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10 Ways Franchises Can Develop an Effective Social Media Strategy
If you want to be successful with franchise social media, here are ten proven tips for developing a winning strategy:
1) Have a Plan
It’s worth taking the time to actually write out a plan. While this plan will evolve over time, having it in written form means everyone involved will know where to refer for guidance.
2) Clearly Assign Control
The exact way a franchisor delegates control can vary between organizations. But regardless of the specific decision that’s made, the important thing is that a choice is made and communicated to everyone involved.
3) Be Genuine
Current and potential customers who are using social media don’t want to interact with robots. Instead, they want to engage with real people. So when it comes to utilizing these platforms, always try to keep interactions as genuine as possible.
4) Understand the Details of Different Platforms
Although it usually doesn’t take long to get a handle on the basics of using different social platforms, it is important to be aware of the different nuances those platforms may have. For example, on Twitter, if you start a tweet with an @username, only that person will see it. So if you intend for all of your followers to see a tweet, be sure you put the @username somewhere other than at the start of it.
5) Experiment with Different Schedules
When it comes to the ideal time to post on social media platforms, there’s no shortage of recommendations floating around. However, since what works best can vary dramatically from one industry to another, the best thing to do in terms of franchise social media is experiment with multiple schedules and see which one yields the best results.
6) Keep Up with Platform Changes
Facebook is especially notorious for regularly changing features, as well as their guidelines. Since it can be challenging to keep up with all those changes, this is one of many reasons a lot of businesses choose to enlist the ongoing services of a social media professional.
7) Focus on What Works Best
Just as with posting schedules, different platforms will work better for different businesses. So while it’s good to have a presence on all the major ones, if you notice you’re driving more results from one or two specific networks, don’t be afraid to shift more of your attention to them.
8) Always Think Before Reacting
Although social media is a great channel for dealing with customer complaints, be sure that responses are always sent with a level head. Avoiding getting publicly upset in the heat of the moment will prevent a situation from escalating.
9) Keep SEO in Mind
Even though social media is different than search engine optimization, properly using it to share links from your blog or site can help you increase your rankings within Google and Bing.
10) Avoid Going Overboard with Anything
Whether it’s self-promotion or updates in general, moderation is generally the best practice for social media. Although it’s important to be active enough that people stay engaged, you don’t want to generate so much activity that you start cluttering people’s feeds. Since franchise social media marketing is an ongoing process, there’s no reason to feel pressured to pump out an excessive amount of activity when you’re first getting started.
As you can see from the above list, there’s a lot that goes into a successful franchise social media strategy. While franchise owners can accomplish a lot on their own, it’s often useful to also have input from a franchise social media professional who can help put your business on the right social media path and keep it there.
Michelle has been a franchise advisor for 10+ years. She also holds a valuable Internet Marketing Degree – however with the ever changing world of web marketing she strives to learn something new every day. Michelle can help you develop marketing, sales and lead generation strategies that produce real results.
This article is an original contribution by Michelle Hummel
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