4 Tips For Your Franchise’s Facebook Pages

CEOs and all executives in the Franchise industry are preparing to converge on the International Franchise Association 2014 Convention and a key topic again this year will surely be growing our businesses via social media. I thought I would share 4 easy tips that are working well for Franchisors right now.

These tips solve the most basic problem that we at Engage121 hear from all Franchisors: What should we put on our Facebook page and our Franchisees’ Facebook pages?

All of these tips will help improve your standing in the Facebook News Feed Algorithm. More importantly, they will attract and engage new members of your community. Those in your community may include customers, potential customers, and other very important connections.

Your activity on your Facebook page should always be aimed at one of these Goals: 1) Growing Your Community, 2) Increasing Engagement, or 3) Acquiring Leads or Customers. We will look at each tip in relation to one of these goals.

1. Post Regularly

Goal: Build Community

You’ve got to have stock on the shelves to open the doors. You’ve got to have content posted to have a Facebook Page worth Liking. Start today by posting something interesting once per day. Not sure what to post? Tips 2-5 will cover that. Just commit that you, your franchisees, an outside partner, or someone on your team will post regularly. And by regularly, I mean post at least 5 times per week on each page in your system.

Note, this is not for a few weeks, and then you get “too busy to succeed.” And it’s not just to get up and running, then let it drop. In fact, after you see success, you will want to step on the gas and publish multiple times per day!

2. Post Images

Goal: Build Community; Engagement

Who loves it when you post images? Facebook. Who loves it more? Your Fans and potential Fans. The recommended size is 1200 x 1200 pixels.

You should post images taken locally. Post images you’re sharing from other Facebook pages. Post stock images that fit a greeting, holiday, or special occasion. Post images of kittens and puppies. Just post images!

Blogging and marketing thought leader Bob Dunn suggests using “a photo to provoke emotions in your blog posts. Not only will you attract more readers, but they will remember your content longer.” This is also true for Facebook!

3. Post Relevant Content

Goal: Engagement

By relevant, I mean relevant not to you. It must be relevant to your customers. This is lifestyle content that is not about you or your brand. Who is your target demographic? What’s important and interesting to her or him? That’s what you want to post!

Don’t share marketing messages. Share interesting, entertaining, educational, or funny stuff. Here’s the good news: you don’t have to write it. There are millions of articles, blogs, posts, and other content waiting for you to share. Do your potential fans a favor and share something interesting. They will reward you by becoming a fan.

This is the stuff your customers want to read, and even more importantly, want to share with their friends.

4. Post an App that asks for an email address.

Goal: Gets Leads

For many franchisors and franchisees, Likes are nice but emails are gold. It’s the simplest, easiest-to-get lead on the planet. If someone won’t give you their email address, I’ve got bad news: they will never give you their money.

Create a Facebook Tabbed Application with a simple contest, giveaway, survey, or coupon. Make it so that in order to participate, the consumer must a) Like your page and b) enter their email address.

Increase Local Share and Customer Engagement

Here’s my early pick as the most interesting panel on the schedule of The 2014 International Franchise Association Convention. This group of franchising and marketing thought leaders will share ideas on local social and other local marketing engagement.

Title: Increase Local Share and Customer Engagement with Less Time and Effort
Date: Monday, February 24, 2013
Time: 10:15 am – 11:45 am

Moderator:
Mary Ann O’Connell, CFE, President, FranWise

Speakers:
Kelly Crompvoets, Marketing Coordinator, Home Franchise Concepts, Inc.
Donnie Robertson, Director of Marketing, Nothing Bundt Franchising, Inc.
Deb Evans, President, Franchise Foundry

We will explore efficient ways to increase local revenue, save staff time and foster strong and meaningful customer engagement.
Franchisors and franchisees need local customer contact information to begin two-way engagement and learn operational deficiencies at the local and regional levels.
Attendees will learn how to use Social Media to create Top Of Mind Awareness, how to effectively use the ad fund to support local branding, automate programs that are easy for franchisees to use and automate the use and distribution of in-store kits.

Click photo to download 2014 IFA Convention brochure

Local Social, Part 2: The Agency Menace

Misguided information is hurting franchise marketing when it comes to Local Social.

A public relations firm focusing on the franchise space that has recently positioned its team as being “social media experts” told me that they are advising franchisor clients not to allow local Facebook pages for franchisees. They recommend having just one Facebook page for the brand.

I asked why … because of a concern over consistency? Workflow fears? Worries over customer response?

No. Their answer was that it’s easier for the PR firm to measure that way.

I was at a loss for words. Instead of localizing social and growing communities of customers and potential customers, this agency was counseling its clients to make the agency’s own work easier.

My only response was that their approach was that it’s like losing a contact lens in the bedroom, but looking for it in the kitchen because the light is better.

This is not just uninformed. It’s lazy. And, if I were their client already, I could not fire this agency fast enough.

Social Is Local

Some will tell you that social media is all about making consumers and brands more global and creating virtual communities made up of people across the world. This may be true for entities that sell products only online, but it’s not true for small businesses or franchisees.

Customers typically don’t buy a large coffee, a slice of pizza, or a new SUV online. You can influence, engage with, and make an offer to consumers via social channels, BUT they need to come in to become an actual customer.

So many brands are selling at that local level, yet not marketing to or engaging with potential customers at the local level. Why are they missing these potential customers?

One reason is a misunderstanding about consistency. This is typical when the top person responsible for social marketing is not accountable for real business results (read: dollars!)

I recently spoke with a marketing and communications team at a large US-based oil company with several hundred franchised convenience stores in communities across the country. These mid-level managers couldn’t get past the idea of a local franchisee potentially saying something inconsistent in social media. They decided it would be safer to just have one corporate page and no local or regional activity in social.

This is exactly why franchisors need to lead, not just limit, social media communications. If that’s not possible, then they should remove their franchisees’ phones too. And, if inconsistency in social media scares you this much, then stop franchising. Close up shop!

The fact is, social media is the EASIEST place to manage your brand. Put some listening and publishing tools in place, commit an hour or two per week, and you’re good to go for your whole franchise system.

All that other stuff you’re already doing is the hard part of managing a brand!

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