The Social Media Challenge: The Results We blended a team of digital marketing experts with an old-school rib joint to see if social media can really work.

For years, Big Papa's BBQ was likely Denver's best barbecue restaurant about which local barbecue fans had never heard. Their food was epic; their marketing barely a blip. Late last year, we decided to help. We pieced together a team of experts in branding and digital marketing and set out to take Big Papa's from social media zero to social media hero in 60 days.

As we outlined in our February issue, the goal of the project was simple: To give Big Papa's a marketing makeover. Co-owners Bill Cossoff and Frank Alfonso aimed to boost revenues by at least 50 percent and create a community of loyal and returning customers.

After some initial meetings, our team, led by LeeReedy/Xylem Digital of Denver, dubbed the effort "Social Sauce," and came up with four steps to maximize followers: