…Give them all free pizza!!
Gizmodo says:
If Papa John’s thinks that they can buy our Facebook friendship by offering us a free medium pizza with any online order…they’re completely right.
You don’t win friends with salad, but you do with free pizza, apparently. Since putting the free pizza promotion on their Facebook page a few quick hours ago the page has exploded in a digital feeding frenzy. Gizmodo reported about 10,000 Papa John’s fans as of yesterday. Today the number is… 142,000 and counting.
Of course, some of these freebie-seekers probably didn’t notice the “with any online pizza purchase” part, but Papa John’s now has a vastly-greater audience for future promotions. When somebody becomes your fan on Facebook you can send out messages to the entire group at once or you can break it down by location, age or gender. You can also attach images (coupons) videos and links. Papa John’s now has an incredible online reach to compliment its online ordering system.
But it’s not all wine and roses (pizza and beer?). By jumping on Facebook you also embrace the downsides of social media, which include people saying not-so-nice things about your brand. On PJ’s discussion board a popular topic is “Papa John’s is rather nasty” and some of the wall posts are not exactly marketing department-approved. Now that we’ve piqued your interest, you’ll just have to go look for yourself.