Katie: This is The BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. We're here with J.R. Cohen and Jonathan Zadick of Coffee Groundz. So, Jonathan, J.R. was telling us a lot about just the smashing success that you've had with Twitter. Was this a planned strategy for the business or what?

John: To be honest, I didn't even know what Twitter was. I mean, there was no plan at all. My business partner and friend Pritish, he would refer to himself as probably, maybe a tech geek, came back from Tech World of Palo Alto with Twitter on his mind and told J.R. that maybe it would be a good idea to create a little social networking, and maybe it would help the coffee shop. We had no idea what was going to happen, and the explosion that J.R. would create with Coffee Groundz, with social media, with Twitter. It blows my mind. I was like, what are you doing, playing on the internet all day? And he was like, no, no, we're meeting all these new people.

Katie: Marketing, yeah.

John: I look at this whole transformation of the coffee shop itself and what Twitter has done for the coffee shop, what Twitter has done for networking, it's absolutely amazing, and we've seen amazing growth in our business and in the traffic in the store. I mean, we have Twitter parties-

J.R.: It's the tweetups. We've hosted a couple of tweetups for the twitteraties.

Katie: Now, tweetups, I mean, that sounds like Twitter plus meet up. Is that pretty close to the mark?

J.R.: It is a meet up. There's the Meetup group, and that's great, but there's a lot of people that are on Twitter that need to come out of their shell, that haven't been able to come out of their shell that are-- what's great about the Coffee Groundz is the fact that we don't just serve coffee, so we have all of these other things that they can use, and the great thing about the first tweetup is that everybody was tweeting while they were there, and they had the electrical outlets to do it, and real connections were made, real friendships were made. And it was all through Twitter.

Katie: Yeah, it's like everyone's kind of a part of something, and it's all centered at Coffee Groundz.

John: That's what it's all about.

J.R.: We do serve liquor, beer, and wine at the coffee shop, so throw a little alcohol into the mix, and then it was a social crazy party.

Katie: That is wonderful. So, now, I know I have seen you guys on Twitter, but you were also very active on Facebook as well. Tell us a little bit about your activities there.

J.R.: When you're a starting business and you're trying to not spend so much, especially in times we're in right now, it's good to use these sources like Twitter, Facebook, Link 10. So, Facebook has been really good. We just hit 500. We're looking forward to having a Facebook 500 party. I dubbed that name.

Katie: That's excellent. So, you have a very active group, I mean you have your own personal profile and you've created a Coffee Groundz group, and then from that group you actually have events, you said. You're posting events, people are seeing them on Facebook, sharing them on Facebook, and then they show up.

J.R.: Yes. And they also have the ability to log on to Facebook and upload pictures, so there's a little over 300 pictures right now.

Katie: Wonderful. And these are of the events and just hanging out at Coffee Groundz--

J.R.: There's a lot from the tweetups and-- so election night was coming around in early November. We decided that-- we'd just had a tweetup. I was like, you know what, it's one of the biggest elections this country has ever seen, let's have an election party. So within 24 hours, we used Twitter, we used Facebook, we made a video that went viral.

Katie: Wait, and it's a video of what? People drinking coffee? Or a music video?

J.R.: You're going to have to go on the Facebook page and check that one out because it's me in a very nice hat, and I look like a politician. But it did the job. We had over 200 people. We had a big-screen TV on the patio. I mean, all within 24 hours, the use of Twitter and Facebook-- it was amazing. And then, you know, the newspapers got a hold of it, and it was a lot of fun. It was probably one of the biggest events on short notice that we've ever had.

Katie: 200 people. 24 hours.

J.R.: 24 hours. I mean, there was more, but 200 people at one time at the store. And, you know, it's not that big of a store, so it was very cool. So there was a lot of pictures of that event, and we just did the inauguration the other day, and the café was full. Someone bought champagne for everybody, and everybody was putting it on Twitter and Facebook and making videos, so. It's their chance. We're there for them. It's their Cheers is what I like to say right now, where everybody knows your name. We want you to upload your pictures, your videos. We want you to be a part of the community that we're trying to build around you guys.

John: It's weird to say, but the Coffee Groundz is maybe not as much of a coffee shop as it's become almost a lifestyle.

J.R.: Exactly.

Katie: So, guys, just to wrap up, do you have any suggestions for other businesses, whether they be coffee shops, wine bars, restaurants, any suggestions for a small business owner thinking about diving into the social media world?

J.R.: If you're going to do Twitter, don't do it just to do it. There's passion behind it. It's people speaking freely. They're saying what they really feel. I know it's 140 characters, but you can say a lot in 140 characters.

Katie: Guys, I want to thank you so much for coming in and sharing your tremendous Coffee Groundz success using social media, and again, thank you for being on the show with me today.

J.R.: Thank you, thank you.

John: Thanks for having us.

Katie: We've been talking with Jonathan Zatick, founder and owner, and J.R. Cohen, managing partner, of Coffee Groundz, and you're listening to The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.