I recently went to dinner at Thaicoon Ricefire and Sushi Bar in Greenville, SC for a friend’s birthday (interesting and irrelevant side-note: friend got sick after about half an hour leaving me having dinner with 5 perfect strangers, all Furman University students, which made for an entertaining evening of conversation that stopped cold and restarted about every 7 minutes).
The owner, Bobby, is a very friendly guy who came around to talk to every guest and stopped to sit at our table for a while and discuss all manner of randomness. He realized that the majority of his regular customers were Furman students and that Facebook was the best way to connect with them. So, as he lingered at our table, he encouraged us all to add him as a friend on Facebook by the name Bobby Thaicoon. Each week he randomly goes down his list of friends and picks 8 or 10 to receive a free meal if they come in the following Sunday. And you know what? Every Monday he has 20 or 30 new Facebook friends (undoubtly the amis of those who received free food, these are college students we’re talking about here).
His strategy is brilliant, beyond just marketing. He meets you face to face first, talks to you about life, asks you how your food is, and is an entertaining conversationalist. He’s using Facebook correctly–as a way to connect with people he has already pursued relationship with. The students love him, and they definitely love free food. So, I give Bobby’s tactics an A+. He’s drawing in large numbers of customers by reaching them where they are. And the food is awesome, too 
