Italian Restaurant Chain Targets Graduates on Twitter, Facebook

Buca di Beppo, an Italian restaurant chain, is offering high school and college graduates the chance to win a graduation party for 15 if they follow the brand on Twitter and re-tweet “Holy Cannoli! @bucadibeppo is giving away 14 graduation parties in 14 days. RT to enter! #Bucagrad http://ow.ly/4Xqy“.

The Orlando, FL-based company, which is owned by Planet Hollywood, notified the first winner via a Twitter direct message on Wednesday. Winners will have until June 30th to throw their party at one of its 87 restaurants.

To push the campaign, Buca di Beppo is leveraging earned media via its Facebook Page (62,000 “likes”) and Twitter account (2,500 followers), while utilizing its email list of roughly 200,000. Additionally, its locations are employing table tents dedicated to the Twitter promotion.

A Buca di Beppo spokesperson said it hopes the retweets become viral while building the brand’s Twitter audience. The effort marks the company’s first promotion involving the micro-blogging site.

“We really want our Twitter presence to catch up with our Facebook presence,” the spokesperson said.

The chain also plans to launch its first Flickr campaign in the coming weeks, targeting family-oriented points on the calendar such as Father’s Day.