This post is by Liz Perman, SmartBrief’s director of association relations.
Attendees of the NRA Show 2010 were hungry for case studies on how their fellow restaurateurs leverage social-media channels to benefit their businesses. Michael Keller, chief brand officer of American Dairy Queen, delivered on this in his session, “Renew Your Brand with Consumers the International Dairy Queen Way.”
The challenge that Keller and his team face is significant: How do you keep a brand such as Dairy Queen, which was founded in 1940, relevant over time?
Keller’s team members at Dairy Queen don’t rely on a single social-media channel. Instead, they have orchestrated a web of interwoven opportunities for consumers to interact with the brand, with DQ’s iconic Blizzard at the center. Here are a few of the tactics they employ:
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The Blizzard Fan Club and the Blizzard Fan Club Blog. Both are accessible through the Dairy Queen website. Their fan club has almost 2.5 million members, and the blog incorporates multimedia, including photos and recaps from The Blizzard Mobile’s birthday tour (see below) and Michael Keller’s CBO Corner, an audio component.
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The Blizzard Fan Club on Facebook. Because each Facebook user has an average of 130 connections — and a user’s network sees everything — DQ’s Facebook presence provides an essential opportunity for the amplification of their brand message.
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My personal favorite, The Blizzard Mobile, lovingly known as BlizzMo. In celebration of the Blizzard’s 25th anniversary, BlizzMo is touring the U.S. and Canada — and giving out scores of free mini-Blizzards along the way. The Blizzmanns, a make-believe family, follow in pursuit of BlizzMo. Here’s a photo recap of the tour so far.
A critical aspect of Dairy Queen’s social-media strategy is that each component has several links to the other platforms. And DQ’s most widely recognized and loved brand — the Blizzard — is at the heart of all of these communications.
Has your restaurant utilized a web of social-media communications to build your brand or bolster the bottom line? Tell us about it below.
Photo via Dairy Queen
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by SB on Social Media, SmartBrief Food. SmartBrief Food said: Hey @dairyqueen, you're the social-media case study on SmartBlog on Restaurants today! Check it out http://ow.ly/1W68a #icecream #restaurant [...]
Great post! We are impressed with what DQ is doing in mobile marketing and in social media.
Here is one of my recent posts about one of our clients from http://www.cenergy.com
Making Facebook work for a restaurant
by Tony Treadway
I just checked the number of Facebook “likes” on our client’s Facebook site and the numbers amaze me. Pal’s Sudden Service has a cult-like following of loyal customers (which is a subject for a future blog). Here are some comparisons. The Pal’s Facebook has more than 16,000 followers with only 22 units compared to Jason’s Deli’s 2,000 followers with more than 215 units. Whataburger has 710 units and only 1,268 followers and Which Wich, with 110 units, has only 1,015.
Obviously, we have something going on in social media. Here are three tips if you want to make more out of the number one web following in America:
1. Provide an inspired daily content entry. With Pal’s, it’s the Pal’s “Thought of the Day”, a whimsical tip that will improve your life. We also partner with a local TV station’s morning news show where those who e-mail in a fun or fantastic family photo can be selected for a free coffee mug. The daily winner photo is then posted on the Pal’s Facebook. Thus, there are two reasons a day to check out the Facebook page.
2. Build a relationship. Ask questions and start conversations on a regular basis. We use specialized software to pre-plan questions, comments and promotions that feeds Facebook, Twitter, etc. and monitors comments as their are posted.
3. Make the Facebook site a priority with a person responsible for answering questions about the brand. For Pal’s it translates to another touch point for the brand and it drives sales. In two new product launches, we’ve proven that we can drive nearly 10 percent of sales simply through Facebook.
Want more tips on how you can boost your Facebook presence and social media strategies? Give me a call.
My recent post Food Truck – Bunge Oils – Bunge M.O.E.
Where's the case study? A real case study would look at all the variables that play on a business over time – or at least in this case how DQ's use of SM affects sales and profitability. I don't see that here. You can't pay the bills with fans and followers. Where's the ROI? Without using sales data to back up your social media claims, this is just a glorified ad for Dairy Queen.
I won't even start on the previous comment but I would have thought there would be better editorial control over vendors leaving blatant ads for their company vs actually adding to the conversation.
While I can't claim thousands of fans (yet), I have def used SM to booster the awareness of my small restaurant in the highly competitive town of Bethesda, Md. Essentially using Twitter, FaceBook and other social sites, I'm trying to just build overall awareness and community building. I will self critique and say that I need to do more to have "call to actions' and such to drive trackable sales, but I do feel that it has tremendous potential and especially for the small guys, HAS to be a part of your overall marketing strategy.
I'm a fan Tony, but call up your electicity provider and ask them if you can pay your bill this month in "awareness" and let me know what they say.
My recent post Memorial Day 2010
No they don't. But relationship marketing isn't about the push, it's about the pull. And undertsanding that means the difference between success and failure with social media. And no, SM is not new. Twiter, Facebook & LinkedIn are new but they are just the latest tools that Word-of-Mouth marketers have in their toolbox and you can bet your last saute pan that there are experts who have been utilizing WOM strategies for a very long time. This isn't rocket surgery, it's relationships.
You are correct sir, interested in hearing your podcast…seems like we should be talking more
You should checkout SinglePlatform (www.singleplatform.com). We are a social media and marketing platform specifically for restaurants and bars, and we are already working with thousands of restaurants across the country.
[...] blog posts, user generated content contests and even mobile/real-time content. SmartBrief has just a short overview and actually only covered a piece of what DQ does in the social web. The point though, is that [...]
[...] blog posts, user generated content contests and even mobile/real-time content. SmartBrief has just a short overview and actually only covered a piece of what DQ does in the social web. The point though, is that [...]
Case study: Dairy Queen scoops into social media…
Restaurateurs eager to tap into the world of social media might take a tip from Dairy Queen’s model. Michael Keller, chief brand officer of the franchise, says that DQ has expanded its reach through several social-media projects, including a fan club …
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