As I said yesterday, interactivity is the way to gain fans on the Internet, not beating them over the head with advertising. Here’s how one small business accomplished that.

Blossom Chevrolet Tetris Promotion

Image via Wikipedia

Social media marketing firm SocialUps created a Facebook promotion for Blossom Chevrolet where people are invited to get a high score on the classic Tetris game. The 35 top scorers enter a drawing to win a free 16GB iPodon a certain date. This has several draws for the company:

• Many different types of people enjoy playing a quick video game, from me the computer geek to my casual-gaming wife. The chance of a prize makes it more enticing, as well.
• The app posts daily updates on players’ walls, promoting Blossom Chevy while informing the user of their rank. If their rank falls because of others beating their score, they may be prompted to go back and try to get a better one. It also promotes the game and Blossom to their friends, increasing the influence.
• Another aspect of the SocialUps campaign includes rather random photos and videos culled from the Internet, in the way people might share something they saw on Youtube with their friends. That, along with the Tetris game itself, can give them opportunities to share this content, and in turn promote the Blossom brand.

It’s intriguing to see how SocialUps is building a business out of streamlining the process of promoting one’s brand on Facebook. Blossom’s use of this service — a traditional firm utilizing new technology and promotion — is also encouraging in general. I’ll be interested to see what other techniques small and large businesses will use on the Web in the near future.