2. The Evolution of Marketing

The owners of the new Red’s Porch,1 located in a refurbished fire station in a trendy part of town, had a brilliant idea. They would use the viral power of social media to grow visibility and awareness of their new restaurant.

Their idea was simple, elegant, and oh-so-viral. They would send tweets that they’d provide a free drink extravaganza at their restaurant if they could get just 100 Twitter followers by the following Monday.

Free drinks. Open bar. No charge.

In the world of marketing, there are two sure-fire promotions. The first is to give away free money. The second is to give away free alcohol, which is exactly what the members of Red’s Porch intended to do.

The promotion was so bold and so viral that the ...

Get How to Make Money with Social Media: An Insider’s Guide to Using New and Emerging Media to Grow Your Business, Second Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.