Social media might never be the same with Gink. Live ginking a schmorkel?!?!? Fabulously funny in my opionion, but you might need “earmuffs” toward the end. 
Thanks to Lisa Foote for the find!
Web + Mobile + Search + Social in Minneapolis MN
All posts tagged facebook
Nothing comforts a broken heart like food. Punch Pizza, with seven Twin Cities locations reached out to passionate Vikings fans on Sunday on various social media sites offering a free pizza the next night to help them deal with the devastating NFC Championship loss to the Saints.
The result was nearly 10,000 pizzas given away (number from Punch Pizza), customers lined-up out the door, local TV news coverage and thousands of mentions on the web. Genius.
Few restaurants in the Minneapolis / St Paul area have been as savvy or active with social media as Punch Pizza and their latest interaction produced some incredible results.
Let’s look at a few of the ingredients to Punch’s most recent online success (they’ve had a few).
The Method: Punch has been socially active on the web for some time now. They use Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, Flick and their website. With over 5,000 Twitter followers of @punchpizza and 7,000 Facebook fans, Punch has plenty of customers to interact with.
Timing: I loved the fact that they were prepared and jumped into the mix at a time when social sites were busting with chatter from the game. Overtime has just ended, fans were crushed and Punch offered a small bit of light. Timing matters, Punch knew this.
The Offer: Punch was ready to roll with 2 offer options, one to celebrate a Vikings win, the other to comfort the masses with a Vikings loss. The Vikes lost and so Punch sent out a tweet and posted the offer to their Facebook page, free pizza was the cure.
The offer/coupon was posted to their Flickr page. All you had to do was print or show it on your phone to get a free pizza for dinner on Monday night. Punch has carried out multiple marketing campaigns that integrate all of their social tools together, which is always a great move.
Conversation Effect: Punch leveraged their community, network and customer base to turn a ripple into a wave. One offer, one tweet and one Facebook update created well over 3,000 clicks to their coupon.
This Twitter mention graph from Squawq shows how they generated over 370 tweets in 2 days, a massive spike form their normal mentions and activity.
Their Facebook status update gathered interaction from a few hundred in the form of “Likes” and comments. See a few of them below, wouldn’t you love this conversation about your business?
You can also factor in they gathered new followers and fans on these accounts thanks to the mentions and interaction.
Traditional Coverage: I haven’t been able to pin down from Punch Pizza if the local media was contacted or they picked up on the buzz from the social networks themselves, but Punch was featured on the 10pm news on KARE11. 30 seconds of air time showed sad Vikings fans getting cheered up waiting in line at Punch Pizza locations. (photo below from Kare11)
As one Vikings and Punch fan shared on camera: “I am really sad about yesterday because I thought this was the year and the pizza will definitely help because there is no better pizza. So, I’ll get over it real quick and we’ll put on our purple for next year,” says Tere Haas as she waited in line in the cold.
Outcome: I don’t know how you could ask for anything more out of a promotion like this. Social interaction, branding, traditional media coverage and 10,000 pizzas in the hands of your faithful and newly found customers is a huge win. I think you can measure this social media marketing and I’d bet they are pouring over the data generated past what I’ve outlined. 
Punch Pizza and their marketing minds (agency and/or internal) are commended for putting together a great social promotion. My only issue was that I wasn’t able to get to the Wayzata location last night and get my free pizza.
04
JanBring a visual and creative guy, I’m a huge fan of data and information communicated with more than a chart or via tables of stats. This fusion of design and data is known as an infographic. Webdesigner Depot posted a great collection of infographics and the Facebook vs. Twitter example really caught my eye.
View the full sized layout here. It was created in April 2009, thus not accurate with today’s numbers.
This infographic also made me remember and miss the print magazine Business 2.0. It was a favorite of mine and always had solid infographics.
Say what? A recent post on Noupe.com highlighted where the web will be in 5 years and has 15 different ideas/predictions to consider. Social Media Optimization may become the focus of online marketing, not SEO.
All 15 of them are possibilities and the article provides a ton of links and additional information on each one. Here was one that caused me to ponder.
#12 – Search Engine Optimization Will Be Less Important – In a nutshell it introduces the idea on how Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels help answer peoples questions or point them in a specific direction. So are we really looking at less Google searches and more “Does anyone know a ….?” on these platforms? Could be a big yes.
As someone who spends a lot of time on search engine optimization and the social media space, when will social media optimization be the buzz? The two already work together on a few fronts.
Many SM experts are already out there helping businesses of all sizes understand and navigate the social web. 5 years from now it just might be common place to be social media friendly if you want new customers. Sounds fun to me. You?
21
SepI have many conversations with small business owners on Facebook as a marketing tool. For many it’s hard to wrap their mind around how to turn something viewed as social and fun into a business tool. It’s really not that tricky.
There are the obvious routes of creating a fan page for your business and also Facebook ads, but many fail to see the potential in integrating more of their business into their own profile. Yes, fill out your profile, but how about pumping a bit more business vibe into your interaction?
1. Photos – Consider your profile pic. You can use a professional headshot, a more formal shot or an “at work” photo to turn your representation a bit more on the business side. It’s a small visual, but it can help set the tone.
2. Photos – Same as number one and rightly so. Publishing and photo sharing has greatly contributed to the success of Facebook. Creating albums that are work related can go a long way. I post a few photos of every speaking/presentation event I do as well as create albums of web design screenshots. Getting friends, connections and others to visualize my work, my talents and efforts is important. Need a few ideas?
+ Any position: Photos of you attending an expo or event in your industry
+ Salesman: Post photos of you demo-ing your product or your service in action
+ Plumber/Electrician: Post photos of a simple fix or install your friends/family/network might benefit from.
+ Retail Manager/Owner: Post photos of stocking an item, demoing a product, you with a favorite customer
+ Realtor: Post photos of a new listing or a great home you previewed/toured or sold recently
3. Your Status Updates: Giving your network a view of your daily tasks, the things that separate you in business, your talents, ideas and more can go a long way. I share every web design launch with my Facebook friends and find decent click-thrus to the sites from those links.
Guy Kawasaki recently wrote some status update ideas for job seekers to use on their FB page when job hunting.
All of us may have a different blend and style that works to inform our network and not overwhelm, bore or offend. I think in giving it a shot you’ll find what works for you. More than anything, I think it’s a mistake to leave your 100, 200, 500 or more Facebook friends out of the loop on what you excel at to pay the bills, not just the social fun in your life. It’s a tool and it’s all about what you do with it.
I'm VP of Spyder Trap, a marketing and technology firm providing search engine marketing, web design, social media, mobile and other digital marketing services. Located in Minneapolis, MN.