I took a trip to the Starbucks headquarters today. The building is always stunning!
I dropped by the Starbucks Coffee Gear store and noticed some new key chains featuring a wooden etched siren. As a reminder, the Starbucks Coffee Gear store is open to the public. I strongly suggest this article on Starbucks places you should visit in Seattle. I snapped a few quick pictures:
As I walked about the headquarters, I took a couple of pictures of the social media monitors on the ninth floor. There are other social media monitors at the SSC, but these were a quick walk from our meeting at the SODO 8 Starbucks:
The way it works is that those monitors look at popular hashtags (such as #tobeapartner) and they show an updating feed of tweets or Instagram posts that contain the searched hashtag. The feed is not entirely random. There is some screening to ensure relevant content. Sometimes people have been known to hijack hashtags. I saw this and thought, ‘Wow. I bet a lot of partners don’t know they might be seen at the Starbucks headquarters when they make an update.’ Partners, you’re on the big screen! 😉 I have heard about this before. and I’m quite sure I’ve walked past these monitors before, but today (January 21, 2015) was the first time I stopped and took a picture of the monitors. Pretty cool! I think this is wonderful because it brings the stores right into the headquarters. One way to connect the Support Center with what is happening at the stores.
One more thing about visiting the Starbucks headquarters, I never tire of the sights:
You can find this on the eighth floor. I leave you with these words from Howard Schultz:
Grow with discipline.
Balance innovation with rigor. Innovate around the core.
Don’t embrace the status quo. Find new ways to see. Never expect a silver bullet.
Get your hands dirty. Listen with empathy and overcommunicate with transparency.
Tell your story; refusing to let others define you. Use authentic experiences to expire.
Stick to your values – they are your foundation.
Hold people accountable, but give them the tools to succeed.
Make tough choices; it’s how you execute that counts.
Be decisive in times of crisis. Be nimble. Find truth in trials and lessons in mistakes.
Be responsible for what you see, hear and do.
Believe.
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Melody in a bit of a hurry but are the partners on the monitors just partners in the Seattle area? Two general thoughts of a different views- Do they have to get permission for the partners’ pics to be displayed on the monitors? Also, if these are partners only in Seattle why?
@purple1 – The screens feature people from all over the world. It rakes in content from Instagram or Twitter, which could be anybody. I think it’s a bit of a myth that your own image is absolutely private. Here, Starbucks isn’t using the images for commercial purposes, so I assume it’s fine. But we’d need a good ip lawyer for the best answer.
The monitors are really cool! Its nice to see the company being connected to partners 🙂
So cool and hopefully make some partners aware that we are being watched everywhere hahah and not post too crazy stuff from their stores haha