Chicago Domino’s Gets Social Media Right!
I’d like to introduce you to Ramon De Leon of Domino’s in Chicago. How I met Ramon is quite simple: Twitter. This morning I tweeted out Tom Martin’s latest post “Is Pizza Hut’s Twintern Job Post Ethical” and I got the following response from @DPZRAMON: “Could be just a publicity stunt for Pizza Hut. Why advertise in NYT? @tommartin is rt- that shows they don’t get it.”
By clicking on DPZRAMON’s Twitter bio I could see that he was with Domino’s in Chicago. So, I asked him the obvious question: “Hi there! As a Domino’s owner, how are you dealing with what happened? Is it affecting business at all locally? (Agree, PH stunt)”
Ramon’s responses:
“The effect was minimized b/c since Tues(4.14) I went after the Chgo convo’s about this.Did not hide;made myself extremely visible.”
“I used monitter.com and joined as many Chicago Tweets on this issue as poss;I started answering B4 ppl were asking.Tks 4 asking”
Obviously, from a social media perspective, I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about Mr. De Leon. Ramon honored me with a phone call so I could get the scoop on how he uses social media to connect with customers. What I found out was indeed quite interesting!
Ramon De Leon (aka DPZRAMON) – King of Online Sales
Ramon has been engaged in online sales of Domino’s pizza since 1999 and has been engaged in social media since 2005 (long before the term it’s known by now). Ramon has long been a Facebook member and has connected with students for the past 4 years. His Facebook strategy is simple: Connect with local university/college students, give them the best service & pizza ever, and develop relationships that will last beyond their college years (as in delivering pizza to their place of business). According to Ramon, “it’s a social cycle.”
Social media, potholes and pizza
What do these three uncommon things have in common? Ramon, of course. When Ramon heard that CBS2 was doing a story on potholes, he reached out to them to share his collection of pothole videos (made with 12seconds.tv). Why potholes? Well, Ramon has 75 drivers who encounter these potholes often while delivery pizza all over Chicago. Apparently, if hit just the right way, potholes can really mess up the quality/appearance of a pizza, thus affecting customer service. Ramon was featured in nearly half of CBS2′s 3 minute story…all while wearing his Domino’s shirt.
Turning the camera on CBS 2
When I was checking out Ramon’s blog (before I learned his back story) I found something that amazed me. Ramon was able to turn the cameras on TWO CBS2 reporters and interview them (be sure to take a look at the two videos) after they interviewed him for their potholes story. I don’t know about you, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen that happen. But here’s a hint: the only way that it happens is if you develop a relationship with reporters by giving them something newsworthy to begin with!
But wait, there’s more!
Not only does Ramon use social media for customer service, video blogging and public relations, he also monitors what customers are saying and when necessary uses social media to apologize.
A passion for pizza and social media.
If you speak with Ramon it is so obvious that he is passionate about Domino’s, customers, and social media. In fact, he constantly monitors social sites for mentions of his stores and he provides a flyer that includes all his social sites on a flyer, which is taped to all Domino’s pizza boxes leaving his stores just to make sure customers can find him online. He also attends a lot of social media conferences to keep up on the latest social media best practices. If you don’t believe me when I say Ramon is passionate, maybe you’ll believe Gary Vaynerchuk.
The million dollar question(s)
So Ramon, we all want to know…is all this social media stuff increasing your bottomline? Ramon’s answer: YES!
And, of course, we are all wondering…why isn’t corporate taking some lesson’s from Ramon? Well, it appears they are, but let’s give them some time to wrap their heads around it, okay?
Lessons Learned
- Monitor conversations
- Engage customers on & offline
- Provide quality
- Relationships are job #1
- Reporters can be your friends
- Be honest
- Be passionate
- Have fun!
DPZRAMON is the pizza guy to know in Chicago! Thanks Ramon for your time and sharing your story with us!
[Image: EasyFindGuide]
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Tags: 40 Responses to “Chicago Domino’s Gets Social Media Right!”
The Harte of Marketing by Beth Harte is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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This is a great real-life example Beth!
My one concern with this is…sustainability in corporate terms.
While it’s important to have an individual lead the way for a company engaging in Social Media communications, what happens when the person who has built those relationships gets hit by a bus? Or quits the company?
I’m just thunking out loud.
Giles Crouch (Webconomist)’s last blog post..What Signal is Ad Spending Really Giving Us?
Beth,
Another great post and this is certainly someone who gets it. I would be excited to give my money to any business owners who conducted business this way.
Thanks for taking the time to speak with him and share with the rest of us.
Kipp Bodnar’s last blog post..Tweetie Arrives On The Mac…But Is It Worth It?
Ramon is great.
I “met” him via twitter also.
He is everything that I enjoy about being on twitter.
Someone who engages genuinely.
And he obviously loves what he does and its infectious.
twitter: @goodygoody
I can vouch for the effectiveness of Ramon’s tactics. He previously owned a Dominos in Evanston, IL., just a few blocks from the Northwestern campus where I worked as an RA. Not only was Ramon an engaged physical presence on campus–sponsoring fundraising events, meeting students at student group functions, etc.–but his pre-Twitter forms of social media outreach really set his store apart from the pizzerias in the town. Students knew that they could IM his store and immediately reach a live person (usually Ramon) who would both converse with them and take their order via instant messenger. In the mind of a tired, somewhat lazy college student, the notion of simply sending an IM versus looking up and dialing a number led to a great deal of “impulse” ordering from Dominos.
Pretty sure he’s following me too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPgEWPGqSTM
@GilesCrouch, good thunk! In this case, Ramon owns his stores (a franchise), so if he leaves, I would guess that he’d sell them off. In that case, it’s up to the buyer to fill his rather large shoes.
@Jaye, MattRyd, thanks for giving us another insight into Ramon! I think that’s another lesson learned here: Authenticity. Ramon mentioned that he answered the IMs. He also does all of his own Twittering. Image that!
@Reason, come on…was that very nice to leave a link to a YouTube video making fun of Domino’s?! I am thinking not…
Thanks Beth for following up with Ramon and getting the ‘other’ side of the story.
He enjoys what he does and he has found a way to proactively provide great customer service. The lessons learned 1-8 are well worth noting and doing to have a relationship with your customer that can withstand the bumps in the road that will happen.
Thanks.
“….these potholes often while delivery pizza all over Chicago” hmmmmm
[...] 22, 2009 · No Comments Just came across this. Scroll down and watch the video! This guy clearly has a passion for pizza, customer service and [...]
I met @DPZramon from a past event called Sleepover2.0 that a few great chicas ran.. and my viewing party won a pizza prize from him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzXZZxOPniY
From that moment, I have witnessed Ramon take a comprehensive approach at engaging a city that’s really quite picky about its pizza, and make us all remember what it was like to have a relationship with business owners, and companies that are a part of our community. He even took the time to learn about events that I, and the organizations I am working with were doing, and offered to hook us up!
Some may say that Mom&Pop shops may never get Social Media (obviously Dominos is a huge chain), but @DPZramon is the perfect case to show them the way!
Kara Carrell’s last blog post..How I Roll!
This is an incredibly powerful, real-life example of a business owner who really gets social media. It’s not campaign to campaign, building quantity over quality — it’s about consistency, pro-active action, and a mindset that genuinely cares about serving as you grow in business. Great stuff Beth!
Maria Reyes-McDavis’s last blog post..Online Reputation Management: The Domino’s Effect
Fantastic approach. It’s obvious that Ramon is a sincere and genuine guy.
Jaye said it best…”He is everything that I enjoy about being on twitter.”
Great post, Beth! I love to hear stories like this. I think Giles Crouch brings up a good point and I think many companies are struggling with this question – not a reason to sit on the sidelines though. You allude to another point I think companies struggle with which is the investment of time to integrate social media into their marketing plans and business processes. Success I believe comes down to commitment and systems. Relationships require a commitment of time at least the good ones do and we know social media is all about relationships. And the lack of planning, infrastructure and systems is a common pitfall for many businesses regardless of whether or not they play in the social media space or not. Congrats to Ramon on a job well done.
This is great work Beth!
[...] he also monitors what customers are saying and when necessary uses social media to apologize. [...]New Light Weight PET Bottles for Vitamin Enhanced Water The customer probably won't notice any [...]
For any company who wants to nail down the forumla for social media success, this is it. It might not increase a million dollars in revenue up front, but it does increase the brand equity, value and supports the relationships between customers through social media.
While this is the first time I heard of him, this is exactly why the smaller guy, the small business and the true entrepreneurs out there will be able to compete against the big guys.
If I was in Domino’s corporate, I would just give him better video equipment and tell him to keep it up. Taking a show, a character and brand like @DPZRamon and refining it into a corporate ad would just kill the authenticity of it.
Every entrepreneur and small business owner can do this. It’s requires passion and willingness to take chances and not just doing “enough.” (Likewise, ‘enough’ is reserved for 2nd, 3rd and 4th place.)
Good work Ramon, and nice job on the entry, Beth. I appreciate the story. It totally lit me up today.
~Joseph
(@JoeManna), http://www.joemanna.com/blog/ and http://www.infusionblog.com/
Joseph Manna, Infusionsoft’s last blog post..Responding to E-Mail Can Save Your Business
What a great post Beth. It is nice to see how restaurateurs are being successful in the social media world.
This is great example of leveraging technology in a good way for the benefit of good business. Just watching one of videos and it’s clear his passion for the business.
I think where this fails is when someone tries to replicate Ramon’s efforts, but lacks the drive that he has. He is certainly an incredible asset to Domino’s.
[...] on Twitter, and that’s how I learned about this blog story. Check out the full post at Chicago Domino’s Gets Social Media Right!. Here’s an excerpt: Ramon De Leon (aka DPZRAMON) – King of Online Sales Ramon has been [...]
[...] by Beth Harte’s blog entry, Chicago Domino’s Gets Social Media Right!] The Domino’s Pizza logo is the registered trademark of Domino’s IP Holder [...]
I heart beth harte
but she knows that…:)
Marc Meyer’s last blog post..What Social Media is Not
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@JoeManna,
“Taking a show, a character and brand like @DPZRamon and refining it into a corporate ad would just kill the authenticity of it.”
Absolutely! And that’s why businesses need to embrace a little bit of authenticity these days…it’s what people ultimately respond to.
“Every entrepreneur and small business owner can do this. It’s requires passion and willingness to take chances and not just doing “enough.” (Likewise, ‘enough’ is reserved for 2nd, 3rd and 4th place.)”
Amen!
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[...] This post was Twitted by DPZRAMON – Real-url.org [...]
[...] At the end of the day though, I don’t know what Pizza Hut’s or Pepsico’s internal workings are. Although if I were on the inside I’d surely be scratching my head at this latest venture into Social Media. To me it seems like old marketing ways trying to be pushed into the new media way of marketing. I just don’t see that Pizza Hut fully understand Social Media, quite the contrary to the individual Chicago Domino’s owner who does understand it. [...]
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[...] Chicago Domino’s Gets Social Media Right! [...]
[...] Chicago Domino’s Gets Social Media Right! [...]
[...] Chicago Domino’s Gets Social Media [...]
[...] can be said for Ramon DeLeon, owner of several Domino’s Pizza restaurants in Chicago. He has mastered the art of using social media to sell his products and created a very loyal following in the process. In fact, his popularity has [...]
[...] can be said for Ramon DeLeon, owner of several Domino’s Pizza restaurants in Chicago. He has mastered the art of using social media to sell his products and created a very loyal following in the process. In fact, his popularity has [...]
Beth! My heavens! If your other articles provide as much “punch” as this one, my new goal in life will be to stay close on your heals and I should be able to “live” off the crumbs!
I read every word and followed every link and watched both of Ramon’s video’s. I even did the Google search on Vaynerchuk (your link just goes to the phone video from the Vegas conference).
This is content at its best. Easy to read and understand, street level smarts and linking us to a superstar who looks like he could be anybody from down the street.
Thank you very much. I’ll go now to engage you in every possible link, including Marketing Profs, subscribing to this RSS feed, your Twitter name. I’ve already tweeted this article as Za’s buzz that won’t put u 2 zzzzz.
Cheers!
Fantastic approach. It’s obvious that Ramon is a sincere and genuine guy.
Jaye said it best…”He is everything that I enjoy about being on twitter.”
[...] it Blend to date has 117,105,290 YouTube hits. Ramon Deleon of Domino’s Pizza Chicago received great press and has a great niche with college students in the local area and there are countless more success [...]