chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Cafe-Shaped Business

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

SmallTime — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 02:33:27 -0000

Your right, getting that human touch in social media is the way to go, not the sell sell sell of the big Amazon size companies online today.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

yuregininsesi — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:35:27 -0000

Great post and good timing. I have been thinking about this exact topic lately. I will be referring to this post soon! Thanks as always Chris.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Sikiş izle — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:48:09 -0000

nice ty

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

How To Weld — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:05:57 -0000

Awesome post Chris. You really got down to the essence of what social media is and can be.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Margaret — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:03:54 -0000

One thing that I have found is that it is important to know who your users are, and not take their level of expertise for granted. Of course it depends on what you are doing. But, for example, there are those of us who are knowledgeable about how to use the internet, how to log in, how to create a password, all the common things. But meeting people at the door and meeting their experience level at the door are two different things. In a library example, you would see a person walk in and assume that they knew how to use the card catalog. But maybe they don't have a clue. Same with life online. There are hundreds of thousands of people who don't use the internet every day and they want to join in, but they are intimidated. So just a thought to keep in mind for future reference.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Yollana: Soul Business — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:59:26 -0000

Hey Chris, Great article! What yummy bookshop to have nearby :) This is actually what I was intending to create when I started http://www.growthbooks.com - an online bookstore specialising in spiritual and personal growth stuff. I closed the store lst year (after only 6 months or so in operation) because I realised that while it was close to my passion, books ain't quite it for me. So I started Soul Business instead.

So, um, if Carolyn and her husband are interested in taking their store online, I'd be delighted to sell them my website... It's custom designed to be friendly, with a blog and space for articles, and could easily be reskinned for You Are Here books. Although I realised it's not my thing, I put a lot of love into the website design and development, and I've just been waiting for the right person to come along... And as I'm in Australia, they might find the price especially reasonable (with the exchange rate as it is)... Just a thought!

Thanks again for a great post.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

vanhoosear — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:47:57 -0000

I keep coming back to this post. I think it's my favorite Chris Brogan post so far, and that's saying a lot, because there are so many of them... Thank you!

I just wish the companies that many of us hold dearest actually practiced this!

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

jodi — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:55:25 -0000

Great post and good timing. I have been thinking about this exact topic lately. I will be referring to this post soon! Thanks as always Chris.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Google — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:46:23 -0000

Конкурс для блоггеров от DRUGREVENUE с призовым фондом в 3000 долларов, спешите

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Todd Smith — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 09:38:46 -0000

I love this idea. Social media is putting the personal side back into internet businesses. I love doing business with small, personable places like this. I'd like my business to be like that too. Thanks. btw... you do this really well in my opinion.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Margaret — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:27:02 -0000

Dear Chris,
You are so right! And I am learning this with my website. When I launched it 30 people signed up right away and then they didn't tell their stories, their subscriptions expired... Now I am learning to do more personalization, featuring writers, doing one-on-one encouragement, one writer at a time. These aren't bloggers, or twitterers. A beautiful story just came in today about growing up during World War II and running to the bomb shelter in England. It's the personal touch that makes the difference whether it's on the web or not. We all want to be in community. The beauty of the internet is that we can touch people we could never touch before.
Thanks so much for the food for thought!
Margaret
@tellourlifestories.com

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Seth Goldstein — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 20:55:48 -0000

Chris,

You hit the point of Social Media right on the head. Social Media needs to be treated like a face to face interaction. If it's done that way, and only that way, people will see success personally and professionally.

-Seth

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

John — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:02:35 -0000

This is exactly why I do much of my gift shopping on Etsy.com. The personal touch offered by the sellers is second to none. I probably should be shopping more at my local mom and pop's but guess what, they're gone so I'm left with Target. Booo.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

kskobac — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:50:54 -0000

This is part of the movement from the corporate lead commerce culture to the customer lead commerce culture that is quickly happening. Companies that personalize will have more impact; it's why starbucks is trying to find ways now to turn their stores into communities, rather than cookie cutters.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

threemer — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:16:25 -0000

1915? Yea, I can relate, and it's a great feeling.

You'll never find it.

No amount of technology can replace the human interaction. Sure, Carolyn used technology when she ordered the book(s) for you, but nothing can replace or duplicate her presence.

Oh, and I love how she doesn't even have a website, yet she is already doing what social media promises to deliver.

Heading back to watch the dog chase his tail now.

Thanks for the great post, Chris.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

TimWalker — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:15:22 -0000

Good stuff, Chris. Many thouhts boiling here, but I'll focus on three:

1. In his comment above, Jeffrey mentions his local hardware store. I've written about my local hardware store, and the way that the owner calls me by name and tries to *figure out the problem I'm trying to solve* rather than just *figuring out what he can sell me*. Sometimes this means he points me to Lowe's for something he knows they have in stock that would take him a week to order. (If I'm in there first thing on Saturday, he rightly assumes that I'm trying to knock out a project that day.) The fact that he pays attention to *my* needs means that I keep coming back again and again, even if on certain occasions Lowe's gets my money for a particular project.

2. I think Janelle is off-track in her comment above when she writes, "Wouldn’t it be lovely if social media could help us nurture these local level individual relationships?" It CAN help do this, and not only is it not impossible, it's doable right now. Also, I think she's taking a limited view when she writes, "I just feel that social media is more about broadening your outreach rather than creating local level relationships."

Social media is "about" what you *make* it about, just like any other medium. We can use the telephone to build up customer relations, surprising a customer or prospect by calling them back promptly with information, corrections, etc. . . . or we can phone-spam people with crappy telemarketing that interrupts their dinner hour. These and many more things are possible with a plain ol' telephone; the new, Internet-enabled social media offer even more possibilities.

3. I'm fascinated to think about how cafe-shaped conversations and business practices can be applied to larger enterprises, too. How could a *big* company operate, cell by cell, along cafe-shape lines. The best salespeople have always done this anyway, listening hard to customers and prospects just like Mike at my local hardware store listens to me. How could we use social-media tools to spread this kind of customer TLC across *many* constituencies for a larger business?

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Toma Bonciu - SEO Services — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 11:50:47 -0000

Hi Chris,

First I didn't knew what to write in a comment. But then the more I looked at the picture and re-reading in my mind the article it started to get to me : a warm feeling of a moment when you are siting in your favorite chair and reading a good book. The smell of paper and the possibility to also enjoy a hot coco or some tea or some coffee - what you prefer.

It would be great if you could succeed in transmitting such a feeling when people end up on your page on a social media website.

Thank you for this article
@WebOptimization

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Howard Moorey — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:29:50 -0000

What a great bunch of comments! You've really hit the spot here Chris!!

You have really served to put VERY small town America on the map, showing it to be EXACTLY the same as small town Europe, UK, Middle East, Far East and Australia.

I'm sorry to be at variance with Mary & Janelle here though - I firmly believe that Social Media & Social Networking should work at ALL paces, not just the one dictated by the "immediacy" society of today.

It is truly time that we learned that the high pace, big finance world we knew is NOT the be all and end all! Some areas need to accept and adjust to the fact that Carolyn's way of doing things can actually be the RIGHT way - it is Heart Sell not Hard Sell. What goes around, comes around, and it's time has come!

I only hope now we can spread the word fast enough to stop any more bookstores, and other smaller businesses, going bust - if they can learn what has emerged here, and buyers take on board that this is the more natural way to shop that many of us yearn for - we lost it in the "Supercenters" - maybe we can truly save the world, and get something of great benefit to all out of the dismal events of 2008!

Thanks again Chris.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Mark Taylor — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 03:57:23 -0000

Hi Chris, great subject about how we feel and subsequently share our felt and founds with others!. It's an emotional thing buying as we have all heard the phrase retail therapy. Buying online somehow doesn't seem to fill that hole. It;s the missing peice you have highlighted....the high street experience will live on, for the emotional aspects..no? Maybe with the video tools available today the customer/buyer bond can be brought at least closer than web page alone allows.
I received an email back recently with a short low quality video within the message body. It was personal and thanked me for my contact. What a great little tool. It certainly stood out from the usual 'thank you for your order" email.
What you think?

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Janelle Hardacre — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 02:25:11 -0000

A lovely example of how relationships are the key in business. Wouldn't it be lovely if social media could help us nurture these local level individual relationships? And of course this is not impossible. I just feel that social media is more about broadening your outreach rather than creating local level relationships. Whilst Carolyn has defintely got her sales tactics right, the albeit faceless Amazon.com adopts similar techniques to give you the buyer a personal shopping experience. With book recommendations, other customers also bought and so forth. Is it really possible to get the human touch via social media? Very interesting.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

chrisbrogan — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:38:05 -0000

@Jeffrey Levy - drop me a line. I'd love to talk more about that challenge. - blog at chrisbrogan dot com.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Brandon A. Cox — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:04:34 -0000

I live 3 miles from the home office of Walmart. Even though they are building bigger stores all the time, they are still finding that in most communities people prefer the smaller versions of their stores. My wife and I will drive 5 extra minutes to the Walmart Neighborhood Market rather than go to the Supercenter. I sometimes wonder what would happen if a company like Walmart went all "cafe" on us.

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Meredith Gould — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:52:06 -0000

I say God Bless Carolyn Jordan for being exactly what a bookseller should be: someone loves books and excited about connecting them with readers. Those of us in the mid-list author category treasure independent booksellers!!

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Jeffrey Levy — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:52:01 -0000

Great story, and why we love our local hardware store.

My challenge as a federal gov't web manager is how to engage people at this local level. I'm still trying to figure it out. Do we create small social networks around sharing information in specific cities? Is that an appropriate role when the private sector might do it better? One problem is that Carolyn doesn't have protesters trying to shout at her 24 hrs/day, or people who might vandalize her store just because it'd be fun. So how do we have conversations with the people who really want to talk, and keep out the thugs?

Re: Cafe-Shaped Business

Elli St,George-Godfrey (@3keys — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:40:07 -0000

One of the earliest lessons I learned when starting my coaching business is that relationships build better businesses. I know I'm at my best at the cafe-level because I enjoy conversation so much. Joining Twitter has been so much fun because conversation is a key piece. You meet people you may not have noticed before or maybe would shy away from if met in-person. It seems that humanizing business is a better choice given the economy and the power of word of mouth referrals. Genuine connection is the key here and Carolyn Jordan exemplifies it so well.