The Locos Event – Diary of a @Foursquare Flash Mob

Columbus Georgia doesn’t foursquare as much as other cities.  Well, that’s about to change. We’re about to make a point to integrate social media into businesses throughout the area and we start here.

The goal: Create a foursquare flash mob (to accomplish much more than just a swarm badge) at Locos Grill & Pub.

We plan to create enough buzz to Connect Locos Columbus to new customers,  Engage customers in a ‘social’ conversation, and Convert buzz into loyalty and Retain new fans.

July 10th at 4pm we’ll be hosting Columbus’s first ever foursquare event at Locos Grill & Pub (confirm your attendance here at facebook).  How are we going to do it?  Of course we do it the Stand And Stretch way.

Connect, Engage, Convert and Retain

Connecting to the Customers

We started with our partner Will Burgin, the owner of Locos Columbus, who’s social media networks he has entrusted to us.  We worked closely with Will to build the game plan for the past few weeks using the Stand And Stretch methodology and are well prepared.  We determined a baseline of the social media influence that Locos Columbus was generating prior to our engagement.  We are continually gathering statistics (using tools) to update this analysis from day to day to compare to the baseline over time to measure the impact.  We customized a plan for Will including the actions we would take over the next few weeks…… and then we plugged in.

We began connecting people through Twitter including hashtags, Facebook status updates, the Event page on Facebook, and of course by just talking to everyone we knew in our own networks.

“Our team was enjoying lunch as I was showing everyone the ‘swarm’ and company cap as a waiter caught a glimpse.  He blurted out, “Hey!  Is that the swarm badge?”  We said, “Yes, it is!”  Astonished by his observation and interaction we told him about the event.  He replied, “Yeah, I heard about it.  I will be there.”  When we continued to engage him we found out that he has friends that work at Locos and had been talking about it for the past few days!  I felt as if this was the moment it became real.   We could potentially out reach our initial expectations.”  – Lucas Shaffer

This was the beginning of the’ Buzz’.

Engaging the Audience

The social conversations have begun.  Twitter mentions and new followers, Facebook posts and new fans,  Event confirmations and people asking us “What is a swarm badge?”, “Why should people attend?” and more importantly “What will Locos Grill and Pub gain from this event?”  Engagement in ALL directions with Stand And Stretch at the helm.  Locos has been able to get the word out over multiple accounts across the major social media networks and it is paying off greatly.  Our report on the analytics and buzz-worthy data will be in a follow-up to this event shortly after.  Stay tuned.

To engage the customers even further, Will has a Internet ready TV and will be providing a *LIVE* Twitter feed for them to give ‘shout-outs’ by using the twitter hashtag ‘#locos4sq’.  This allows them to interact at a level never seen before with ease.  The excitement of the employees as we were checking this out was obviously apparent.  This will be a very interesting way for the attendees, and employees,  to contribute to the event and to the social ‘buzz’ through Twitter.

Converting patrons to loyal customers

Now that we have engaged our connections it’s time to convert them to loyal customers.  We can’t just offer freebie’s or give away items.  It is important to support the customers and allow them to engage Locos as more than just patrons and more as a member of the family.  Social ‘networks’ are only connection points.  Locos Grill and Pub will have the ardent task of providing excellent service and do everything in their power to provide customer satisfaction to convert visitors into loyal customers.  I know they are up to the task!

Retaining by being remarkable

After this event, there will be an opportunity for Locos to use the awareness to retain customers by providing excellent service and food time and time again.  Locos Grill and Pub staff will continue to be ambassadors for the location and be involved in social networks after the event so they can engage past, current and future customers. Whether you know it or not, everyone will see this devotion to leading the area in service inside and OUTSIDE of the location.  Retaining customers by providing them engaging avenues of interaction are pinnacle to any business now.  No business can afford to let this opportunity pass by.

Our devotion to Locos is to provide social monitoring and analytical analysis on buzz, sales and interaction for up to 3 months to help in retaining their following.  Will and his team will be provided a ‘social snapshot’ of his reach before, during and after this event to provide clear and undeniable reports of how this type of event has affected his overall business; at his location and on the social sites.

We will continue our relationship with Will and his team for months to provide comprehensive analysis of the event; before, during and after.

As you can see, we are prepared.  Nothing like this has ever been brought to our area and we plan to exceed expectations.  Whether or not you can attend, you should follow up on this blog.  During the event, we will be blogging live by adding photos and video of the event on our home page.  It will be epic and could possibly change the face of event planning and organization for our area.

This is where it begins…