Last month the The Social Penguin blog were kind enough to post an article I wrote on Illegal Jacks use of social media to promote their burritos with a massive 1000 burrito giveaway. I’m posting it here in full for those of you who missed it, but please check out the original post for its comments and keep your eyes open for more posts from me at The Social Penguin blog.

Illegal Jacks Twitter profile

So, what’s the single most important thing to anyone looking for an ego boost on Twitter? Your follower count, when it’s up you’re happy and when it’s down you’re left wondering how those drunken tweets last night could have offended anyone. At the time of writing @IllegalJacks follower count sits at 589, which is a reasonable number for an account that has only been active since November 2009. What’s even more impressive is looking at second degree follower numbers (which loosely translates to the total count for your followers followers) Jack has the potential to reach. If every one of Jacks 589 followers re-tweeted one of his messages it would reach 1,187,052 people on Twitter.

But out of that potential 1,187,052 people how many is Jack actually reaching? A random sample of 50 tweets showed an average reach of around 1,078 people which works out at 6337 impressions. Of those 50 tweets 40 were @replies to people which shows very high levels of engagement with followers, this also means that the large number of impressions were probably created by only 10 tweets.

What’s even more important is the level of social capital that followers generate. A high level of social capital indicates that your followers themselves have a high level of influence and are willing to spread your tweets. @IllegalJacks enjoy a high to average amount of social capital from their followers and the above average figure can be explained through reciprocity, Jack social media profile is of a connecter, practicing real engagement, connecting with people through Twitter and actively re-tweeting. All this results in his followers returning the favour by engaging with him and his brand messages and also passing that message on when asked.

After all those scary numbers it’s time for some more random (and more stalkerish, Fatal Attraction style) stats, Jack tweets most frequently after 8pm and for some reason mostly on Thursdays. Averaging around 50 tweets per day or 1246 a month, which is much higher than an average user. 33% of his followers are male, 20% are female and 47% are asexual…

The level of followers has been increasing steadily at a rate of around 54% since the @IllegalJacks account was created in November 2009 and April 2010 saw the largest growth spike in followers so far, likely due to the #Jacksfreeburritos event.

#Jacksfreeburritos

On April 13th 2010 Illegal Jacks opened their doors to feed the masses 1000 free burritos in an attempt to introduce people to a burrito whilst giving away free samples of their most important dish.

More importantly the day was all about raising more awareness of Illegal Jacks and promoting the brand and ideals of the company to a wider audience. So where could a company as embedded in social media go to promote such an event but Twitter and Facebook?

The official hashtag for the event, #Jacksfreeburritos, was used as an identifier for those participating in the event whilst also creating a single phrase that could trend locally and be picked up by more people. The tracking recorded almost 300 unique mentions or re-tweets throughout the day, peaking during the lunchtime rush. The inclusion of the #Edinburgh also pushed impressions up as local users following Edinburgh tweets became aware of the event.

There was also a lot of tweeting going on in the inevitable queue with spirits remaining high even though there was a 30 minute wait at lunchtime. A long queue, which could have resulted in negative comments, actually ended up causing further frivolity as those waiting began tweeting about the “titty bar” they had found themselves outside of. On the whole the feedback online was positive with many promising return custom , the very few negative comments (which were all about the long wait) were all responded to personal by Jack minimising any damage.

Inside the staff were all working hard and as quickly as possible to feed the hungry horde outside, and everyone remained cheerful. (There was a massive cheer from the kitchens when someone ordered fajitas on Free Burrito day, obviously a big fan to turn down a free burrito.) The twitter fall inside kept those sitting in to eat informed of the plight of those still outside in the queue, and the “titty bar” tweet seemed to keep cropping up?

By 9:00pm 1000 Burritos were consumed, #Jacksfreeburritos had been trending locally throughout the day and the @IllegalJacks Twitter account had over 100 new followers.

The knock on effects of the event are still being felt; as well as increased followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook there has been an increase in footfall to the restaurant, increased chatter about the Illegal Jacks brand in the online sphere and most importantly positive word of mouth communication. (Conversations about #jacksfreeburritos have been overheard on the buses so you know its hit the big time now.) Hopefully the next proposed event, a chilli cook off, will generate the same kind of results for Jack. Make sure you’re following @IllegalJacks who’ll keep you posted!

If you are interested in Twitter Analytics and want to learn more check out Klout, Tweetstats, Twitalyzer and What the Hashtag for more info.