As digital marketing techniques mature and become more prevalent, it is more and more common to hear about companies tapping into social networks, adding a new element to their marketing efforts. As the utilization of online social networks becomes an increasingly essential part of companies’ promotional process, marketers are becoming hungrier and hungrier for information on how to best exploit Facebook to reach and engage prospects and customers. The reason behind the drive to market products via social networking is obvious - marketers know that in order to sell their products, they have to “fish where the fishes are.”

The importance of Facebook has grown for marketers with recent announcement that Facebook has ousted Google as the most popular site in the United States.  At the same time, cloud computing seems to have become another rapidly growing technology. "[Cloud computing has] become the phrase du jour," says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring.

After noticing the rapid rise in popularity of Facebook and cloud computing, I was intrigued to hear about Outback Steakhouse’s plans to utilize both phenomena for its Bloomin’ Onion marketing campaign. After watching Outback launch two successful campaigns in four months, I must admit that I am impressed. So, what did Outback do?

1. First, Outback built a Facebook Fan Page to launch its Bloomin’ Onion campaign. The campaign quickly went viral and the site has over 700,000 fans today.

2. Based on success of its initial promotion, Outback quickly executed a second Facebook campaign that ran concurrently with the company’s “Operation Homefront” TV ad campaign.

How was cloud computing utilized in Outback’s two campaigns?

Outback wanted its initial Facebook campaign to go viral, but a viral campaign such as the Bloomin’ Onion promotion needed the infrastructure and technology to be able to scale up quickly to meet spikes in demand. It also required the ability to cost-effectively support an unknown number of respondents. Outback looked for a solution and found one in Microsoft Windows Azure.

The Bloomin Onion goes viral

Over the past two decades, Outback Steakhouse has become one of the top chain restaurants in the country. The restaurant’s most famous offering is unquestionably the Bloomin' Onion, a large, deep-fried onion sliced to look like a flower in bloom. While Outback’s famous appetizer is best known for its signature shape, fans of the Bloomin’ Onion especially enjoy its crispy, spiced coating and its delicious dipping sauce, cleverly presented in the center of the onion.

Outback Steakhouse decided to focus on a campaign that would encourage repeat guests by creating a social networking presence. Working with Microsoft Partner Thuzi, Outback offered a free Bloomin’ Onion coupon to the first 500,000 guests to sign up as Outback fans on the Outback Facebook Fan Page. What happened?

Outback launched its application on November 5, 2009. The company hoped to achieve its goal of 500,000 fans within 30 days. It reached that goal without any issues in just 18 days.  How did that happen? As Outback’s CTO, Jim Zimmerman, explains, “I guess people like Bloomin’ Onions”.

While some Facebook users simply became fans of the page, the Bloomin’ Onion campaign truly went viral when users who had already become fans of the page continued to stay engaged with the promotion, posting links on their virtual walls and inviting their friends to follow their lead. Outback gained 200,000+ fans in a week, becoming one of the top two gainers in that week, as illustrated below. They joined an honor roll frequently headed up by popular Facebook games like Texas Hold’em Poker and Mafia wars.

You can read more about the Bloomin’ Onion campaign details here.

Outback later repurposed the same Facebook application for its Operation Homefront campaign, in which it committed to donate $1,000,000 to support U.S. troops and their families. Why repurpose the application? Because Outback already had 600,000 fans (at the time they launched the new campaign) who could immediately be reached with marketing for the new Red, White & Bloomin’ limited menu. As you can see, the number of fans has since increased to 700,000+.

These two examples of successful Outback campaigns show that social media applications require dynamic scalability. In order to succeed with wide-scale social media marketing, companies must be able to increase or decrease their allotted resources depending on the load and “viralness” of an application. A highly scalable computing infrastructure seems mandatory to deliver a consistent user experience.

So, does Facebook + Cloud Computing = A Marriage Made in Heaven?

It certainly seems to be a perfect match thus far!

So, how did Thuzi implement this campaign in Windows Azure for Outback?

Typical Azure deployment with 5 Web instances & 3 worker roles. 

1. One worker role for processing contact data, de-normalizing into SQL Azure Database for analytics and reporting.
2. One worker role for sending email notifications by invoking a web service at a third-party agency, which handles all email notifications for Outback.
3. Final worker role for listening to the web service and sending Facebook notifications of any bounced emails. This role minimized support request emails to Outback (i.e. “Hi! Where is my Bloomin’ Onion coupon?”).

Thuzi used Table Storage to enable rapid access, set up message queues to maximize the efficiency of worker roles, and utilized SQL Azure to collect and report on data.

Windows Azure Toolkit for Facebook

Thuzi made combining the Facebook and Azure technologies easier by working in collaboration with Microsoft to create the Windows Azure Toolkit for Facebook. This starter kit makes it easy for marketers to get Facebook apps up and running in Windows Azure. The Facebook Azure Toolkit helps brand marketers build apps correctly right away. If an app becomes virally successful, there is no need to rebuild the application- marketers can just increase the number of instances they are using and the app will continue to function smoothly at the new scale.

Looking at how Thuzi has enabled Outback to launch immensely successful marketing campaigns, and noting that the Azure Toolkit for Facebook will make such campaigns even easier, I am curious as to whether there are already other examples of Facebook + Cloud Computing = Successful Social Media Marketing. I am excited to hear about new and creative uses of this powerful combination of technologies.

Additional Notes: If you are interested in learning more about the Outback Steakhouse campaigns and the Windows Azure Toolkit for Facebook, check out:

1. Restaurant Chain Outback Steakhouse Boosts Guest Loyalty with Social Networking and Cloud Computing

2. Mix 2010 Session: Building Facebook Apps with Microsoft .NET and Deploying to Windows Azure