We built our fourth space on the most sociable site, Facebook, providing our most passionate fans with the tools to participate in, engage with and provoke discussion with us and each other. It was the perfect platform to reach our advocates in one place and bring them together, allowing us to talk to one large community rather than fragmented targeting.We used the site as a marketing platform. We asked for their suggestions, we shared our ideas with them, we responded to their concerns, we celebrated Fairtrade’s birthday with them -reinforcing our trustworthy credentials and treated them to free muffins that drove them back into store. They became our modern day marketing team. We invited Facebook’s broader audience to participate in open and localised two-way conversations with our fans where they shared their experiences of the brand generating ‘earned media’ through their postings and content creation.

“It was the most successful marketing piece of social media activity Starbucks has ever run in the world to date” Alexandra Wheeler (Starbucks US digital Strategy Director)Number one Facebook group in the high street in less than six months.307k Starbucks fans on Facebook and still growing.9,000 weekly visits.

1,000 weekly wall comments.Starbucks fans have now become the most influential source for all our marketing today challenging the way we work.