Consumer Connections During Recessions

Matthew Guiste begins his social media strategy speech by telling his audience, "the best time to innovate is during a crisis." Gusite, who works as the director at Global Brand Loyalty for Starbucks, explains that an economic meltdown is a terrible thing to waste. He created the site mystarbucksidea.com during the recession, as a way to interact with consumers and engage with them on a personal level. The site enables consumers to submit an idea, to track other people's ideas and to receive feedback from the brand on submitted ideas.

Guiste attributes mystarbucksidea.com as an unparalleled method for building valuable consumer engagement and conversations. These conversations are going to happen regardless of the site's existence, and it makes so much sense to join in on those conversations.

Gusite's social media strategy speech encourages other brands, like Starbucks, to engage in a two-way dialogue with consumers as opposed to simply telling them about new products or services on different social media platforms.