  ”So far today I’ve had three people come in and say, ‘I hear you have great muffins—any left?’” says Elizabeth. “All from two or three days of me posting on Facebook and Twitter what muffins are coming out of the oven in the mornings.”

Which reminds me: I’m hungry. Time to head for the cafe.

Images by Amanda Faig for BlogTO.com. Images published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 (Canada) license.

Tags: cafes, restaurants, social media, success stories