The TGI Friday’s Facebook campaign received a good amount of chatter last week, with people like, well, me, as well as smart guys like Greg Verdino weighing in. A recent comment by Ben from MediaCurves led me to this follow up post. Check out this survey Ben and his gang did with viewers of the TGI Friday’s TV ad. It seems the Facebook campaign left a generally positive impression with consumers. Over on Facebook, Woody is now up to 900,000+ fans with the goal being to reach 1 million.

So what initially looked like a potential PR fumble, now looks like things are going pretty well. I still think TGI Friday’s has some issues to deal with here.  While Woody has updated his status, the general conversation on the page has gone off the rails.  Here’s a verbatim sampling of the most recent posts to Woody’s wall as I write this:

Phina Omarie Rotflol…..I swear some of these keyboard warriors on here, keep me very much entertained. Thanks u guys!!!

Saba Burton Check out Lord Rab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3cBSdz8Gl8

Herbie McMahon I am a retired air force psychiatrist. I diagnose Brandi with Dumb Bitch Disease (DBD)

John Liongson I STILL DONT HAVE MY COUPOOONNNN

Sergio Barrantes If my Burger isn’t as thick and juicy as the one you’re holding in that poster. You’re getting deleted.

Ok, you get the idea. Is this the conversation that Friday’s is looking to generate? Does this make people loyal to Friday’s? I think the issue here is that these 900,000+ “fans” weren’t really earned they were bought for the price of a hamburger. True fans wouldn’t post the type of stuff you see above, they would be talking about TGI Friday’s.

For comparison sake, look at the conversation on the Chipotle Facebook fanpage. Again, the most recent wall postings, in order, as I write this (no cherry picking):

Mikey Atas we need a chipotle here in charleston, illinois!!!!! please! i am dying without it! = (

Alexa Hood Sooo I love your restaurant!!! How do you make your chicken? I’m dying to know how make it

Rebecca Rabiger Chipotle! There’s an app for that! My life keeps getting better by the minute!!

Ceci Arena I’m a Chipotle lover too !!!!

Kendra McPhee How’s about a sweet coupon for your loyal fans?

Yeah, those are fans. I don’t know if Chipotle ran a promotion to get their nearly 500,000 fans, but the people there right now seem pretty legit. The wall postings, literally everyone on the first page that I scrolled through, were questions directed towards Chipotle. People with genuine interest in the brand. Now, are you ready? Here’s the difference: For almost every comment by a fan there is a direct response from Chipotle. Two and three paragraph responses sometimes. You know what that is? That’s Commitment Marketing. Chipotle is engaging in a conversation and that’s the key to keeping the community focused. Colin Burns, a Chipotle marketing guy from the Dallas area appears to be the Community Manager here, or at least heavily involved and he is doing an awesome job.

I’m already a fan of Chipotle, there’s one on the ground floor of the building where I work. One of my colleagues was going there just about every day for a couple of months, so the manager of the location said, “Hey, bring all your colleagues down, it will be on us.” Take a wild guess how much Chipotle we go through at our office? Every day there’s usually half a dozen people eating Chipotle.  But Rick, isn’t that just what TGI Friday’s did, offer free food? Not exactly. Chipotle rewarded an existing customer they had already started a relationship with. They knew my colleague by name and could make his order without him even saying it. They were rewarding someone who was already a brand evangelist. Take a look at the comments again from the TGI Friday’s Facebook page, do those sound like brand evangelists to you?

Commitment Marketing takes time. It means building real relationships, not just buying friends.