Internal Social Media Network for your Coffee Shop?

Let me start by saying: being a barista is not easy. 

I work at a Cafe as a barista; I have learnt more about the importance of patience, dedication, and making connections there than I have anywhere else. And I know that many baristas feel the same way. But do baristas always love their job? No. Customers yell at you, they give you back the drinks you and ask for something else. And unless you're always chirpy, they think you're rude.

Like at any other work environment, Baristas need to feel like all of that is outweighed by the benefits. A big part of loving your job is feeling connected to it. They need feel like they are willing to bare the bad days (which are more frequent than good days) and commit to the organizations goals. One way to ensure that employees feel connected and committed to the organization is creating a space for them to converse with their coworkers, vent, talk about their days at work, and communicate their ideas. The best platform to make this kind of community available is on Social Media. 

In accordance with advice given by Li and Bernoff, who write about Social Media marketing in the book Groundswell, I present 3 reasons to create an internal Social Media network for our employees. The same three things that apply to any other form of social media marketing: Listening, Talking, and Energizing. And don't worry, it can be as simple as creating a Facebook group for employees.

1. You will be able to listen to your employees.

• Your employees can to better share their ideas for the cafe and feed off of each other on this FB group page. This works out well for you because your baristas know what is needed and how to make service efficient. This platform will be them a place to collectively communicate it.
• Groundswell gives an example of an internal social media network utilized by Best Buy. An employee is quoted saying that she can share her thoughts on how they should fix the company on there. This works out well for Best Buy because as Li and Bernoff says "Information flows down the management ladder, but getting insights back up to the management and encouraging collaboration among people throughout the enterprise is harder." Well, this network makes it that much easier.

2.You will be able to talk to your employees. 

• Emails are the worst way to communicate to employees. Facebook is something that your employees are accustomed to and are more alert about. Every notification is looked at while many emails go ignored and buried. 
• Groundswell talks about how email boxes fill up with urgent emails, irrelevant promotions, and cc's. Considering that most coffee shops have employees who are college students, this is really relevant. 

3. You will be able to energize your employees. 

• Employees do not always feel connected to the cafe or its goals. But what if they could see that it's not just them with the bad day? With a Facebook group page, employees can read about other employees thoughts and how their days are going. And even a bad day would be something to converse about and be engaged with on this network. You are energizing them by mixing their work with their social life. 
• In its Best Buy example, Groundswell says that The Blue Shirt Nation (Best Buy's internal network) made the employees feel "empowered, connected, and more committed on a day-today-basis." It explains that like customers, employees have a :natural constituency for social connections." Like customers, employees will be able to find what they need from each other on an internal network and it will be beneficial for you.  

There are many benefits of having an internal social network for your cafe. However, I will not give you a one-sided story! 

Possible problems with Internal Networks?

1. Sometimes change is a good thing but employees cannot see it right away. At the cafe that I work, employees always resist change and they get angry but eventually they realize that it was for the better. With a Social Media network, employees could get too much opportunity to validate their rejection to change that could have been a good change. 
2. Some workers are not on Facebook or on any form of Social Media! Do not force them to do it! But if not all of your employees are on it, they will not be on the same page. This is a bad idea. The best way to handle it is to create a separate network for your Cafe. Of course, if you are a small and singular Cafe, This is to much money, time, and effort. You can, however, find some form of a social network that is not used as commonly as Facebook, that your non-fb using employees might not mind. 

What do you think? If you are a Barista, would you like an internal network? If you are a coffee shop owner or manager, would you set one up?

Now that I am done with my rant, let me leave you with a kind of random but sort of related video of Batman and Superman just chilling at a Cafe :D Enjoy!