Applebee’s, a large casual dining chain with more than 1,800 locations, wants to truly connect with consumers. Every day, they execute brand engagement that goes far beyond talking about the menu and promotions. The Applebee’s Reply Squad (a term coined by fans) is fun, authentic and amiable, creating online friendships via genuine conversations. Applebee’s social media initiatives are all community driven and based on a goal to be the biggest fans of their fans, growing the community on Twitter from 16,000 followers to over 250,000 by creating real relationships and focusing more on the fans than on the brand.Twitter fans of Applebee’s call themselves Fanapples, tweeting the Applebee’s Reply Squad to let them know about their trips to Applebee’s as well as their general lives. In fact, the Reply Squad’s internal motto is "no tweet left behind", so almost everyone gets a reply. Fans feel so connected to Applebee's that they frequently send "fan mail" to the Reply Squad at Applebee's corporate headquarters- the mail room knows how to route letters to “Applebee’s Reply Guy" (ARG) and the rest of his reply squad. Just a few of Applebee’s many community initiatives in the recent months: • Fan Jingles – Applebee’s engaged with fans by writing and recording fun jingles for them based on their online conversations. These aren’t just pre-recorded songs that we plug a name into, they actually make each one unique to genuinely show appreciation. This is an ongoing initiative, but to give one example, around the holidays the team created 11 jingles for fans. Those 11 jingles were viewed by almost 4,000 people! • Spirited Chef – Applebee’s asked its fans to help them create the “Best Video Ever" enlisting the talents of Champion Flair Bartender, Christian Delpech. Fans tweeted the brand saying what they would like to see Delpech do. This included requests that involved juggling knives and doing some outrageous stunts. To demonstrate just how dedicated they were to being authentic, the team even live streamed the filming of the video. • Give Squad – Over the holidays, Applebee’s helped people celebrate by sending them gifts – no strings attached, just kindness and giving. #GiveSquad became a trending topic on Twitter thanks to these efforts.
