Wendy Ball, one of the owners at The Cup Espresso Cafe in Boulder sat down with me for thirty minutes one recent afternoon. In this interview, she shares her experiences with the social web since we first sat down to get The Cup started with it (in March, 2009). These are her experiences and results as a small business owner in downtown Boulder, Colorado. This is an edited transcript and has been offered here as a case study with permission of The Cup's owners, Wendy and Chris Ball.

Follow The Cup at @thecupboulder on Twitter. Find them on the web: http://thecupboulder.com. View more photos of the cafe & baristas.

Q. Wendy, we (finally) sat down to talk about the social web on March 23, 2009. What has been the biggest success you've had with social media? Was it worth the investment to sit down together and get you trained up?

A. Allowing our customers to see what we're all about when we're not running around all frantic. Using Twitter allows us to expose people to our likes, the local food we're eating, our hockey passion. We're giving people insight that isn't all coffee all the time. One thing a lot of people don't know is we named our cafe The Cup in part because of the Stanley Cup. It's hockey related. There are at least seven businesses in downtown that we have regular conversations with - we ask each other, "how's it going?"

The lunch specials at Bimbamboo are great deals, and it exposes what they do at a low cost.

I tweet new baked items, like today, a new gluten-free sweet potato zucchini muffin! I tweet about them in order to get feedback.

Q. What's your favorite part of being engaged w/the social web as a small business owner.

A. I love to follow hockey players. I follow Christopher Walken, cyclists, the local Slipstream cycling team.You can go find those people. Lance twitters and he's eliminating the middleman. There are no misquotes, no interpretations. You get more directly from his mouth than from a media agency.

Q. So you wouldn't have a PR firm tweet or publicize on your behalf?

No! I want to tweet for the connection I get with other people. I tweet on a whim, on the spot.

It's absolutely about getting to know other people, especially business owners on the other end of Pearl Street . (Interviewer's note: Pearl Street is the main street/pedestrian shop area in Boulder.)

Q. On April 21 you put your Twitter handle at the checkout counter. Has that produced any tangible results?

A. After putting that on the counter we've gotten more followers. It has sparked more conversations. People were asking about us on Twitter. We're going to add our Twitter handle to the coupons that go out in the newspaper.

Q. Has it been a really huge time commitment to get started as a small business with social media?

A. No because if I'm busy I don't Twitter. It doesn't take up a lot of time. People will learn once they get going. There are no forced tweets.

Q. You have events like cuppings, coffee tastings. What's happening with those?

A. The cupping on April 12...people came because of Twitter. People saw it on Twitter but most already knew about it.

This week we had another cupping but nobody came to it because of Twitter even though it was retweeted by Daily Camera, Elephant Journal and Boulder Chamber of Commerce. I still totally believe it plants seeds.

Q. What other changes are coming for The Cup in the social web? Plans for the future?

A.

- educating people about their coffee choices

- encouraging people to think critically about what they're drinking

- you should be actively drinking your coffee

- drink coffee consciously, and drink concscious coffees

- when we do something new, let people know about it

- retweets usually based on new initiatives, composting - including the bike initiative

- we plan to do other promotions like have a gluten-free week

Q. What advice would you give other small business owners looking to get started with social media/the social web?

A.

- don't be afraid

- it's not time-consuming

- it should be an avenue for letting people know what's happening with their business, customers like to know what's going on beyond what just came out of the oven

- have fun with it! It shouldn't be looked upon as anything that needs maintenance!

Q. Final thoughts?

I would never have started if you hadn't encouraged me. On the list of things to do, it was very low but you encouraged it.It's alive and you're part of it and you're growing with it. There's a lot more to it than self-promotion.

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What creative initiatives have you seen small businesses using to make the most of the social web/social media to connect with new and current customers? What are you currently doing that has been effective? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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