Twitter, Foursquare fuel customer loyalty program at Tasti D-Lite

All it took was the swipe of a customer loyalty card and Tasti D-Lite sent the tweet out for him. Tasti D-Lite got some social media publicity, and Rucker got another point to put toward getting a free cup or cone of a low-calorie dairy dessert.

“What we’ve done is turned an active check-in—you know, you’ve got to go on your phone and do a search and check in—to a passive check-in,” says B.J. Emerson, social technology officer for Tasti. “Just a swipe of their card, and they’re sharing their location with their friends. We’ve automated that a bit and are rewarding them for it.”

Tasti has melded punch cards and coupons with the word-of-mouth that is social media—a double dip of customer loyalty and free advertising.

From social negligence to social friendliness

About three years ago, Tasti D-Lite was a “social negligent” brand, Emerson says, with no social media presence at all. But as the company began to branch out from its home in Manhattan with a franchising effort, Emerson and others noticed how much its fans were saying online.

“We saw things like that and we said, hey, we really need to be engaging here,” Emerson says. “Our thought was, if someone’s talking about Tasti D-Lite online, they should really be rewarded.”