I read a recent blog post about a coffee shop increasing its clientele thanks to Twitter (and my own thanks to Rachel Reuben for pointing me in the right direction). It’s a great example of businesses engaging their local community through social media, and a great poster child for ROI in social media.

Yet as encouraging as this example is, there’s another way this business and others like it could increase its customer base and profits while reaching out to local social media users – teenagers.

While on Twitter this morning, I noticed a comment by Chris Clayton. He made a valid point that most Tweetups (public get-togethers of Twitter users) are in bars. Since Chris is only 17, he has to wait another year to take part – and there are many other countries where the legal drinking age is more than 18.

This is a huge audience that’s being missed, both by social media and business alike.

While there’s certainly no age barrier to social media, the majority of users are still within the 18-45 age group. A lot of businesses currently using Twitter effectively cater to this audience – technology and new media, for example, are hugely popular in this age group. But what about everyone else?

We talk about opening social media up to a wider audience, to make its tools and applications more approachable. One way of doing this to make it appealing to the non-core audience. This is where local businesses can really come in and claim a huge slice of the pie.

Take Chris’s example. He’s not old enough to drink at bars but he wants to get together with other local Twitter users of his age. I asked the Twitter community earlier about solutions, and the majority that came back were coffee shops, bagel shops and similar. And as the example of CoffeeGroundz shows at the start of this post, it works.

So here’s the pitch, local cafe and coffee/bagel shop owners.

1. Get yourself on Twitter.
2. Use the community to find out who the younger users neighbourhood are.
3. Offer your place of business for the occasional Tweetup. If it’s a really good number, how about making it a private couple of hours?
4. Start a Twitter group for your business and get the local teenagers to join it so you can post details of the latest Tweetup for everyone to see.

With one simple action, you’ve not only established a presence with your online and offline community, but you’ve also reached an audience that’s sorely underused. And you don’t even have to stop there – for adults that don’t particularly like bars, reach out to them too.

For the teenagers looking to find a place to meet other Twitter users in your city? Get some numbers together and take it to your local coffee shop. Show why it’d be worth it for them to let you arrange a Tweetup. Make sure you all buy at least a coffee or one item from the menu – after all, the business is helping you. Return the favour.

There’s a big chunk of business out there just waiting for someone. Ready to grab it?

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