The annual national pancake day at IHOP received extra buzz this year, due to the company's ability to spread the word using social media. This year the event was pushed back a week, but that did not stop the masses from venturing out for a free short stack. The International House of Pancakes offered three of their delicious buttermilk pancakes and encouraged diners to donate to The Children's Miracle Network. The pancake house hopes to raise $1.75 million this year to reach their $5 million goal in five years since the first annual pancake day.
Word spread through ihoppancakeday.com as well as Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook. Multiple groups and events were created for the fundraiser on Facebook, all with the same memo... come get some free pancakes while giving back to your community.
One invite that I personally received on Facebook had invited over 160,000 people with over 38,000 choosing to attend. I'm no mathematician but if everyone that attends the event donates $2-$3 the amount of money raised could make a huge difference.
In the past seven minutes that I have been writing this post, over 2450 tweets mentioned IHOP.
Several of the tweets are the same
It's National Pancake Day! Head over to IHOP and get your free short stack (and contribute to Children's Miracle Network via donation).
The company in my opinion, was able to create a large amount of publicity without spending a large amount of money on advertising. Through the help of citizen marketers the message was delivered to people all across the country.
For those of you who are interested in getting a free short stack, some IHOPs will be offering free short stacks until 10 p.m. even though the national campaign was only supposed to run from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.
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