What has two arms and two legs however can go in 289 instructions without delay? Every of your franchisees on social media. Eek. How do you retain advertising and marketing messages, branding, and buyer expertise in keeping with, fairly actually, so many cooks within the kitchen?
Worry not, franchisor: Right here’s the way to plan, execute, analyze, and preserve a profitable franchise social media advertising and marketing technique that every one your franchisees will get enthusiastic about.
Bonus: Get a free, customizable social media tips template to shortly and simply create suggestions in your firm and staff.
Franchise social media advertising and marketing is selling your model and interesting clients at each the company and native ranges, whereas making certain messaging and values stay constant throughout all social profiles.
In a centralized company, the corporate owns all places (or branches) and there’s one chain of command. Easy.
In distinction, a person or one other firm owns every franchise firm location. These branches are technically separate entities, though they have to report again to the mother or father group, pay licensing charges, and comply with the model’s established practices.
One of the vital well-known franchise examples is McDonald’s, with over 38,000 places worldwide. Every restaurant is individually owned and operated by franchisees, however clients see the identical signage and menu objects — and hopefully, have the identical expertise — at each location.
Franchisor: An organization that owns the emblems and rights to a model who sells licenses permitting franchisees to function enterprise places utilizing the trademarked model.
Franchisee: An individual or firm who pays a licensing payment and recurring royalties to open a enterprise leveraging the mother or father firm’s current model, title, companies, and different proprietary property.
#1 Social Media Device for Franchises
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Implementing model tips
You need franchisees to take advantage of social media advertising and marketing to develop their (and your) enterprise, however how do you keep away from a cringe-worthy fake paus, like utilizing an outdated emblem in advertising and marketing supplies?
Reply: Creating an in depth model tips doc and conserving it the place all franchisees can entry the most recent model, alongside together with your model property.
Bonus: Get a free, customizable social media tips template to shortly and simply create suggestions in your firm and staff.
Conserving content material high quality constant
In addition to utilizing the fitting visuals and model voice, there’s additionally the considerably ambiguous judgment of social media content material “high quality.” What’s good in the case of content material anyway?
Examples of consistency will be so simple as making certain every submit is freed from spelling and grammar errors. Or sticking to 1 exclamation level as a substitute of 5. You realize, the easy issues.
These high quality requirements also needs to be a part of your model tips doc.
Dividing duties
Will your company head workplace deal with all social media advertising and marketing, utilizing one account per platform? Will you create separate model accounts for various areas or languages?
Or, will every franchise open and preserve their very own social media accounts?
Neither method to franchise social media advertising and marketing is mistaken. Simply you should definitely doc your construction in your social media advertising and marketing technique.
Monitoring efficiency and ROI
Was the final Black Friday promotion efficient? Or was it solely efficient in a sure market? Or just for a sure franchisee? What did they do in another way on social in comparison with the opposite franchisees?
Getting efficient efficiency information is necessary for all companies, however particularly for franchisors managing groups of franchisees.
Utilizing social media for customer support (successfully)
Offering customer support over social media is now not non-compulsory: 40% of your clients now anticipate you to assist them on their most well-liked social platform. Over half (53%) usually tend to purchase from manufacturers who supply customer support by way of chat. And, unsurprisingly, 94% of individuals say constructive customer support makes them extra doubtless to purchase from you once more.
You higher hurry, too: 40% anticipate a response inside an hour and 79% anticipate one inside 24 hours.
So what does all that imply? For those who’re not already fixing buyer issues on social media, begin now. (Don’t fear: I cowl the way to effortlessly get began with social customer support later.)
Scale back response time (and your workload)
Handle all of your messages stress-free with straightforward routing, saved replies, and pleasant chatbots. Attempt Hootsuite’s Inbox right this moment.
Adjusting content material to suit numerous cultures
Whether or not your franchisees are unfold throughout your state, nation, or the whole world, it’s doubtless that totally different kinds of content material will carry out in another way throughout every area. Your social media content material must respect variations in tradition, attitudes, legal guidelines, and extra to resonate with as many individuals as potential.
Localization can also be about greater than geography. Creating multilingual content material can set up you because the model of selection for tens of millions: 2 out of three clients would swap to a model providing service of their native language.
1. Set targets for the model and for particular person branches
Each weblog submit about social media advertising and marketing because the dial-up days spouts the significance of setting targets and KPIs to measure the success of your efforts, so I don’t must. However right here’s the way to set social media targets that truly enhance ROI, plus a free template to trace all of it.
Franchisors, one of the simplest ways to measure progress is to set targets in your group as an entire, plus separate social media targets for every department.
You each need the identical factor — Progress! Revenue! Loyal clients! — however the way you go about reaching these targets will probably be totally different. For instance, every department goes to have a a lot larger position in customer support and engagement than your head workplace (assuming every location will handle their very own social profiles).
In that case, targets for branches might be:
- Delivering a response time below 1 hour for all DMs.
- Customer support satisfaction survey scores above 90%.
- Rising follower counts and engagement charges. (Psst: use our free engagement charge calculator to see the way you stack up.)
Whereas targets in your group will probably be extra brand-focused, reminiscent of:
- Monitoring and bettering your model popularity.
- Utilizing social listening to proactively tackle potential PR crises and conduct aggressive analysis.
- Supporting franchisee success by sharing analytics outcomes and training them on social media advertising and marketing greatest practices.
2. Create a do’s and don’ts information
You want three tips to share with franchisees:
- Model tips: All of the visible points of your model, like which emblem model to make use of, colours, the way to spell product names and in the event that they want trademark symbols or not, and so on.
- Social media coverage: You possibly can embody this inside a bigger model tips doc. This spells out your model voice,
- A do’s and don’ts information: Consider this as a fast, point-form one-pager itemizing out an important social media “guidelines.”
A do’s and don’ts information ought to function a cheat sheet franchisees can use to evaluate whether or not they need to submit one thing or not. Stating clear expectations is one of the simplest ways to keep away from potential PR disasters, and in your franchisees to really feel assured about what they’re posting.
Greatest Purchase doesn’t name theirs a “do’s and don’ts” but it surely’s clear and to the purpose:
Maintain your tips and coverage paperwork the place all franchisees can simply entry them. It may be so simple as a Google Drive folder. Put visible property in the identical folder too, reminiscent of emblem information, so your franchisees at all times know the place to get probably the most up-to-date variations.
Need assistance? Seize our free social media coverage template, and test this entire information to model tips.
3. Standardize publishing flows
That is the place the ability of a scheduling software is available in. Positive, you may schedule content material without cost on a lot of the platforms’ native apps, however a publishing workflow is a lot greater than simply scheduling.
For instance, if you happen to set your group up with Hootsuite, you additionally get:
- Shared Canva templates for on-brand content material: Earlier I discussed how necessary consistency is. With our Canva integration, you may let franchisees entry customized branded Canva templates proper from Hootsuite Composer, making certain everybody’s visuals are high notch.
- Fast onboarding and account entry: You keep Tremendous Admin privileges for all accounts and it’s straightforward to arrange new franchisees at scale.
- Deep analytics insights: With all of your franchisee accounts related in Hootsuite, you will get a macro or micro view of key analytics with just a few clicks. Simply determine high performing content material concepts to share with all franchisees and at all times know your social ROI.
- Highly effective publishing instruments: The customized Greatest Time to Publish characteristic robotically schedules content material for when every profile’s viewers is almost certainly to see it. Plus: Drafts, a visible calendar planner, in-built promoting choices, and extra.
- Simple content material approval: Need to evaluate every submit earlier than it goes public, and simply collaborate on edits or revisions with franchisees? Hootsuite does that, too.
Plus, supercharge your franchisees’ advertising and marketing energy with OwlyWriter AI. Excellent for each novice social media entrepreneurs and professionals alike, OwlyWriter immediately generates ready-to-post content material that truly feels like your model.
Get all of the deets in below 60 seconds:
4. Monitor analytics (domestically and globally)
You already know analytics information is important for figuring out in case your social media advertising and marketing technique is working. However analytics are much more necessary for franchisors as a result of you must measure your general development, and have the ability to break down efficiency by department.
Hootsuite Analytics makes it straightforward to see all the things you want immediately.
Get the large image overview of all of your franchisors without delay, throughout all platforms, or break it down by area, platform, or particular person department.
See what’s working (and what’s not) earlier than campaigns finish, permitting time to pivot if mandatory. No extra spreadsheets or having to log into every platform’s web site to get the numbers you need. Save your key metrics as customized stories, able to view, export, or share with only a few clicks.
That is one other large benefit of setting franchisees up in Hootsuite: They get environment friendly content material scheduling and also you get complete analytics.
Don’t know what to trace? Right here’s all the things you must arrange your social media analytics the fitting manner.
5. Conduct department social media audits
Don’t panic at the usage of “audit” — it’s painless, I promise. A social media audit is a manner of routinely evaluating efficiency and figuring out enchancment alternatives.
An audit critiques:
- Present social media platforms
- Model consistency
- Analytics stories
- Repute and sentiment by way of social listening instruments
- Objectives and ROI
It’s a repeatable course of you should use to see how your franchisees’ social media advertising and marketing goes. Use it to reward and amplify top-performing content material, and to determine areas of enchancment to educate them on.
How usually do you have to run a department social media audit? That’s as much as you, however I’d counsel a minimum of quarterly to test in, and yearly, earlier than updating the following 12 months’s advertising and marketing plan and finances.
Learn the way to do a social media audit and snag our free template, or watch under:
6. Help branches with design templates
One of many largest challenges your franchisees doubtless have with social media advertising and marketing is creating content material, particularly visuals like graphics or movies.
The common creator spends 1-5 hours per week creating content material, which doesn’t sound like a ton of time… if social media is your full-time job. However for a lot of franchisees, it’s not.
Plus, over 1 / 4 (27%) spend 5-10 hours and a complete of 30% spend over 10 hours per week on content material.
Supply: Statista
Fortunately, that is one thing you may simply resolve in your franchisees. Create pre-designed content material templates that solely want small tweaks earlier than scheduling and publishing.
Arrange a template library with Hootsuite’s built-in Canva integration so your franchisees can customise and insert templates proper inside Hootsuite Composer.
We’ve even received 50 free Canva social media templates to get you began.
7. Create a fast begin equipment
Whether or not you resolve to handle your franchisees’ accounts with Hootsuite or have them handle their very own, a social media “fast begin equipment” can assist.
Your equipment may embody:
- Advisable social platforms to make use of.
- Naming practices (e.g. @BrandNameCityName) to maintain branding constant.
- Model tips.
- A fundamental one-pager protecting social media advertising and marketing targets and expectations.
- Hyperlinks to the place you retain up to date copies of name tips, technique paperwork, property, and different objects they’ll often seek advice from.
- Tutorial movies exhibiting the way to arrange social accounts, add logos, schedule posts and/or submit posts for approval, and so on.
- Suggestions on how usually to submit.
Plus the rest you need franchisees to know straight away about how your organization does social media advertising and marketing.
8. Construct a social customer support technique
As talked about earlier, your clients anticipate to get good service out of your franchisees’ social media profiles.
However how do you:
- Guarantee all franchisees are offering the identical caliber of customer support?
- Set response time benchmarks?
- Measure buyer satisfaction?
- Construct genuine relationships with clients?
Shock: the reply is Hootsuite.
Yep, Hootsuite Inbox 2.0 is right here with all-new options to make social customer support straightforward and efficient in your franchisees:
- Unified Inbox: Branches can see and reply to DMs and feedback throughout all their social platforms inside Hootsuite, as a substitute of getting to log into platforms individually.
- 24/7 service: Evening owl buyer? No drawback. You possibly can setup autoresponders to guarantee clients you’ve acquired their inquiry and once they can anticipate to listen to again from you. That is particularly useful outdoors of enterprise hours.
- Time-saving instruments: Auto-filter messages, save customized replies, and examine cross-channel message historical past so your buyer doesn’t need to re-explain themselves.
- Sensible chatbots: Want to offer customer support at scale? Harness the ability of AI to resolve buyer issues immediately with adaptive, conversational chatbots.
- Highly effective analytics: Measure response occasions, buyer satisfaction scores, reply quantity, and tons extra to judge efficiency general and per department.
Hootsuite Inbox dramatically boosts your social customer support capabilities and makes it straightforward in your franchisees to make sure each buyer feels valued.
Take a look at all Hootsuite Inbox 2.0 options in-depth, or higher but, request a free demo to see it in motion.
9. Leverage worker advocacy
One of many quickest methods to develop a brand new franchisee’s social media presence is to encourage their staff to become involved. Worker advocacy can improve natural attain as much as 200% and income as much as 23%.
Plus, a third of staff already share their firm’s content material with out being requested.
In addition to moolah and attain, worker advocacy additionally has different advantages:
Supply: Hootsuite and Altimeter Analysis, Social Transformation Report
Worker advocacy will be so simple as staff sharing your content material to their private networks, or you may go a step additional with Hootsuite Amplify: a devoted house for pre-approved posts.
In addition to gaining access to a library of ready-to-share content material, staff can generate customized captions in their very own fashion with built-in AI writing instruments.
Bringing staff into your advertising and marketing technique can strengthen their engagement stage and reduce your paid promoting prices on the identical time. A win-win for you and your franchisees.
10. Encourage buyer critiques
Testimonials encourage belief, in each the franchisor and franchisee.
If clients are already leaving critiques on Google, Yelp, or your social media profiles, share them. Create a branded graphic your franchisees can copy and paste current critiques into for fast content material that’s — to cite Pokemon — ”tremendous efficient.”
Individuals rank buyer critiques, and different user-generated content material, as 2.4X extra genuine than something a model produces, even when your newest business has A-Checklist Hollywood expertise. That’s necessary as a result of whereas 92% of entrepreneurs suppose they’re producing genuine content material, solely 51% of customers agree.
No must seek out critiques. Arrange Hootsuite Streams to trace critiques and mentions of your model, and share it with just a few clicks.
11. Share top-performing content material ideas
Did a submit from certainly one of your branches go viral? Determine why, then share it for instance for all of your franchisees.
The way you share any classes discovered relies upon the way you’ve arrange your franchisee advertising and marketing construction. You possibly can ship out a month-to-month e-newsletter protecting nice submit examples and greatest practices. Or, host a weekly or month-to-month webinar or convention name about social media technique for all franchisees to participate in. You too can maintain it easy with a Slack or Discord group chat to showcase and focus on nice content material.
Everybody advantages from sharing social media success tales.
Hootsuite powers franchise social media advertising and marketing with environment friendly scheduling, publishing, and buyer engagement instruments in your franchisees, and superior analytics, collaboration, and branding instruments for you — throughout all platforms. See it in motion.
Handle all of your social media in a single place, measure ROI, and save time with Hootsuite.
