Boloco, a burrito restaurant chain with 16 locations often runs ads in a Boston newspaper. The ads contain coupons for the chain’s popular burritos for a special price of $3. It makes sense to advertise in Boston, since 13 of the chain’s 16 restaurants are there, but CEO and co-founder John Pepper wished the ads could also bring customers to Boloco restaurants in New Hampshire and Vermont. So, when he ran one recent ad, Pepper also posted a photo of the coupon on Twitter, inviting diners to bring in any image of the coupon -- a photocopy, printout, or even an image on a mobile phone -- to get the discount. Guess what happened? .. they got three times the return rate over print coupons!

John Pepper and Boloco understand what social networking can mean to a restaurant concept. In recent promotions the performance of Twitter alone out matched most promotions that I have seen by restaurant brands. The point is simple, engage your audience, show them you care about them and tell a magnificent story. Every operator I know should be able to do that!

Tell me your twitter story, just post below.