Starbucks Used Social Media to Get One Million to Stores in One Day

Starbucks’ Vice President of Brand, Content and Online, Chris Bruzzo, is on stage at the Mashable Media Summit today and he just revealed that last year’s Free Pastry Day was a whopping success, driving more than one million people to stores.

As we noticed, activity on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook became electric on the day of the event as the free pastry news spread in digital form. Bruzzo’s credits fans with the idea to use social media to drive new business, and his remarks confirm that the swell of social media activity drove customers to visit Starbucks stores in droves.

Bruzzo also speaks to the success of the company’s Tax Day green initiative to get customers to bring in their own tumblers in exchange for free coffee, which — like Free Pastry Day — was primarily promoted online via their Facebook Page. Also, the company’s MyStarbucks Idea has generated more than 80,000 ideas and Bruzzo credits Product Manager Brad Nelson for helping them tap into the power of Twitter.

Right now there’s no big brand better embracing social media than Starbucks. The coffee retailer has managed to dominate on Facebook, made news as the first company to offer a nationwide Foursquare deal, and was selected to try out Twitter’s Promoted Tweets ad platform before other advertisers will have the chance.