Okay - so like many of you, I'm on Facebook, and I saw the Starbucks Free Pastry Day event happening for today.

I think this is great marketing, and Starbucks hit a home run (with me at least) when they did the Vote Promo last November (anything to get people to vote is a-okay with me!). But, today - I was going to go into the Starbucks in my neighborhood (S. Beverly Drive - Beverly Hills, CA) but then I started to think about what I really wanted.

Did I really want a free pastry? Or was the fact that it was "free" the only real draw for me? The other major issue was that Starbucks doesn't offer complimentary wi-fi. I know this is the case for many coffee houses, but to tell you the truth - it's a must have for me.

I'm happy to "take a coffee break" (as I'm gently urged to do every 2 hours here at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf), patronize them with another purchase - and enjoy the valuable benefit of being able to sit outdoors, enjoy the sun, the people watching, and get my work done. It totally trumps the free pastry in my mind.

I also am on Twitter (okay - I'm a social media junkie...). There was an equally clever offer from It's A Grind Coffee (@ITSAGRINDCoffee) when I began following them. They responded with this compelling offer: Hi, thanks for the follow! I hope you'll check us out at www.itsagrind.com Enter "Twitter$5" for $5 off you favorite coffee.
Here you have two call-to-action items: visit the site AND get $5 off your favorite coffee. Love it!

The ability to harness social media (and not just to tell people that you're waiting endlessly for the person in front of you to get their stinkin' laundry out of the dryer so you can put yours in...) and position your message as strategically and specifically as you want it to be, is something that I think most of us will eventually come to appreciate.

I talk to people all the time that say "this Twitter/Facebook/Youtube crap is totally taking over our lives and disconnecting us from true human interaction". To that I say "and I suppose you're still totally against that 'voice mail' stuff too, huh?".

I see mammoth businesses, like Starbucks, understanding and harnessing the power of social media for the benefit of their business - but also to generate other responses as well (like voting) - and I know applications like splick-it (okay, sorry, shameless plug!) are able to bring that kind of marketing muscle to the little guys with nary a whiff of technological hassle or huge upfront costs. And that's happening today.

After all, it's still about choices. Do I want to receive a text-message telling me about a special offer from my favorite coffee or tea house? Maybe. Can I opt-out of receiving such messages? With almost everything out there (FBook, Twitter, etc.) - yes. But, I can also choose to take advantage of those things when I want to - and like today - make the choice. Pastry or wi-fi?

I chose wi-fi.