Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Favorite Companies + Social Media = Love Story!

Those of you who have been reading this blog and following me on Twitter for the last couple of years know that I LOVE Qdoba Mexican Grill. My husband and I have been eating lunch there with one of my best friends, Rebecca, every week (sometimes more!) for the past FIVE+ years!

One of the reasons I love Qdoba so much is because they have a wonderful customer loyalty program. You get random coupons throughout the year and you get a free entree for every 10 that you buy! I swear that between the 3 of us we have had over 100 free burritos over the past 5 years! You can check out their website HERE and next time you head to a Qdoba I would grab a card and register, you get a free order of chips and salsa just for signing up!

When Twitter got so huge a couple of years ago I started tweeting and following interesting people as well as other bloggers and companies I love. Of course Rebecca and I had to find out if Qdoba had a Twitter account and sure enough, they did! There are many local Qdoba Twitter and Facebook accounts actually, but we have followed @QdobaMexGrill since the beginning! (They sometimes do trivia for free entrees!) We started tweeting about our weekly lunch dates and posting pictures of our cute kids eating Qdoba and a unique relationship developed! One time they emailed us and asked for our loyalty cards so they could buy our weekly lunch this week just for being great customers! We were so excited that we lit up our Twitter accounts with how happy we were to be Qdoba addicts.

A few weeks ago we noticed some awesome t-shirts that the Qdoba folks had for a special event in Denver (the birthplace of Qdoba) and we all mentioned to them on Twitter how cool it would be to have one of those t-shirts for our weekly lunch. Sure enough, a short time later we each got a fun package in our mailboxes!

Lauren with Qdoba in Denver had contacted us for t-shirt sizes and addresses and we each got an I Heart Qdoba shirt along with a sweet hand written card thanking us for our patronage and a coupon for a free entree! We were happy just to have the shirts so getting lunch as well was a huge bonus! Our only requirement? A photo of the 3 of us at our weekly lunch wearing our Qdoba t-shirts!



We wore them proudly today and all the staff in the menu line LOVED it! I think the other customers in the restaurant were super jealous too! :) Our free lunch was delish and I was excited that my t-shirt actually fit over my huge 9 month preggo belly!



The point of this article is not to brag about getting something for free from the company, but really to talk about the benefits that social media can have for saving money. I follow many restaurants, stores and local companies on Facebook and Twitter. I can't tell you how many free products I've gotten from signing up for freebies on Facebook or printable coupons that have come up along the way! (Another favorite of mine is the $1 off coupons that Red Mango puts out when they have a new product!)



Yes, if you let Facebook and Twitter suck you in they can be a huge waste of time, but there are benefits to be had as well! Just don't let it take over your life!



Just wanted to send a HUGE thank you to Lauren and the Qdoba team for sending us the t-shirts and free entree cards. We love Qdoba and will continue to eat there at least once a week forever!

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