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FranCamp 2012: Mapping Your Customer’s Route to Your Store

As we’re winding down the summer and gearing up for a big retail season, I thought I would share my presentation from Franchise Social Media Camp (FranCamp) from back in May. The topic was leveraging social platforms for Franchise systems.

One slide (#6) that lead to some good discussions with attendees is the view of social platforms compared to your franchisees’ stores. Think of it as a map. What platforms are you using as roads to get to other platforms? And, more importantly, what’s the route to get foot traffic in the stores? Are you sharing links on Twitter to draw consumers to an app on Facebook for coupons that drive store traffic? Are you using Google+ or Facebook start a discussion and then sharing video that lives on YouTube that has a great call to action? There are many more combinations than there are platforms! Remember, some channels may be a better or faster route for your customers than other routes.

<div style=”margin-bottom:5px”> <strong> <a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/JackMonson/francamp-2012″ title=”FranCamp 2012″ target=”_blank”>FranCamp 2012</a> </strong> from <strong><a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/JackMonson” target=”_blank”>JackMonson</a></s

FranCamp 2012 from JackMonson

Tags: Atlanta, facebook, francamp, franchise social media, Google+, Slideshare, twitter, YouTube

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Categories Social Media Management

Facebook Privacy and Your Personal Brand

9 Apr

Last week I guest-hosted the monthly Tweet Chat of the Young Professionals Network. This is a very smart and active group of young PR pros affiliated with PRSA Chicago. The topic was career advancement in the PR 2.0 world, which naturally lead to some discussion of privacy on Facebook. I suggested we continue the privacy discussion somewhere … so let’s do it here!

I suggested to the YPN crowd that as PR, Communications, and Marketing professionals that their social channels should be public, transparent, and open to communicate with anyone.

To be very clear, I am not suggesting that your profiles and passwords be turned over to your employer. There’s a big difference between posting publicly and letting an employer access your private messages! If an employer asks for your passwords, run fast! You don’t want to work there.

So what do I mean by being transparent on your social channels? Think of yourself as your own brand. Keep your Facebook profile open and tell your story in a way that clients, employers, and business connections would find appealing.

But what about those drunken college photos that you want to post? Get over it. No one cares. If you must share old pictures with your friends, send them via email or text. To whom, as your own personal brand, are you trying to appeal? Potential clients and employers? Or someone you partied with a few years ago?

Facebook is currently your most valuable way to connect with any business contacts. I’ve heard many young PR pros argue that they don’t want to Friend their boss, a client, or even a journalist / blogger on Facebook. If that’s your bottom line, I would suggest a career outside of Communications.

And, go all the way with transparency. Don’t rely on “friends of friends”-only posts, or trusting Facebook privacy settings, which fail more often than you know.

So let’s hear it! Are you marketing yourself publicly or staying private?

Tags: facebook, PRSA, PRSA Chicago, TweetChat, twitter, YPN

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Categories Social Media Management

3 Steps to Increase Facebook Engagement

20 Feb

Facebook Fan Page + Facebook Post + Facebook Ad

Last week’s International Franchise Association Annual Convention included several opportunities to learn about localizing social marketing from new IFA member Facebook and its representative Brian Wheelis, Manager of Agency Management Operations.

Brian shared valuable data including new research on where consumers are spending their time on Facebook. The good news is that they are spending more and more time on Facebook. The bad news is that they may not be spending their time on Facebook with your brand. We can fix that in 3 easy steps…

1. Create Engaging Content on Your Fan Page

Many brands’ Fan Pages consist of a slick picture and a blatant advertisement. Why would anyone return to this page after his or her first visit? Very few brands will garner millions of fans due only to loyalty and without having anything interesting on their page. These include Apple, Starbucks, and … I think that’s all.

Your page must include something of value to a consumer: coupons, freebies, rewards, virtual gifts, or downloadable digital content.

Value can also be in the form of assets or tools like informational (or fun!) videos, financial calculators, “ask an expert” type features, polls, quizzes, contests, and games. Remember, it must be valuable for the consumer and potential customer, not just for your brand.

All of the above must be refreshed frequently with new reasons for the consumer to come back. Each time something new is created on your page, you must do step 2: create a post.

2. Publish a Post About Your Page’s Content

You can build the most engaging, fun, or valuable Fan Page on Facebook, but if no one knows about it, they won’t come. Facebook currently has over 800 Million users, but I’m guessing most of them are not looking at your Fan Page right now! Well-executed posts will drive some of them there.

Users spend 27% of their time on Facebook looking at their News Feed. And, with the proliferation of smart phones, most mobile users are looking at the News Feed exclusively. So on a regular basis, post a status update inviting everyone to come play your game, take your quiz, or get the new coupon. This is the quickest, easiest thing to do in all of social media! Write a little text, add a link to the tab on your Fan Page where the feature lives, and submit.

Your update will be seen by your fans on their News Feed and Ticker. Next, we move beyond your fans with step 3: create an ad.

3. Create a Facebook Sponsored Story About With The Post

The Facebook Ad, or more specifically, the Sponsored Story, is the spark that will ignite the inferno on your page. Facebook’s Brian Wheelis says that these ads will be seen by 3 to 5 times more Facebook users than the post alone.

Why? Facebook Sponsored Stories appear not only to your fans, but also to their friends.

That’s the key! Too many brands focus only on the number of fans they have accumulated. That number is important, but the goldmine is in those Fans’ Friends.

Our team at Engage121 has recently launched Engage121 Version 2.1, which now includes the ability to instantly create a Facebook Ad out of your status update. More importantly, you can also instantly create multiple localized ads for each of your franchisees’ or outlets’ local pages.

A marketing misstep is spending too many resources on converting customers to fans. If that sounds backwards, it’s because it is! Yet we see it everyday: print displays or customer service messages asking current customers to become a Fan. I supposed that has had value, as you do want your customers to be a part of the community. But don’t stop there; the people seeing those “please Like us” messages are already in your store, visiting your website, or receiving your invoice! Don’t market Social Media to them; market your business to new people using Social Media. Using the above 3 steps will refocus your attention to converting Fans (and their Friends!) to customers!

Fan Pages: Seen by your Fans

Posts: Seen by your Fans in their newsfeed

Sponsored Stories: Seen by your Fans and their Friends

Tags: Brian Wheelis, engage121, facebook, Facebook Ads, franchising, IFA2012, Sponsored Stories

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Categories Social Media Management

The Difference Between Facebook and Twitter That No One Seems to Get

17 May

Many people used Facebook for a quite a while before using Twitter. For many, this may have created a misunderstanding that Twitter works the way Facebook works: you post content and people with whom you’re connected will see it in their feed. Sure, it can work like that (and does for those who follow only 100 or so people). But here’s the little secret that none of your followers will tell you…

How Twitter Really Works:

1. You post content and none of your followers read it.

What?!? They don’t read it!?! At all?!? Hold on, it’s about to make sense.

2. Then, when anyone, follower or not, searches for a name, keyword, topic, or hashtag, they see your content.

So when we all say great content is key, we’re not kidding. High quality, high value, interesting content – with an attractive headline or catchy wording – is much, much more important on Twitter than your number of followers. Remember, all of those followers aren’t really reading everything you write. Sure they say they are, but Tweeps are nice like that.

More to think about: RTs not only matter, but also perhaps are the most important thing besides quality of content. We used to think about RTs as a great way of your content getting shared into new groups of people and communities. But, no one is reading all of your followers’ Tweets either. Or your followers’ followers’ Tweets. But, once again, it’s all about search. If anyone searches about your topic and sees multiple RTs pop up with your content, I’m betting that it will get read and your links will get clicked more often than if it only shows up once.

So, remember these Twitter points:

Interesting content = Most Important

Searchable Tweets = Very Important

RTs of yours = Important

Number of followers = Not so much…

…

Tags: engage121, facebook, social media relations, social media tools, twitter

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Categories Social Media Management

Four Things To Do If Social Media Is NOT Increasing Sales

14 Mar

I won’t pretend to have some secret formula for Social Media ROI for franchises or any other types of organizations. I’ll leave that to the software companies who have recently popped up and discovered how huge the franchising industry is and want to build your Facebook page…

What I will tell you is this: you need to measure Social Media activity against your bottom line.

Is there a correlation? Is SM making an impact on sales, leads, customers, or your other most important metrics?

Is Social Media Making an Impact on Your Sales?

If Social Media engagement is increasing your numbers, then keep going!

If not, then you need to do one of these four things:

1. Increase Social Media activity

2. Change Social Media tactics

3. Improve the content

4. Stop using Social Media

I don’t advocate #4, but it may be the right thing for some organizations. Let’s focus on the other three.

1. Increase Social Media Activity

How often are you engaging in conversations with consumers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and all of the others? How often are you updating your blog(s) with something other than marketing materials and ads?

Too many organizations rely on the Field of Dreams method of social media places: build it and wait for them to come. Sure there are 600 million users of Facebook, but how many actually run to your fan page once a week?

Best Practice: Post engaging content to your pages three times per week to set a cadence.

2. Change Social Media Tactics

Maybe you’ve been posting to a Facebook Fan Page but getting no conversion of fans to customers. Perhaps your targeted consumers aren’t “living” on Facebook; they may be more apt to engage you on Twitter, a blog, or a LinkedIn group. You must cover all bases and try all avenues to find your community.

Best Practice: add a new platform or channel every 60 days for the rest of 2011. And, try setting up individual Fan Pages, profiles, or blog sites for each store, location, or franchisee.

3. Improve the Content

Is there value for others? Or is there value in this content for only you and your organization?

Here’s a good test: Take a quick look right now at the content on your blog(s), Facebook pages, or Twitter account. Is it all press releases, announcements about your company, promotions, and broadcasts about products and how you’re better than the other guys? Guess who’s going to engage with you over this content? No one (except your co-workers and maybe some current customers who are being kind).

Best Practice: include marketing content in one out of every ten posts. The other nine will draw consumers into the conversation about the industry, lifestyle, or other information in which they see value.

Tags: engage121, facebook, franchise social media, ifa, linked, roi, social crm, social media marketing, social media tools, twitter

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Categories Social Media Management

Why Being On Facebook Is A Mistake

21 Feb

Today’s guest blog post is by Thomas Scott, CEO of Brand Journalists, a firm that is creating breakthroughs for several franchise companies using a mix of content and Engage121.

..
Why Being on Facebook is a Mistake

Almost every session I attended at this year’s International Franchise Association conference in Las Vegas touched on social media. No matter what the subject matter, the dialogue eventually focused on the impact of social media. Just as in past years, there was standing room only space for social topics and several times the crowd spilled over into the hallways.

Throughout all the conversation, a disturbing trend emerged as a best practice: Facebook is where you should focus your social media efforts. The message to franchisors: when it comes to social media, it is a Facebook world.

On many levels, this makes sense. Facebook is growing at amazing rates and has quickly become the most popular social network. Our customers are all over Facebook and we feel the pressure to be where our customers are. Our franchisees want to be on Facebook and we are struggling to develop a plan makes everyone happy and produces results.

This is a mistake.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a presence on Facebook; at Brand Journalists, we do a ton of Facebook work for franchisors and franchisees, both of which have a large opportunity to connect with customers via the popular network. I believe in Facebook and we are always looking for ways to coax a return out of our marketing.

The mistake is in thinking that all your social media efforts should be focused on Facebook.
Franchisors today need to exploit four areas of social media. They are all important but not all equal. Some are easier to use and some are better for driving sales. In our experience managing social media for several franchise brands and individual franchisees, Facebook is the least likely social activity to drive actual sales and revenue.

Here are the four areas of social media listed in order of importance and impact on your sales:

1. Blogging – every day, millions of people search for billions of things on Google. Despite Facebook’s size, Google is still many multiples larger and growing. Your customers are looking for you and your services on Google; the humble business blog is the best social media tool to help you get your content in front of your target customers. The business blog is the most overlooked social media tool and by far the most underused. Companies that get good returns on social media are heavy bloggers simply because the blog allows creation of optimized content that gets in front of people who want what you have to sell. A good blog leverages emotionally compelling stories and relevant keywords. If content is truly the backbone of a successful social media campaign, it needs a place to call home and its home is your blog.

2. Google Places – in several IFA sessions we asked if franchisors knew much about Google Places and few understood this important tool. Google Places is Google’s business directory and one of the most important social media platforms. Search for a business or service in your city and you’ll see Google place pages for your local franchisees. This is a mini-website that provides basic information about your business, showcases user reviews and gives business owners spots to update statuses and upload media such as photos and videos. Potential customers who are ready to buy your product or service are influenced more by Google Places than any other social media. If you want to drive sales, spend time claiming, optimizing and managing each of your local franchisee place pages. Spend time to train franchisees on how to manage local pages and gather positive reviews. You’ll get an immediate return.

3. Social Loyalty Programs – Don’t know what social loyalty is? You are not alone. This is a very new field of social media and it holds immense promise for building repeat business and generating referrals from existing customers. Social loyalty programs tap into point of sale systems. Similar to a grocery store customer card, you issue your customers who register online a swipe card. They indicate which social networks they use and give you their email. Why would someone hand over this information? People respond to incentives. If you are a yogurt shop, they agree to post positive messages about your brand and earn points for every posting. Once they reach a set number of points they get free yogurt. When a loyalty customer swipes the card in the store, the program checks them into foursquare, posts on Facebook and even tweets. Every posting has a coupon or promotion for others so you just turned your customer base into a guerrilla marketing sales force. Not only do you entice customers to visit more often, they build brand loyalty within their networks. Talk about word of mouth on steroids……

4. Facebook - last but not least, Facebook is not to be overlooked. In this list, however, Facebook is the most difficult way to generate a direct sales return, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it. Facebook is a closed system. That means your content stays within the Facebook network. Facebook wants it this way to encourage sharing and eventually tap into a lucrative ad market. For businesses, this means creating a business fan page. The best advice I’ve heard is to think of your fan page as a business website with similar functionality as your main company website. Don’t use Facebook as it comes in its default mode. Don’t have people see your wall when they click on your page. Do get help customizing your Facebook tabs and think about ways to serve up blog content, store locators and Facebook-only deals on custom – built tabs.

As franchise companies, social media has become part of our integrated marketing strategies and it’s a good thing: we have tremendous opportunities to build brand awareness and leverage fans. For the first time, companies are really beginning to show solid track records using the social media tools above to drive sales. If you are trying to tackle social media, start at the top of this list and work your way down — you’ll get a much better result and your franchisees will thank you.

If you don’t know where to start, outsource or get help. You won’t be sorry.

Brand Journalists is a content, PR and social media firm based in Nashville, TN that uses Engage121 with all of its clients to help manage content on social networks to create marketing breakthroughs and drive sales.

www.brandjournalists.com
Twitter @brandjournalist
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/thomscott
Facebook: facebook.com/brandjournalists:

Tags: brand journalists, engage121, facebook, franchise social media, ifa, social media marketing, thomas scott

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Categories Social Media Management

To Friend or not to Friend? What Small Business Owners Should Consider

17 Nov

Welcome Guest Blogger Jillian Gile from Pounding the Pavement with some Facebook advice for small business owners.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you know that Facebook is the hottest social media tool for small businesses. Facebook can be the tool you need to make that personal connection with customers that is so critical. There are many reasons to use Facebook in your marketing campaigns, but there are also a few pitfalls you should be aware of.

Pros:

It’s the ultimate word-of-mouth

Facebook is where people go to post what they’re having for dinner, what they think about their favorite TV show, and yes – even where they shop. Having a Facebook presence means you can be personally involved with getting your name out there. If one customer “friends” you, all their friends will see your name, even if they don’t actively post about your store.

Big returns on a small investment

Maintaining and updating a Facebook page does not take up large chunks of time, and Facebook is free, so any return is a huge profit. You can even sign up to advertise your business on Facebook, and ad packages are affordable for even the tiniest budget – think $5/day or less.

Facebook – it’s everywhere you want to be

Smart phones are almost ubiquitous – and with these mobile internet connections, Facebook is mobile, too. Customers running errands may see your well-timed status update and be influenced to stop by your store while they’re out and about. This has happened to me on more than one occasion, when my favorite consignment store posts a photo of a dress or jacket I just have to have, right now.

Become a part of the community

So much time and energy is spent making a business an integral part of a community (think yearbook ads). Facebook has been accused of replacing face-to-face social interaction, but you can use this substitution to your advantage. As part of Facebook, your business can gain a prominence that makes people support your business.

Obviously, Facebook isn’t all sunshine and roses. We didn’t need the movie The Social Network to show us that Facebook has some disadvantages, too.

Cons:

There is such a thing as too much exposure

Multiple daily postings about your latest deal, favorite brand, and current giveaway can annoy your Facebook friends and even make them unfriend you. Try to stick to one post a day (or every other day) and make these announcements count – coupons, funny anecdotes, community announcements.

Facebook isn’t business friendly

Facebook encourages businesses to create pages and advertise on their site, but they are very strict about protecting their users from fake accounts created solely for a business, and will crack down on anyone who has created multiple accounts for this reason. Stick to the Facebook page option, and play by the rules.

You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies

OK, we’re not suggesting you create an advertising war to get to 500 million friends, but creating a vibrant community of fans on your page will definitely take some time and effort. Do not stalk your customers or force them to provide you with e-mail addresses so you can boost appearances. Be patient.

Facebook isn’t for everyone

I worked at a small town real estate office that tried to use its Facebook fan page to draw in customers with photos of homes and announcing mortgage rates. The problem is, their fans were all clients who had already purchased homes and weren’t in the market anymore. They had to revamp their Facebook goals, and become more of a source for community news, which made them a resource for clients and clients’ friends. When you start your own Facebook page, give some serious thoughts to what your customers need, and what will draw them to your page.

The point is – is Facebook worth the effort for a small business owner? My answer is a cautious yes. Think about what your customers need: Do they need coupons? A friendly reminder you’re still around? A place to find out what’s going on in their town? Establish what your business needs are, and don’t hesitate to poll likeminded business owners to see what’s worked for them.

Jillian Gile is a guest blogger for Pounding the Pavement and a writer on online career training for the Guide to Career Education.

Tags: facebook, franchise social media, small business, social media engagement, social media marketing

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Categories Social Media Management

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