Everyone loves a freebie, right? And everyone loves the Dudes, yes? So how about we thank you folks for all the love you’ve been sharing with us and provide a “cash in your pocket” holiday event to get us all in the spirit of giving.
Starting on the 1st December and every day until the 24th, the Speech Dudes will be giving away a free $5.00 Starbucks credit to SLP’s and Audiologists to-be, who we know are all penniless and stressed at this time of year. Using the wonderful new Tweet-a-Coffee program [1] from our favorite coffee company, we can send you a link to a site where you print out a coupon for $5.00 worth of Starby products – and that doesn’t have to be just coffee.
Well, when we saying “giving away,” we’re not just going to pull names out of a virtual hat but actually turn this into a competition. Inspired by the popular and successful “Battle of the Regions” run by NSSLHA at the 2013 ASHA Convention in Chicago, we know there are lots and lots of very smart speechies out there who are bursting to demonstrate their knowledge. And we, as aging Dudes, are keen to encourage the new generation of brilliant young therapists who are going to take our places in the field.
So here are the FOUR very simple rules:
1. You must be following the Speech Dudes on Twitter. This, of course, may be seen as a cheap ploy to get more followers, but $5.00 for 24 days is not cheap because we don’t actually earn money by having followers. Wish we did! So if you are not currently following us using @speechdudes, that’s your first step.
2. You must be a student on an SLP or Audiology track. We can’t, of course, verify that, so we are simply going to trust you all. And before our many non-student followers beginning to feel neglected, relax! We will be running a different competition in the New Year that will be more inclusive, so just bear with us until then. We can’t say what it is but Valentine’s Day is when most people share the love…
3. You must answer a daily question. At a random time [2], we’ll tweet a question that we’re likely to have snagged from any source we choose. This could include the Praxis exams, Google, Wikipedia, old copies of outdated speech pathology and audiology text books, Encyclopedia Britannica, IMDB, NPR, and occasional quotes from such animated greats as the original series of Ren and Stimpy, and Beavis and Butthead. The first correct answer each day will get the prize.
4. You can only win once. We want to spread the joy and merriment of the holiday season and have 24 days with 24 different winners. Again, we trust you all and won’t be checking to see if @SPLspoofer1, @SLPspoofer2, and @SLPspoofer3 are all the same person.
That’s really about it. Follow us, answer the questions, and wait to see if you win. It couldn’t be simpler [3].
We’ll be running the hashtag #xmasdudes to go along with our “Countdown to Christmas” so you might want to follow that, too. If we feel so inclined, who knows, we might even hand out the occasional extra!
Coffee Time – creative commons Premshree Pillai
How To Get Your Gift
OK, so if you are a lucky winner, here’s a run down on what you have to do.
1. You will receive a tweet from @Tweetacoffee telling you that @speechdudes have sent you a link.
2. Click on that link and you’ll be taken to a site where you can “Redeem your coffee.” If you’re on a smartphone, you may need to scroll down just a little to find the button that says “Let’s Do This.”
3. After hitting the key, you’ll be asked by Twitter for permission for @Tweetacoffee to use your account. This is so it can (a) verify you are the recipient and (b) send you to the Starbuck’s site to get your gift.
4. Once you’ve done this, you get to a screen with a bar code, a card number, and a PIN. What you now have is a virtual Starbucks Card loaded up with $5.00, which you can use for anything in a Starbucks store. You now have a few options:
(a) If you want to pay for a coffee NOW, just present the screen and its bar code to the barista, who can scan it in and use the money to pay for your drink.
(b) If you want to save it until later, use the “Save my eGift for later” and email it to yourself. That way you can re-open this page anytime OR print it out – the bar code will still work.
(c) If you have a Starbucks account already, you can choose the “Transfer to my Starbucks Card” button to drop the $5.00 directly on to your card. That way you can just use your card as normal, knowing you have an extra $5.00 to play with.
That’s about it. It seems a bit complex when you see it step-by-step like this but in reality, you can just click your way through it and it takes less than a minute. Enjoy that coffee!!
Notes
[1] You don’t need a Starbucks account to receive the prize. We have to have one to send it.
[2] The Dudes have a variety of sleep issues induced by work-related stress, age, and generally poor habits. The tweets could come at 1:00 am or 11:50 pm, Eastern Standard Time. You might have to be just as a much of a narco-insomniac as the Dudes to be the first one in line to get your answer in before the clock strikes midnight! But SOMEBODY will always win 😉
[3] OK, so it could be simpler – we could just send you a free coffee without you having to do anything. But where’s the fun in that!
The Speech Dudes 