Smashburger’s Social Media Success
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I just wrote an article for American Express OPEN Forum about Smashburger and how they’re using social media to open new restaurants. They did an Eat & Tweet in Draper, Utah and a lot of my friends attended (@Paco_Belle @JoshSPeters @iGoByDoc).
I asked Alexis at PR firm Lola Red PR who planned the event some questions, here they are:
How many people attended? About 25 individuals from the Salt Lake City social media sphere attended the opening of Smashburger in Draper, UT.
How did you find/choose them?
For our Draper, UT opening we did extensive outreach to the social media community via web searches and traditional networking among local social media mavens. Smashburger maintains a Twitter handle for Salt Lake City (@smashburgerslc) and is daily communication with local social media circles.
Can you give me an idea of the results/how the new store is doing or what results you can attribute to social media outreach. (do you measure # of tweets, mentions, comments, blog posts, pictures posted, foot traffic, etc?).
The Twitter account for the Salt Lake City stores has received a large number of mentions comments and DMs since the event. There have been an extremely large number of blog posts with photos and many guests have mentioned seeing them. The social media community in Salt Lake City and in many other communities have embraced Smashburger’s use of social media which is evident in our followers and mentions.
Do you have a list of links to the grand opening event that I could include?
http://www.sassyscoops.com/food/review-smashburger/
Smashburger has a Utah-only hamburger called the Beehive burger. How did people like the Beehive burger in particular?
The response to our Beehive burger was very positive. We also feature a grasshopper shake on the Utah menu. Our classic Smashburger is our #1 seller in the market. The Beehive burger is extremely popular is typically the second or third most popular on the menu.
Thanks Alexis!
I found out about the event after Nigel Swaby and I interviewed Josh Peters on www.WebMarketingWeeklyShow.com about his book TwittFaced about Twitter. He told us about Smashburger on the show. (Listen at http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-75648/TS-324908.mp3 and find past episodes at – a weekly podcast for small business owners.)
What I like most about Smashburger is that they are social – they do participate and build social media into their marketing plan. It’s not an afterthought and it’s fully endorsed and understood by their founder Tom Ryan.They don’t have specifics on how it’s impacted their business – like many companies they are banking on the effort of reaching their customers and talking and listening to them will pay off. If it’s anything like this social media case study with a cafe – it does.
Thanks for your time Tom and everyone who participated. Now it’s time for me to stop writing about them and get there to try a Smashburger!
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5 Responses to “Smashburger’s Social Media Success”
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March 29th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
The Beehive is my favorite.
April 9th, 2010 at 8:54 am
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April 14th, 2010 at 11:40 am
BEWARE….the guys that own SMASH BURGER are the same two who own Quiznos. The Shaden Dad and son team will rip your financial eyes out of your head if you get involved with them as a store owner. Just ask the 2000 ex quiznos owners around the country. Probably more now.
May 7th, 2010 at 10:13 am
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May 15th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
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