In-N-Out Burger – Eat Burgers And Become a Social Influencer

In-N-Out Burger
http://www.innout.com
1065 Harriman Pl
San Bernardino, CA 92408

THE CONQUEST
Back when I started this blog in 2008, it was a result of eating an amazing Burger from Arthur’s Tavern in Hoboken, NJ. One of the people present for that meal was my good buddy and co-worker Jackie P. Too make a long story short; girl eats Burger, girl meets boy, girl falls in love, girl eats last Burger in NYC with Rev before girl moves to California to be with boy and now girl gets married to boy. Very happy and excited, my wife Cara Lynn Shultz and I flew out to Cali for their very special wedding.

Congrats to Matt & Jackie. We had an amazing time at your wedding and wish you all the best of luck in your new life together.

But with that, it’s a Hamburger blog so enough of you, let’s get back OT!

On the way out of town, the morning after the awesome wedding, I asked Cara what she wanted to get for breakfast / lunch and she replied “well…it wouldn’t be right if we came all the way to California and didn’t eat an In-N-Out Burger right?

THE BURGER
This isn’t the first time the fresh and delicious West Coast Burger chain has made it onto the site. In fact, it’s made many appearances. There’s no need to reiterate so for a full In-N-Out review, click here. We are going to talk about In-N-Out Burgers though but through the filter of social media.

Social Media is more than just a way to share what you are doing, eating, hanging out with or where, pictures or thoughts. It’s one gigantic historically documented recommendation engine that connects people to each other & products or services. Social Networks not only allow you to stay in touch with friends but it also allows companies to market like never before. The web and social media allows for Social Influence Marketing. SIM, as it’s abbreviated, is a method of of using social media via content created by each network’s members, especially the super influencers to achieve business’ marketing needs.

In other words, and in example, I love Hamburgers so I post about the restaurants who make them on my blog & various social networks: Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, Foodspotting, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, etc and if you trust my opinion, you go eat the Burger. This then makes me a “social influencer,” and smart Social Influence Markerters reach out to me and encourage my … habit, in hopes that it will encourage you. If you want to learn more about SIM, I suggest you read Social Media For Dummies. It’s written by Shiv Singh, a well respected digital marketer who has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world.

But let’s say you’re not interested in SIM. You’re just a fan of Burgers (or some other item) and enjoy the connections that social media gives you. That’s where my love of social media started and it’s that passion for connections and influencers that made me into the social marketing professional that I am today. With that in mind, here are the latest up and coming social networks that will hep you to become social influencer. It’s all explained via my trip to In-N-Out and the Glorious Pursuit of Delicious Burgers.

SOCIAL INFLUENCER NETWORKS

Foodspotting:
I love, Love, LOVE Foodspotting. For foodies or serious eaters, its THE network to be on. Upload and share pictures of food your eating along with brief notes about the food and or restaurant. One of my favorite things about the app is that it allows the user to update multiple social networks all at the same time: Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare & Flickr.

My Foodspotting check-in:

Instagram:
Instagram turns even the average smart phone user into a semi-professional photographer. Take & share pictures with your friends with a small note. Instagram offers a number of different stylistic filters that will alter your photo. While using the app you can also share your photos on Facebook, Twitter & Flickr.

My Instagram check-in with a cool framing effect:

My Instagram check in with a cool movie film effect:

Path:
Path is relatively new to the pack, launching in November of 2010. The idea of Path is to serve as a way to document & share your life’s personal journey. To be honest, it has a lot of the same functionality of Facebook with the exception that the community is centered around the app and has a really cool, great looking and slick interface. You can also post songs you like to your profile or tell your friends when you are waking up or going to bed (creepy!) Path, like Instagram, offers a few photo filters that allow you to stylistically alter the photos you share.  You can use it to also simultaneously update Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter & Tumblr.

My Path “Pro” check-in:

My Black & White Path check-in:

My Path retro check-in:

Pinterest:
“Pinterest is a virtual pinboard,” according to their website. It’s a network primarily based around sharing pictures or images of things you like or that inspire you. It has a really beautiful web interface and a slick, easy to use smartphone application. Users create different themed boards that other users can follow or they can choose to follow all boards posted by another user. For example, you can follow all of my Pinterest boards or if you like to see what I am eating, follow my “Put In Mouth” board. If you like craft beer or want to know what beers we are ordering at my bar in NYC, Idle Hands, follow my “Drinkable Awesomeness” board. Pinterest allows you to share your Pins on Facebook & Twitter. They also have a nifty tool bar plug-in that makes pinning pictures from websites very, very easy.

My In-N-Out Pin:

Oink:
Oink let’s users discover, rate & review things they like from Mountain Top resorts to cups of coffee. Users are encouraged to share their experience so that when other users open the app they can discover things in their area. The network also employs a bit of game theory, reward users with ascending category “levels” as they “Oink” different items. The idea being that if a user near you has a lot of points in let’s say the “Burger” category, that makes them more trustable to a stranger. This is KEY information to SIM’ers.

My In-N-Out Oink:



Fondu:
Fondu is a social network based around mini-reviews posted by users to share with their friends. It’s primarily inteneded for food & drink reviews For example, if you’re at a restaurant and not sure what to order, you can pull up Fondu and see what your friends had to say about the place. Fondu will push your mini-review to your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr & Foursquare accounts. But the best part about Fondu is that you can choose to have your mini-review published as a tip on Foursquare. Foursquare Tips are a great way to become a social influencer.

My Fondu mini-review & Foursquare tip.
(Fondu doesn’t allow you to publish photos … yet!)

Yelp:
Yelp is one of the biggest and most popular review sites on the internet. It’s entirely user generated and a true example of how social influence marketing and social influencers work. Yelp keeps the playing field even by botting people off their network if they find you lying or reviewing their own businesses. Yelp empowers its super users (the most active reviewers) by inviting them to special events around town with partnered businesses. Yelp business empowers super users by offering them check-in specials or the ability to become “The Duke” of the establishment. This incentivizes users to review honest & often. If you’ve never been to a business and neither have your friends, a quick glance at their Yelp page to see their rating or read reviews will give you what you need to know. Through the Yelp smartphone app, you can do this as well as post & draft reviews or share thoughts on a business. You can publish this to your Twitter or Facebook account so other’s can find the business.

My Yelp check-in published to Facebook.


Google+:
Google+ is Google’s social network. It’s not that different than some of the others but there are a couple of distinct differences. First of all, Google+ lets the user create “circles” to which you can assign certain friends, acquaintances or colleagues. You can then share certain posts with everyone or just people in certain circles. This could be great, by example, for someone with a book club who wants to talk about a new book with just their friends in the club. More importantly, Google+ lets users leverage their entire network and a personal profile to connect and discover. Check-ins also link to Google Places pages, photos & other users who have shared the experience. Any photo you upload as a user is saved to your Google profile. Google+ is seen as being very friendly to smart social influence marketers.

My Google+ check-in:

For in depth social network influencer explanations on Thrillist, Untappd, Foursquare, Facebook, Google Places, Twitter, and ideas check out my post from Bierhaus NYC about the meter for Social Community. Just want the 90 second course? Check out my post “Social Media Made Easier Through Burgers.”

7 out of 10 Ounces
-Rev

THE BURGER COUNTQUEST
483 Burgers

Feb 19, 2012 – 11:59 am

The Rev Meter for Social Community
“The Rev Meter” is a social community meter for assessing how optimized a bar or restaurant is with social networking. By taking what I consider to be the 10 most important social networks and creating a point system, I can accurately asses how well your business is using social networking as a tool. My goal here is to educate and assist great business to better effectively use these tools.

SCORING:
4 points or less You’ve missed the 5 basics and are less than optimized
5 points You’ve covered the basics, which is better than most but far from optimized.
6 to 9 points You’re doing better than most and on your way to becoming a well respected social community whiz.
10 points Congrats on a perfect score!

No rating is being given to In-N-Out Burger at 1065 Harriman Pl, San Bernardino, CA 92408 because it’s a chain location and therefore all social media communication comes from their corporate offices. The Rev Meter is intended to be a guideline for local businesses.