Last spring we set up the Sandbar on Whrrl and Foursquare, two location-based social networs that allow you to check in, share your location and find friends. We added "specials" that allowed users to get free jukebox credits when they checked in and showed their status to the bartender.
Now, we've added a third network: Gowalla. It's similar to the others, with one big difference: the network was co-founded by an alumnus of KU. Which makes it a big deal in our opinion. And he's been to the Sandbar. Check out the picture he uploaded to our spot on Gowalla.
If you check in to the Sandbar on Gowalla, you'll get this nice friendly welcome message:
Once you check in, show this message to the bartender and they'll load five free credits on the jukebox for you. This offer is only valid before 9 p.m., any day of the week.
Another reason we like Gowalla: the AP Top 25/Gowalla Check In Challenge. The contest encourages fans to check in to five designated locations on their college campuses, and at the end of the regular football season the school with the most points will earn a $10,000 donation to their general scholarship fund. You can also win random prizes like MacBook Airs and iPods, just for checking in.
KU is pretty far behind in the standings right now, but you can help! Use Gowalla to check in at the University, Allen Fieldhouse, Memorial Stadium, the Campanile or the Kansas Union and you'll earn a point. Send your check-in to Twitter or Facebook and you'll earn five more. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
The Bar Band visited the Sandbar last night to rally the fans for today's football game against Colorado.
The Bar Band is one of our very favorite traditions. This ever-changing group of musicians has endured for over a decade now! You can read about their history here and see a picture of the original group here.
I wasn't there last night to see them. But the cool thing about social media and the online world today is that I can still share pictures and even a video with you, thanks to friends of the Sandbar who were there.
Heather took this picture from her awesome spot in the bar- right in front of the band. She probably can't hear today, but as she said, "it's a small price to pay for the awesomeness!"
Another Sandbar fan, Becca, took this great picture:
And finally, Brent, an out-of-town visitor here for the game, uploaded this video:
Thanks to everyone who came in last night, and especially to Heather, Becca and Brent for sharing pictures and video with us! Enjoy the tailgate and the game today, and Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
Using one of my favorite new tools for finding mentions of The Sandbar online (www.socialmention.com), I discovered a fun blog post written by an anonymous guy here in Lawrence that happens to mention our bar.
Jum (no idea if that's his real name, nickname or just something random he calls himself online so he can stay anonymous) made a sort-of Top 5 list of fictional bars that would be interesting to drink in. Sort-of, because there are six bars, not five. They're all bars you're familiar with from TV shows or movies.
The Sandbar is mentioned in #2, McLaren's from "How I Met Your Mother." This is a show I've never watched, I'm embarrassed to say, but I might have to tune in now just to check out their hangout.
Here's a little bit of what Jum had to say:
Music scene: TBD. The jukebox doesn't seem to get much play at McLaren's, but it seems like the kind of place where if you fired up some Neil Diamond or some Journey, within seconds, everyone would be cheers'ing each other and singing along. Very similar to the Sandbar here in Lawrence in that by the end of the night, you can conceivably be friends with almost every patron in the bar because of its cozy, intimate layout.
We think his description of The Sandbar is right on. Check out the full blog post here, and leave him a comment to let him know what you think. Who knows, maybe he'll talk about The Sandbar again- or even better, reveal himself to us!
The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce put together a fun and fantastic event for downtown Lawrence: a scavenger hunt!
The Unlock Lawrence scavenger hunt took place yesterday at 11:30 a.m. Teams of two people signed up at Intrust Bank and had two hours to solve riddles that led them to various downtown locations, where a treasure box of keys and new clues waited.
The scavenger hunt's goal was to emphasize the power and importance of using social media to discover more about our community. The Chamber's Facebook page explains all the details.
The ten locations that were part of the scavenger hunt:
Chamber of Commerce
Liberty Hall
Granada
Antique Mall
The Eldridge
Free State Brewery
Lawrence Art Center
LJW News Center
The Sandbar
And the most baffling spot: a rock on the other side of the Kansas River
The teams ran around downtown Lawrence for two hours collecting keys, solving riddles and dashing to the next location. Each team had to collect all ten numbered keys, one from each spot, and go back to Intrust Bank. The first six teams to finish won prizes including a TV, Wii, phones, and an inflatable Jayhawk.
The best spot? The Antique Mall. The folks there hid the box of keys in the basement of the mall. If you've ever been in the Antique Mall, you know there's a lot of stuff in there. The wooden box blended in well with the wares of the shop. Great job, Antique Mall staff!
The worst spot? The aforementioned rock. The Twitter picture clue for this spot made it seem like the box was hidden somewhere near the power plant, near the wooden stairs that lead down from the Kansas River bridge. It would have made more sense to use another Chamber member business instead!
We were excited to be part of the scavenger hunt. Kudos to the Chamber staff for putting together such a fun, interactive event. Check back tomorrow for the fun addition we had in the bar for participants!
Before our block party last weekend, we said there would be prizes. You could win a prize by tweeting about the party, or by uploading a party picture or video online and sharing it with us. It's taken us a little longer than we thought to recover from the party and wrap things up, but we finally have some winners!
Not very many people shared pictures or videos, but the ones we got were great and we appreciate every single one of them. Here's a couple of our favorites:
Alison tweeted a picture of her and some friends with a certain famous basketball coach who made an appearance at the party. You can see the picture here.
Rachel tweeted a short video she took of the Sandbar dancers. Watch it here. On that note, we can't believe no one else shot video. It's so easy now!
And of course we picked a couple of random tweets about the party. How did we do this? We saved an RSS feed of all the tweets with the hashtag #sb21. Then we counted them up and used random.org's random number generator. And presto, we had a couple winners.
Congrats to the five winners! You win your choice of a Sandbar t-shirt or a six-pack of pint glasses. We'll be in touch to let you know how to claim your prize.
Thanks to everyone who tweeted, posted, took pictures, shot video, and generally just had a good time at our party. We'll be back next year!
We hope you’re planning to join us today for our 21st birthday block party. Even if you can’t make it, you can still see what people are saying about the party on Twitter- in real time- by checking out the TweetGrid below.
