Last month I was out for a bubbletea at a small, local bubbletea café called Bubbletopia. My friends and I are regulars of this establishment which is owned and run by this very friendly older gentleman. There was nothing special about this particular night. However, that week they had a promotion running where if you “checked in” to their location on Facebook, you would receive free pearls in your drink. We all saw this as an opportunity to get a discount on our drinks for doing virtually nothing, so we all effortlessly “checked in” on Facebook and received our free pearls. For those who may not know, Facebook’s check in function basically allows its users to make a post on their page informing people of the particular place they are at. 

I thought nothing of checking in until several days later when I realized this advertised special was in a sense an e-marketing tactic used to increase awareness of the bubbletea café. I figure the pearls in my drink probably cost them twenty-five cents, and that is how much essentially they paid me to advertise to hundreds of Facebook friends. Not only did I advertise for them, but I practically gave them my recommendation as a place to drink bubbletea, as generally Facebook check in’s are usually associated with positive experiences and seldom include negative comments. I would imagine that the returns on that twenty-five cent investment for me to “check in” are much greater than twenty-five cents spend on another form of advertising such as handing out paper flyers or putting an add in the newpaper.

It’s quite a feat when you think about the potential online reach this little mom and pop bubbletea café has thanks to social media and proves that big or small, e-marketing can be used by businesses of all sizes.

I am not sure if Bubbletopia was the first to think of this, but as you might expect other bubbletea cafés also began to follow suit. The trend continues to this day, and once and a while you see various other businesses such as restaurants using similar promotions.