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I’m always on the look-out for simple examples to share with clients that showcase how fun and easy tapping in to the social media world can be.  Today I came across a great one in the form of cup cakes.  Well, not just any cup cakes, Sprinkles cup cakes – which are so much more than cup cakes (but that’s a whole other story and if you have ever had one you will know what I mean).

But on to today’s fun – Sprinkles on Twitter.  The company has built up a huge following of fans on Twitter (at last count nearly 12,000) that tune in each day to see what special secret word could score them a free cupcake at a Sprinkle location near them.  For example, the first 50 people who came in to any Sprinkles location yesterday around the USA and whispered “penguin” received a free black and white cupcake.  And if you lived in Dallas last week and were one of the first 25 people to whisper “sweet” a free red velvet cupcake would be coming your way. 

The twist of course is that most people can’t just eat one.  And most people would probably bring a friend to come along with them.  Or some people would buy a few for friends if they came to grab a free one with the secret word. So Sprinkles is using Twitter to engage with fans around the country by offering them a simple incentive to come back to Sprinkles for a treat – and hopefully a free one.

Now of course every company doesn’t have as inexpensive as a cupcake to giveaway everyday to 25 or 50 people.  But with some creative thinking you probably have something that could be offered on random special days that could drive some nice buzz for your brand and some nice foot traffic in-store.  Could be a simple percentage off for saying the secret word or a gift with purchase or an entry in to some type of Twitter-only sweepstakes.  What you get in the process is a healthy database of fans who you can access directly, of course walking the fine line of entertaining them with fun stuff and every once in a while throwing in a casual product reference. 

If only Sprinkles had a location in Sydney – I love the red velvet ones!