March! Happy March Ramily. We love March at the Ram. Here comes NCAA Madness. Major League Baseball’s first pitch is March 27th. Cold as Rice taps at the beginning of the month on the tail of Clearwater Kolsch. Our 17th annual BURGERAMA extravaganza kicks off March 12th. Yum! Yum! Yum! For starters we are going to feature Loaded Bacon Cheeseburger Fries – very tasty. Making a spectacular return is our Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza – a perennial top guest favorite and top seller. Four burgers make the BURGERAMA feature menu this year. First off, we have the Pork Hatch Green Chile Stew Burger – our award-winning, perfectly spicy green chili stew smothering an open-faced burger. We will also be serving our award-winning Green Chile Stew ala carte. Capitalizing on current trends and taste profiles brings us the Chimichurri Wagyu Burger – a fire-grilled A-5 wagyu burger grilled with Chef Brandon’s flavorful chimichurri sauce topped with cheddar and an arugula tossed in a pepper vinaigrette with a dash of aioli to finish. Next, we have the Bacon Jam Cheeseburger – candied onions and applewood bacon jam make this one shine. Finally, straight from Instagram we have our Oklahoma Style Smashed Burger – with slivers of onions smashed into the burger patty to impart great flavor.
I want to take a moment and speak directly to our developing leaders and chefs. As you grow and experience the facets of the hospitality business we want to hear from you. We want to hear your ideas on how to best grow sales and guest counts. We want you to tell us how the Ram can best cultivate loyal guests. We want you to vocalize about how we can become more efficient. How can we get every Ram team member to drop rocks and boulders on our each and every guest? Let your store leader hear you. Tell your chef. Tell Marty Hillis. Tell James Cassidy. Tell Nick Kannar. Tell Mark Patterson. Tell Brandon Escovedo. Tell Banger Smith. Tell Austin Iverson. Tell me. Looking forward to hearing from you all. Remember, the only bad idea is the one that is unsaid. Leaders, please help the Ram foster a great atmosphere of inclusion that encourages and facilitates helpful communication. Game On!
Viral! A big shout out to our social media team on the reel they posted on Friday February 21st. That was the video of two mugs of beer being poured with the caption that read, “The number of beers you drink is nothing compared to the number of beers you don’t drink. Let’s keep things in perspective.” As of March 1st, that post had over two million / 2,000,000 views and 48,600 likes. Posts like that make people smile. Posts like that give our audiences reasons to visit the Ram. Game On! Please forward your ideas for fun, engaging posts to Gabbie Torgerson gtorgerson@theram.com or Austin Iverson ajiverson@theram.com. Also, please encourage all of your fellow team members, guests and friends to follow, share and like The Ram on Facebook, Instagram and X. Game On!
More on our marketing and social media game plan: In August 2024, we achieved our highest number of impressions and engagements across all social media platforms, with 836,182 impressions and 12,628 engagements. We have analyzed our content from that time to identify what resonated most with our audience so we can replicate that success and grow strategically. What we learned is that our audience engages most with content captured during our events (e.g., Pig Roast, Mug Club Parties), funny reels, and—most importantly—smiling faces, whether they are team members or guests.
A reel the marketing team posted last Friday, February 21st, went viral on Instagram, reaching 2 million views and 48.4K likes as mentioned above. This post would be best categorized as a “funny reel”. While social media algorithms can be unpredictable, the marketing team’s charge is to analyze trends and apply these insights to maximize reach of all posts. The more people see and recognize the Ram, the more likely they are to visit, which ultimately drives sales and guest counts.
How the Team Can Help:
One of the biggest things that makes our content successful is Ram’s team members! Our audience loves seeing the faces behind the restaurant, and your energy and personality make a huge difference. Whether it’s jumping in for a quick behind-the-scenes clip, participating in a fun reel, or simply smiling in event footage, your presence helps create engaging content that connects with our followers. If you ever have a fun idea or something cool happening during a shift, let Gabbie and Austin know so we can capture it! The more we showcase our amazing teams behind our restaurants, the more people will want to come and be part of the experience.
Strategy Moving Forward:
To build on this momentum, we plan to prioritize content that consistently performs well: event-based footage, funny and relatable reels, and posts that highlight smiling faces. Maintaining a consistent posting schedule will be key, along with experimenting with new trends to keep engagement high. We also want to encourage more user-generated content by prompting guests to tag us in their posts, which we can then reshare to build community engagement and credibility. Additionally, we will explore cross-platform strategies, ensuring that high-performing Instagram content is also shared on TikTok and Facebook to maximize reach. By continually tracking engagement metrics and adjusting based on performance, we can refine our approach and keep growing our audience—ultimately driving more traffic to the restaurant.
A very Happy Birthday to: Kirill Lidin, Lisa Morgan, Earl Jess and Dr. Seuss. Smile! We will also say a belated Happy Birthday to the Ram, which turned 54 on February 26th.
I would like to recognize the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with their Ramily this month: Holly Kalii (7 years), Jessica Yazzie (6 years), Laura Torres Aguirre (12 years), Diane Williams (15 years) and Amy Westerhausen (17 years). Thank you very much.
“Excellence is not a spectator sport. Everyone is involved.”
~ General Electric