As you may know, being on Facebook can make a difference for your pizzeria. In fact, social media has taken over as the #1 thing to do on the internet (yes even surpassing porn) and 189 million Facebook users check on their phone.

Bada Bing! Pizzeria (www.BadaBingPizzeria.com) is based in Springfield, Ohio and has about 2,400 likes on Facebook which is decent. But their engagement level is remarkable! I recently chatted (on Facebook, of course) with Jason Hague, owner/operator of Bada Bing! Pizzeria.



Q: We have found only about 50% of pizzerias have a presence on social media. What advice do you have for pizzerias in terms of social media?

A: Do it! I would imagine many operators get "stuck" working in their shops and don't have the time to learn or mess with social media. Take a class or get one of your younger employees to assist. As a minimum, get a Facebook page and Twitter account established. Best of all, IT'S FREE!

Q: What type of posts and frequency have you found to be the most effective?

A: I don't focus on "specials." That's a big turn off for your followers. I like to be engaging. Social media is a tool for you to connect with your customers in ways that you can't with other forms of media. Things I like to post are new specialty pizza creations, pictures of our employees and customers, and our weekly pizza giveaway. I usually post once or twice per day. I hit the lunch crowd and dinner crowd. So I usually post something around 8 or 9am to get people thinking about lunch and then later in the early afternoon to get them thinking about dinner.

Q: What is the key to success with social media for any pizzeria?

A: Be engaged. Have fun. Don't be overbearing.

Q: Let's talk about your recent successful post around Halloween where you had candy in a pizza box. What were the stats for that? What made you come up with it? Tell us more about it.

A: I actually saw a similar post from another Facebook page that was doing a guessing game for candy corn. I wanted to up the ante a bit. I went to the grocery store and purchased a bunch of assorted candy and put them in our 18" pizza box. I took a picture of it and posted it on our FB page. The contest was to guess the correct amount of pieces of candy. The person that guessed correctly guessed won the candy and a free 18" pizza. The other stipulations were that you had to LIKE and SHARE the post. This is one of the most important aspects of the game. This will let other people know about the contest so they can play. In order to spread the word even further, we "promoted" the post via Facebook. That means we spent a few bucks ($40) so our post could be seen by even more people. We had five winners! Our stats were: LIKES: 924 SHARES: 1,139 GUESSES: 1,288 TOTAL REACH: 75,208 This was by far our most successful Facebook promotion to date! But, one of the best side effects of a contest like this is that we are able to capture new Facebook likes.

Q: For those who are busy and can't hire social media out, what advice do you give them for social media if they just can't post daily?

A: Find an employee or family member that you can trust to do it for you. If you have some extra marketing funds, you can hire a social media manager.Fac