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Review content:
Redendo’s SOFRITA: \r
A tribute to Social Networking for the small entrepreneur\r
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When the genius of a hard working wife/husband team and the power of FaceBook merge…. Another Big Bang! Badda BOOM!\r
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Restaurant Owners Carolyn and Chef Anthony Redendo are a growing success story, thanks in part to their active use of the 21st Century’s guerilla marketing tool of choice: social networking, specifically, FaceBook. They have harnessed the interactive power of social networking to launch their new restaurant to a much anticipated Grand Opening in the small suburban community of Fountain Hills Arizona. (Fountain Hills is actually a 30,000 population suburb of Scottsdale, which itself is a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.) \r
Carolyn and Anthony’s challenge: How do you build a customer base to support a new restaurant in a small town during a recession, on a limited budget? \r
Answer: FaceBook.\r
It doesn’t hurt that Anthony himself actively runs his facebook presence, and responds to comments several times a day. He is by nature a fun guy, and he instinctively creates mini-contests at least twice a week – you just never know when it is going to happen, so you “follow” his postings just to see what he comes up with next. \r
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In this little town of 30,000 residents he has more than 500 “friends” who interact with him, all anxiously awaiting the opening of his new “tapas and more” restaurant, SOFITA. SOFRITA will be his third restaurant in the area. \r
He hasn’t even created a business website for SOFRITA yet. Try it yourself: type “SOFRITA” in your web browser and you will find his facebook site, at which you can interact with Anthony himself. \r
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It is this active participation that is the key to facebook success stories. Regular websites are passive. You just watch. With facebook, you interact. \r
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It really works well when the host, like Anthony, knows how to create, and have, FUN. (It doesn’t hurt that Anthony, a transplanted New Yorker, really knows how to market himself and his product seamlessly as part of the fun and games.)\r
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For example: with great spontaneity, on their FaceBook “wall” Anthony posts a question with a picture, asking “Anybody know what this thing is? I inherited 6 of them and don’t know what they are for.” One of his “followers” named it within 6 minutes as a banana stand. Badda bing! She “won!” and is now “Banana Joanna” on his facebook wall. Do you THINK she just might be a loyal customer even before the restaurant is open? There were 24 more responses in this “thread”!\r
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Facebook calls this event being a “fan”. If you are in business, you WANT fans, right? (Previously known as “customers”, in 20th Century parlance).\r
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It is this type of active participation that is the key to social networking. SOFRITA has effectively used the tool. How much did it cost to set up this powerful web presence? Nothing; just their time.\r
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