Giveaway buzzing with social media

Within the last 5 minutes, I was alerted for two give-away promotions on Twitter and Facebook. Coincidence?

Number 1: Febo, the famous wall of snacks, is giving away free French fries tomorrow between 14:00 and 16:00. This reached me through a RT (retweet) on Twitter. Since April 8, Febo is using 100% bintje potatoes for their 'traditional' fries and they want everyone to know (and taste!) that.

Number 2: Starbucks serves free coffee on Thursday for anyone who brings their own mug, to create awareness for the garbage issue. Quite an extraordinary deal for a company that is known for its disposable (!) cups. I found out about this through this advert on Facebook:

My prediction is that these promotions will be highly successful, although they take minimal marketing costs and effort. Giving away free stuff will probably always be a winning formula (because: hey, we're Dutch, right?) but using the power of social media to create a buzz around it is incredibly smart. As soon as people find out, they are likely to use their networks to tell their friends, they will tell their friends and soon a buzz is born. I just feel sorry for all those poor employees who have to serve the hordes of people.