Case Study: Applebee’s achieves scalable local engagement and actionable social insights with Sysomos (Expion)

How Applebee’s Brings The Neighborhood to Life with Social Media

Applebee’s, the world’s largest casual dining chain with over 2,000 restaurants (more than 95% franchised), faced a surge of unofficial local Facebook pages that varied wildly by franchise in tone and management. The company needed a way to let managers build local “neighborhood” connections while protecting brand standards (photo approval, employee/guest monitoring), enforcing marketing regulations, and keeping daily oversight to under ten minutes so restaurant teams weren’t distracted.

Applebee’s implemented Expion’s social media management platform, configured to franchise hierarchies with auditing, keyword scans, franchise billing, and a shared content library to distribute tested national campaigns locally. By combining the brand page with ~1,550 local pages and 5,000+ local users, they created a rich database for menu and service insights, reached 3.8M brand fans and 800K local fans with <10% overlap, and improved demographic targeting and national-to-local content delivery.

Applebee's

Jill McFarland

Social Brand Manager