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Jarod Kelly, 32, the chief happiness officer for Hopjacks Inc., is savvy with his use of social media to market the Hopjacks family of restaurants. / Katie King/kking@pnj.com
What do the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore, George Clooney’s philosophy of choosing movie roles and WEAR sportscaster Dan Shugart’s mustache have to do with a recipe for social media marketing success?
Plenty in the world of Jarod Kelly, the CHO — chief happiness officer — for Pensacola’s popular Hopjacks family of restaurants, which includes Hopjacks Pizza Kitchen & Taproom, Hopjacks Filling Station, The Tin Cow, and Pot Roast and Pinot.
What started five years ago with a list of contacts and passwords has exploded into more than 20,000 followers on Facebook, and some 3,700 followers who eyeballed more than 30,000 posts on Twitter. Plus, hungry potential customers can check out the eateries on a number of online sites, including Urbanspoon and others.
Then, when the 32-year-old Kelly took over as general manager of the company’s downtown locations, only a handful of locally owned eateries called Palafox Place home. In those days, Twitter was still in diapers in the growing world of social media, and Facebook had yet to establish Business, Place or Brand pages. In fact, Hopjacks had a MySpace page before it hit Facebook with a “Friend Page” that only allowed businesses a 5,000-friend maximum.
“Initially, I was just looking for a way to communicate with our customers all while pushing the resurgence of downtown Pensacola, and its wonderful offerings/happenings, to as many people as I could,” Kelly said. “We were doing different things and they were getting noticed. I adopted the George Clooney movie role philosophy to our postings: ‘One for them (the public). One for me.’ It just snowballed from there.”
Snowball it did. For example, when Facebook transformed the restaurants’ Friend Page into a Business Page, the number of followers nearly doubled, Kelly said, from 5,000 to 9,400.
“Apparently, we had 4,400 people sitting in a hidden queue waiting to be our ‘friend,’ ” Kelly said.
When Kelly talks about Hopjacks, he’s referring to all of owner Joe Abston’s restaurant concerns, eateries that have been at the forefront of what Abston calls “a restaurant renaissance” in the city. While only a few locally owned bars and restaurants dotted downtown a decade ago, now there are more than 30, all competing for dining dollars. Social media is a key part of Hopjacks’ playbook. While the companies’ online approach might seem more like Marx Brothers shtick than strategic thinking, think again. Kelly maintains a rigorous content calendar for each of the restaurants.
“I continually update the content and posting times based on a healthy combination of historical trending and experimental data. At the end of the day, the only goal is establishing and maintaining relationships with our customers.”
Kelly credits the success of Hopjacks’ social media effort to Abston, whom he says has given him the trust and the freedom to push the online envelope. From friendly banter with The Weather Channel’s hurricane-hunting Cantore — who follows Hopjacks on his own Twitter account – to fun with WEAR-TV sportscaster Dan Shugart over his mustache, which by the way has 241 followers of its own on Twitter — all is friendly fodder online.
“I am able to manage each brand with almost zero interference from the guy that signs my paychecks,” Kelly said.
As for Abston, who has an interest in five local eateries, he’s smiling, too. He bestowed the CHO title on Kelly a few years ago over a few beers, a little fun poked at the button-down CEO, CFO, COO titles peppered throughout the business world. Kelly wears a variety of hats for Abston — from social media to HR to quality control for the restaurants. Over time, Kelly has learned how Abston thinks, which translates to a good professional — and personal — friendship.
“Chief happiness officer fit so well because you can’t just say, ‘He’s social media,’ ” Abston said. “He’s a juggler. Every time I open a restaurant I have to tell him, ‘What (responsibility are you losing now, because you can’t handle it all, buddy.’ ”
Social media’s impact on the bottom line is tough to call, Abston said.
“Bottom line is hard to categorize in social media, because it’s something that we consider intangible,” Abston said. “Every now and then, people come through the door and say, ‘We came here because social media drew me in.’ To put a number on it is really not fair to not just the social media aspect. Who’s to say it wasn’t the beer that brought people into Hopjacks, or it wasn’t some referral that brought them into Hopjacks. I look at social media as a very intricate piece of the puzzle. If we had to quantify it, it would drive us batty. But we know when it’s not there.”
He added, “We always joke that we’ve got a 13-year-old who we keep locked in a room and all we feed him are Pop Rocks and Jolt Cola,” Abston said.
Kelly said the companies’ social media goals are basic, transcending bottom line: Common Interest, Brand Recognition, Brand Education and Personalization.
“We treat our customers as real individuals,” Kelly said. “No one wants to be treated as a number or statistic. They want to be treated for the unique persons that they are. Your bank account is not the only way to gauge how your restaurant/bar is doing. Feedback, whether positive or negative, is the only way you can continue to improve professionally and monetarily.”
It’s been almost 20 years since Kelly began his restaurant career washing dishes at an Arby’s in his hometown of Pittsburgh. He’s seen the restaurant business move from traditional advertising and word of mouth to a social media explosion. For the chief happiness officer, it’s a good time.
“Joe has trusted in me and given me enough rope to hang myself quite a few times. Over the past five years, we have learned, taught, laughed, fought, won and lost. But we have had a great time doing it, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, except maybe 50-yard-line Steelers season tickets.”
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