MARKETING EXPOSED

Their Twitter handle is on their store sign, which makes them probably the first retail business in the country to do that according to the Local Search News.  Their boldly focused sales successes via Twitter have brought them national media attention from the likes of Advertising Age, Tech Crunch, MSNBC, and USA Today – just to name a few.

And now they’re about to embark on a national franchise expansion, their first franchisee being no less than billionaire tech guy Mark Cuban. 

All this attention is centered on Naked Pizza - one small pizza store targeting a 3-mile radius of customers in New Orleans since opening in 2006.   A store which, for less than 3 months, has made Twitter a huge mainstay centerpiece of its marketing. 

“We’d really never done much traditional types of advertising except for mailers,” Naked Pizza co-owner Brock Fillinger told me. “Then Twitter allowed us to really connect with our customers because we could just be ourselves.  We could be sarcastic, tweet little jokes, and be smart asses.  And people retweet that stuff.”

NAKEDpizza It’s Monday. Time to wake up papajohns attorney. “papajohns pizza is nothin more than donut w/tomato sauce”

9:53 AM Jun 22nd from Twitterrific

Naked Pizza built its business on a purpose and a message of being healthy pizza.  “For the first couple of years we got a lot of word of mouth from that,” Fillinger pointed out. 

Hmmm, that sounds like nothing more than good old-fashioned social networking.  Twitter now just makes that much faster and more efficient.

About a month into their new Twitter presence Naked Pizza wanted to really get a taste of what Twitter might accomplish by doing a single day Twitter promotion.  15% of that day’s total sales came from customers responding directly to the Twitter offers – many of whom were brand new customers!

Amazing, especially when you realize that just a few months ago the Naked Pizza guys didn’t even know Twitter existed.  It wasn’t until they were tipped off about it from Mr. Cuban that they even got an account.  But after setting it up they didn’t seek help from any Twitter or Social Media specialists on how to use it.

“We just figured we should be authentic,” Fillinger said.  “It was kinda slow building it up at first.  We used some tools to identify New Orleans area Tweeters, but most of it has really been pretty organic.

“Then when it started taking off and we could see how it was impacting our sales we started putting the Twitter handle on pizza box tops and signs in the store.  And then on the big sign out front.”

And today they’ve crossed the 5,000 threshold in terms of followers.

Since there are still plenty of people who don’t fully understand how to use Twitter, Naked Pizza also wants to put some focus on helping in that arena as well.  They want people to learn that Twitter is much more than being able to follow a couple of celebrities.

“It’s really hyper local,” Fillinger noted.  “We want people to get that.  So we’re going to start doing some ‘Twitter Days’ where we’ll work together with local businesses to help people understand the power of Twitter and how to really use it.”

Now that Twitter has taken off so amazingly well they’re turning their attention to their Facebook site to increase sales and presence from that.  And as they expand in terms of franchised locations they have one unique requirement: A potential franchisee must be well-versed on using social media says Fillinger.

“We’re working on proprietary software called ‘Pavlov’ – like Pavlov’s Dog.  That will be our way to integrate and measure old media with the new social media.  We think that the strength of social comes from simple real communication that generates buzz.  Being active on social means you can participate in people’s lives.  You can connect with people.  So it will always be a big part of what we do.”

NAKEDpizza policy: all employees must have >250 friends on fb & >50 followers on twitter. skill set requirements. eco-devo baby

12:06 PM Jun 6th from Twitterrific

 If you ever wondered about the potential ROI on using some social media like Twitter, the guys at Naked Pizza should help cement just what the possibilities are.  It does require focus, an investment of time, and a willingness to stay consistently behind your efforts.  Of course, a little creativity doesn’t hurt either!

NAKEDpizza Anyone who sweats a little tomorrow getting active (long walk, run, gym) post a pic and get nxt pie 50% off. Live Naked.

9:56 PM Jun 6th from Twitterrific

There are very precise ways to build success stories via taking that next step and integrating social and traditional media.  Are you willing to try?

- Steve