Engineering and Social Media

From an interview in the current issue of Fortune with Starbucks Troy Alstead (Questions for Starbucks' Chief Bean Counter):

"We've learned to focus not on selling something to customers through social media, but on how to engage our customers.  The Starbucks store was always about the power of the connection between the barista and customers.  Social media allows a more frequent and additional way to connect to customers - and for them to connect with one another.

Our whole approach has been about how to use it to give our customers a platform to talk about their favorite products or what's going on at Starbucks, not just have messages come from Starbucks to them.  We can listen to that dialogue and understand how they feel about various things.  It's been like an avalanche, our customers engaging with one another around all things about Starbucks without us being in the middle of it."