Franchisee Social Marketing Success

There have never been more places to advertise your business. Radio, TV, Yelp, Facebook, Billboards, referral networks…the list goes on and on – each costing money if you want to make an impact. If you’re a local franchisee, the options may seem daunting, but this is a blessing, not a curse, because for every channel out there, there’s a way to use it to increase your business.

Let’s take a look at social media. For the sake of this discussion, we are going to table all of those other platforms and address two common questions. As always, social media is a piece of a larger marketing plan, and works best with other activities like SEO, email, and radio, but if you just want to focus on social media, here’s how to do it as a local franchisee.

Question 1: Should I be on social media?

YES.

Simply put. But the reason why is a bit more complex. Social media is not going anywhere. How people use platforms will change and evolve, but the role social media has in our lives is not going to die any time soon.  Social media is where your potential customers are, and you need to be there unless you want to lose business.

Some relevant stats to explain this:

• It’s where your customers are.

  • Nearly half of consumers are already using social networks, like Facebook, to discover local businesses through brand pages, the Places feature or recommendations. (Local Search Association)

• It’s a crucial service tool.

  • Consumers are 71% more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals (Hubspot)

• It’s where your future employees are.

  • It’s not just about your customers, but finding talent in your area too. Social media can be a powerful tool to recruit and retain talent for less than the cost of local job boards.

Question 2: What’s the least I can do?

So you don’t want to spend much time on your social media page. We get it, there’s only so much time in a day. Here are 3 tips to spend the least time on social media while still being effective:

• Make sure your Facebook Page has accurate information, such as:

  • Address

  • Phone Number

  • Contact Email

  • Office Hours (If Applicable)

• POST. At minimum once a day, about:

  • Your services

  • Your expertise

  • Information and news your customers want to know

• Participate

  • Respond to customer requests within the hour of their original post

  • Respond to customer responses on your posts with additional information and a call-to-action

  • Get involved with Facebook’s Messenger for Business tool

  Looking to take your social media to the next level? Contact us today to see how we can help.

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