Where Did We Go?
Why our social media presence has changed, and why you should get used to it.
Hey there. It's been a long time since we’ve really posted and an even longer time since we blogged.
It’s been an insane year for us, all of us. After digging in and fighting to stay afloat in 2021, we hit 2022 with vigor and excitement. Amidst all of our hope and passion, we never imagined we’d end the year the way we’re ending it. We expanded into our second location at TMC, an absolutely unreal opportunity that we were offered, and have grown our team from a consistent 3-5 to 15+. It has been humbling, inspiring and...well, sobering.
I know, “sobering”? Really? We have carried this dream, this heart for Revolution for four years, against countless oppositional forces, and now someone was so impressed and fired up for what we were doing, that they removed their franchised Starbucks and replaced them with us. The ego wants to relish the victory but our heart realizes that this is an enormous responsibility. What we are doing matters, it has momentum and it’s important that, now more than ever, we dig into our values and scale this company ethically and on principles that enrich our employees, customers and community.
So, let’s circle back to social media. Because, you’ve noticed, we’ve been quiet. We ran out of steam. Got tired of playing the algorithm game. But, truly, we got tired of it everywhere. In every business. In our personal life. I (Ben) have removed myself from Instagram for over two months and have deleted the Facebook app from my phone and, honestly, my life has only improved being free of social media. Even Amanda remarks that she’s tired of the game, tired of constantly trying to find new ways to grab people’s attention.
That’s all it is. We call it marketing, but it’s fighting for the attention of the consumer. Apps like Instagram and Facebook are free because users (notice only drugs and technology call their dependents “users”) are the product. First it was a beautifully curated feed, then it had to be that feed and reels, now it has to be just reels. Where does it end? As we battle for your attention (“I’ve got to post a story so people will think of us and come in to buy coffee!”), we’re actively contributing to a system that thrives on making sure you sink as much time as humanly possible in it. We draw you in with a post, but then you’ve lost an hour swiping up on memes and reels, etc.
So the question that has come forth is:
How do we ethically digitally market?
The answer is shocking:
We have no idea.
We don’t know. We don’t know how to successfully market on social media while not participating in the degradation of attention spans. We don’t know how to satiate the invisible requirements for success on Instagram without spending way too much time of our day obsessing over it. And so that’s kind of the new solution. We don’t obsess over it. We don’t obsess over a perfect feed or a stream of reels that use the right trending audio, have the right amount of hashtags and include the most aesthetic cover image. If that’s what we have to do to be successful on these platforms, we aren’t interested.
We started this business to enrich people’s lives. To give them something better for their coffee habits, their community, their lives. We chose the Revolutionary path not because it is easy, but because it is Right. It is the Right thing to do.
We accept that our responsibility, our call, isn’t necessarily the conviction of others. Maybe nothing we’ve said here resonates with you. That’s okay. We aren’t trying to force our viewpoints on anyone. Nor do we judge you if you’re an influencer with a small legion of followers. The beauty of this country is that we may all carry and act upon our convictions as we see fit. We seek to educate, encourage and empower people in all walks of life. We have encouraged the starting of businesses, the pursuit of relationships, the leaving of the 9-5 to pursue the dream of music, all of the scary steps into the unknown. That’s how we started. A step. A leap. No promise or guarantee. We have no guarantee that we can be successful on the marketing sphere without playing the meta game. However, we’re willing to try, willing to fail and willing to learn.
We aren’t going to fall off of the Instagram or Facebook sphere. We aren’t going to just disappear. But, as we’ve struggled and fought to find our own way in the past four years, we will now choose to find our way in this sphere. We will commit ourselves to posting things that are meaningful, informative and uplifting. We want people to walk away from our content having learned something new, feeling more empowered and encouraged than before they viewed it. We’ll get it right sometimes. We’ll fall flat others.