Café Biz Brisbane – Topic: Online presence matters most

Luke Shilling is the expert in cafes optimising their online presence. He’s spent more than 15 years as a barista, trainer and highly prized consultant and ran Fortitude Valley’s classically cool Ltd Espresso + Brew Bar. He’ll be sharing his café and social media knowledge as part of Café Talks.

Historically a café’s geographical location has mattered most. Not any more, Luke says. “Smart phones allow businesses to have such an amazing social media presence that location almost becomes redundant. People are following businesses wherever they go, they don’t have to be in the physical to know what’s going on and have a connection that business.”

Those connections mean people will travel, sometimes large distances, to frequent a business. “People want to go to a place they are invested in, that they’re following online so cafes becomes destinations rather than convenience stops. Customers would come up to me at Ltd and say ‘we drove all this way, we’re so happy we did’. That’s quite a good feeling, as a business operator.”

At Café Biz, Luke will show businesses why and how content on social media needs to be consistent in quality, frequency and tone or it won’t connect with the audience. “The trick is to make your social media posts part of people’s daily routine, and that way they end up really knowing your business. It establishes familiarity while keeping your business fresh in their mind. That is something very, very powerful and it means people remember your brand.”