Rallio – Social Media for Franchises, Small & Local Business

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Reputation Social

Align Your Franchise Social Media Marketing Across the Brand

Franchise social media can be a fantastic way to build a community and reach new customers, but it’s still a relatively new marketing platform for many franchise brands. The challenge is that when your franchisees are using social media in their own way, it can lead to inconsistent branding and damage the brand’s reputation. It can also lead to challenges when building a local presence and engaging with these customers, who are used to a different level of service. Here’s how you can align your online presence across all of your social media channels and train franchisees to get their social media marketing aligned across the brand.

Use Technology for Social Media Management

As any business owner can tell you, sharing content across various social channels can be a time-consuming task. Logging in and out of different platforms, coming up with social media content, and engaging with followers is a full-time and one that most businesses don’t have time to tackle. And international franchise businesses that aim to expand their footprint outside of the country may face additional challenges when trying to organize and manage their social media platforms due to language and cultural differences.

By using a social media SaaS platform like Rallio, marketers can manage all aspects of their social media presence from one place. It allows them to schedule posts, monitor analytics, track engagement and more without having to log into multiple platforms every day. It also empowers them to engage directly with customers when they leave comments, post online reviews, and send direct messages to the brand — ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

Related: For 5 Years Running, Rallio Is a Top Franchise Supplier

Keep a Consistent Brand Image

When it comes to franchise social media marketing, important to maintain a consistent brand image even down to the location level so that your brand does not become fractured. In addition to using Rallio’s technology, which allows franchisors to set global permissions based on their needs, there are several ways you can ensure consistency across all your locations:

Identify your key messages and themes

Make sure they are consistent across all social media channels. This will help you be more effective at driving engagement and conversions.

Develop a social media policy

The policy must outline how franchisees and their employees should use social media accounts on behalf of your company, including guidelines on what types of content should be shared, how often, and who has permission to post or upload content on behalf of the business. The policy should also outline what they can’t say or share on social media accounts and explain why these policies exist.

Ensure that each location has its own branded profile pages

This includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms where they’re active. With unique pages, franchisees can show off their own personality through photos and other content and attract local business.

Set up a system for posting content at each location

Whether you hire a third party or create an internal team, make sure there is consistency in the images and messages being posted across all locations. This will help develop brand recognition and allow customers to feel like they know your brand well. It also helps establish trust between your company and customers by fostering consistency across channels.

Keep it local and engaging

It’s important to personalize content depending on what works best in each market or region within your franchise network — whether that means local news, events or weather updates — but don’t forget about developing unique content tailored specifically to each location as well. For example, if one of your locations has a great new chef or menu item, create a post that features the chef and their famous dish.

Build an editorial calendar for content sharing across all channels

Make sure that each piece of content is aligned with your company’s overall voice and tone and offers value to your audience — whether it’s tips for running a successful business or educational resources for customers or prospective employees.

Pay Attention to Customer Care

Social media is a critical medium for franchise brands to strengthen relationships with stakeholders and potential leads in today’s digital economy. It’s important to pay attention to customer care, as many people use social media as a customer service channel. Here are some tips:

Be responsive, but don’t overreact

You should respond quickly, but don’t panic if you aren’t able to answer immediately. Aim to reply to comments, messages and reviews within 24 business hours.

Don’t fear negative feedback

It’s inevitable that you’re going to get some negative comments on social media. And while a lot of people think that if they get negative feedback, their brand will be damaged, it’s actually the opposite! Use it as an opportunity to respond professionally and show everyone you’re able to resolve issues gracefully. You’ll earn your followers’ trust — and hopefully even more sales!

Use the right tone

The tone of your replies should match the flow of the conversation — if someone asks for help or has a complaint, respond in an empathetic tone; if they’re just making small talk, respond casually.

Provide value

Responding with basic information like “I’m sorry” or “Thank you” isn’t enough — you need to provide value by offering actionable advice or resources that will help them solve their problem or make them want to do business with you again.

Align Your Brand and Reap the Rewards

The franchise industry is continually shifting its marketing focus toward social media, and it’s safe to say that it’s going to continue to be a central part of most franchise marketing plans in the future. By investing time in social media and laying the groundwork now, you can build an effective franchise brand on multiple platforms. Social media will likely continue to expand into other digital channels in the future as well, so it pays to be prepared. Contact us at rallio.com to schedule a demo and start taking advantage of having a single platform for all your social media marketing needs.

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Social

7 Tips for Better Fall Photos on Social Media

When you’re thinking about taking photos or videos for your business, there are a lot of things to consider. Do you want to show people your product? Will you be using it in an ad or on your website? Are there any specific colors or themes you want to highlight? And when it comes to fall photos, you have even more options. The colors are so beautiful and warm — why not use them to promote your business? We’ve rounded up seven tips for better fall photos that will help you take stunning pictures for your social media pages and attract local business.

1. Use Natural Light

Natural light is the best kind of light because it’s free, easy to find, and, depending on the time of day, flattering for the subject of the photo. You don’t need expensive equipment or fancy lighting setups; just be creative with what you have available to you.

If you’re taking photos outside, try shooting in the morning or evening when the sun isn’t directly overhead or below your subject — this can make for shadows on faces. If you’re indoors, make sure that the light is shining in front of you, not behind. For example, film yourself while facing a window, not the other way around.

2. Highlight Your Community

You can take a picture of just about anything with fall in the background, but why not include some of the things that make your city unique? Think about what makes your community special, like the city hall or a landmark building. If possible, try to find an angle from which the building is prominent in the foreground of your photo.

The best part about this is that it doesn’t have to be a big city. There are many towns and small cities that have a lot of character and charm. If you live in a smaller town, use this as an opportunity to showcase what makes it unique.

3. Keep It Simple

Fall is the perfect time to experiment with different types of photography and techniques. It’s also a great time for creating more artistic images that reflect the season. However, if you want to create an image that will attract customers’ attention and make them want to follow you on social media, keep it simple.

Just because the leaves are changing and the weather is cooler doesn’t mean you have to get fancy with your photos. You can take great pictures with just a smartphone or point-and-shoot camera, along with unique angles and subject matter. For example, if you’re taking a photo of an apple tree at harvest time, try lying down on the ground so that you can get a close-up shot of one of its hanging fruits or the foliage above.

4. Feature Your Fall Favorites

The best way to show off your fall offerings is with a simple photo or video that showcases the product or service itself. This is a great opportunity to feature your business’s fall favorites such as unique products or services, along with special fall promotions.

For example, if you own a bakery, show off some of the seasonal treats you’re offering such as pumpkin pie, apple cider donuts, gingerbread cookies and more.

If you’re a florist, feature some beautiful fall flowers like mums, chrysanthemums and sunflowers. Or if you own a clothing boutique or accessory store, bring out all the scarves, hats and gloves that are perfect for this time of year.

Service-oriented businesses can take before-and-after photos featuring their work or how-to videos explaining how to DIY a project. Adding value to your followers’ feeds ensures they will keep coming back to see your content, helping you increase your engagement and reach.

Related: 7 Proven Video Content Ideas Guaranteed to Liven Up Your Social Media

5. Go Behind the Scenes

Show your followers what it’s like to run a business by including images of employees at work or behind-the-scenes shots of how your products are made or delivered to customers. Make sure there’s something interesting going on in the shot; if all you’re showing are a few products on a shelf, it doesn’t make for a compelling image — instead, try including a customer or an employee in the photo.

These photos come across as more authentic and help to build credibility among your followers. When they see that there’s a real human behind the face of the business, they can begin to connect with you on a more personal level. This is great for local business — and for building your brand on social media.

6. Use Props Sparingly

Fall is a great time for using props — think trees, pumpkins, leaves and anything that will bring out the colors in your photos while still staying true to the season’s theme. Just make sure not to overdo it with too many props or things that don’t fit with your brand; it will just look cluttered and messy. A good rule of thumb is to find things that are already in nature and use them as your backdrop. For example:

Leaves

This is an obvious choice for fall photos because it’s such a popular season for getting outside and enjoying nature. Fall leaves are bright and colorful — just like your business’s social media pages should be! Use them as filler or fill up an entire photo with them to create a cohesive theme.

Pumpkins

If you’re looking for something more festive than just leaves, pumpkins are a great option. From carved pumpkins to fresh ones with stems attached, there’s nothing wrong with having too many pumpkins around when you’re shooting.

Local Trails or Vistas

Have any favorite trailheads or lookout points nearby? Head out with a few co-workers, friends or family members to capture scenes of nature and share them with your followers.

7. Plan Ahead

Be sure to plan ahead so you can take advantage of photo opportunities at local community events, fall festivals, and other local happenings. Are there opportunities to set up a table and conduct some local marketing? Many organizations will let you set up for free or for a small vendor fee.

Remember to mark these events down on your calendar, and be sure to get permission to film at the event or photograph attendees if needed. The Rallio mobile app includes a release form that people can digitally sign and give you instant permission to share on social media. Don’t forget to ask for their Instagram handle so you can tag them — and, hopefully, they’ll share your content with their network, too.

Better Fall Photos Mean More Engagement

From real pumpkins and corn stalks to fall music festivals, there are plenty of ways for you to incorporate the sights and sounds of autumn into your social media photos. With the help of a few props and the right location, you can capture the fun of fall and share it with your followers.

Plus, with better photos, you’ll have better engagement, helping you grow your local business. In the end, you don’t need to invest in a lot of new props or equipment to take better fall photos. With just a few unique items here and there, you can boost your engagement on social media without spending a ton of money. And that’s empowering, especially when it comes to boosting your local business.

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Social

For 5 Years Running, Rallio Is a Top Franchise Supplier

For the fifth year running, Rallio has once again been named a Top Franchise Supplier by Entrepreneur magazine. This list recognizes top companies that provide services and support to franchisors and franchisees in 11 categories, including Marketing, in which Rallio ranked #7.

To determine who the Top Franchise Suppliers are, Entrepreneur surveyed more than 900 franchisors to learn which service providers they and their franchisees use and what their satisfaction is with the quality, cost, and value of those suppliers’ services. Each supplier was scored based on the results of this survey. Rallio’s ranking on the list illustrates its position as a trusted service provider in the franchise community.

To view the full ranking, visit entrepreneur.com/franchise/top-franchise-suppliers. The list can also be seen in the September 2022 issue of Entrepreneur.

Rallio has worked tirelessly over the past few years to fine-tune our franchise social media technologies and services, launching a newly revamped version of the app to best serve our clients. Our accomplishments are represented not only by the Entrepreneur Top Franchise Supplier listing, but also by our inclusion on the Inc.com list of fastest-growing companies, our client testimonials, and our continual efforts to offer best-in-class service and support.

Curious as to why franchises consistently choose Rallio as their Top Franchise Supplier of choice? Take a look at the top 5 reasons below.

Read more: What Does It Take to Be Ranked Among the Fastest-Growing Companies? 5 Critical Factors to Know

#1: Team, Not Just Technology

Our Rallio Local clients are busy running their businesses, and they recognize they don’t have extra time they can dedicate to social media. Taking this huge responsibility off their plate by automating the process of content creation, review responses, and inbox management allows them to focus on doing what they do best. Meanwhile, we can do what we do best — and help them grow their social media presence while we’re at it.

By the way, review responses are more important than you think. Not only does responding to all of your reviews improve customer relations, but it also helps to boost your search engine rankings and improve local SEO. We recently wrote on the importance of online reviews and how they relate to SEO here and here.

#2: But Also … Technology

The Rallio technology makes everyone’s lives easier, both for clients and our own in-house team. Here’s a small sampling of what our platform can do:

  • Provides one centralized dashboard with one login for all platforms. All your brand assets live here so you can easily find them. Syndicate, publish or schedule social content to your entire brand or a subset of locations.
  • Gives greater control over your brand message. Implement permissions if you want content to go through an approval process, or allow franchisees to bypass those permissions.
  • Captures customer feedback from major review platforms that you have connected in Rallio and allows you to respond from your dashboard. Easily track your brand-wide and localized response rates.
  • Includes mobile technology to easily upload new images to your database. Activate employees with limited login capabilities to allow them to upload images and extend your reach on social media.
  • Stack-ranks all of your locations to see who is performing the best on social media and who needs more support. Tap into insight on your brand averages, outliers and comprehensive digital reputation.

Our clients can choose to be as involved as they like, and our clients love having the freedom to choose the level of service that works best for them.

#3: True Partnership

We’re more than just a Top Franchise Supplier. We’re a team of people who care about our clients. We work hard for them because we, ourselves, know what it’s like to build a company from the ground up. Rallio started in 2013 with just our CEO and his co-founder running the show.

Through the years, we’ve grown and become successful — earning spots on Entrepreneur rankings and others — because we’ve stayed committed to solving our clients’ problems, including those who needed help navigating the pandemic. If you were to walk into our office in Irvine, California, you’d see on the wall: “Don’t sell anything; solve people’s problems.”

Having a service provider with this kind of mindset allows you to rest easy, knowing everything is being handled for you. Rather than feeling pressured or anxious, you feel at ease. And that’s a priceless feeling, especially during stressful times.

Read more: Case Study: How Rallio Technology Helps Assisting Hands Achieve Brand Recognition

#4: Thought Leadership

Working with Rallio means you’re working with a diverse team of experts with backgrounds in content marketing, franchising, entrepreneurship, sales, social media marketing and other disciplines.

Our clients can count on us for the most up-to-date recommendations in social media marketing. Whether through our blog, our personal conversations between clients and strategists, or our Customer Support team, we do whatever we can to help our clients navigate social media.

Our Vice President of Business Development, Ryan Hicks, is also a Certified Franchise Expert. He runs the MODRN Business podcast and is actively involved in the franchise community.

Ryan has participated in several conferences, events and webinars featuring prominent brands within the franchise community, including the Springboard Event for Emerging and [Re]Emerging Franchisors. (Again, we’re solving problems.) This year’s event is set for September 28-30, 2022, at the PHL Marriott in Philadelphia.

#5: Fun

Take a look at the videos and photos on our @rallio Instagram account, and it becomes obvious that we’re much more than just thought leaders and experts. We’re a team that prides itself on a culture of fun, teamwork, mutual respect and innovation.

Our clients love working with us because we bring life to their social media pages. We’re all about making sure there’s no boring content getting posted.

We’re both highly creative and intelligent. Passionate and purpose-driven. We know which fork to use for a fancy meal, but we’re just as happy to put away a box of mac ‘n’ cheese. (Is this starting to sound like a dating profile?)

It’s simple. We’re fun.

The Significance of the Top Franchise Supplier Listing

Entrepreneur describes the methodology behind the Top Franchise Supplier listing as follows:

“The franchise industry is really much bigger than just franchisors and franchisees. There are a multitude of companies — commonly known in the industry as suppliers — that provide services that help those franchisors and franchisees to run their businesses successfully. And our annual ranking of the Top Franchise Suppliers seeks to recognize those that do it best.

To determine our annual ranking of the Top Franchise Suppliers, we surveyed more than 900 franchisors, from emerging brands that just got started to established companies that have been franchising for decades. We asked them to tell us which service providers they and their franchisees use, and to rate their satisfaction with the quality, cost, and value of each supplier’s services.

We scored each supplier based on the results of the survey, and the top-scoring suppliers in each of 11 categories made it into the ranking.”

To us, the significance of this ranking cannot be understated. We’re excited that once again, our clients see value in our products and services. Our hope is to help even more new clients in the coming year.

About Rallio

Rallio is a powerful SaaS platform combining cloud-based social media technology, artificial intelligence and employee advocacy. As the supplier of choice for franchise organizations and small businesses, Rallio enables multi-location brands and SMB operators to optimize their social media engagement, while managing their entire social media presence, online reputation, and online directory listings in one dashboard for all locations. By automating agency-like services and employee advocacy across their social media pages, brands multiply their reach exponentially and experience rapid month-over-month growth on social media.

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Reputation Social

Guide to Customer Service on Social Media

It’s safe to say that social media has changed everything — from the way people communicate to the way they buy. Because of this, customer service has become more important than ever, especially on social media channels. As a business owner, it’s imperative that you have a way to provide great customer service on social media, quickly and professionally, because it’s what customers expect.

Not sure where to start? The following guide will help you understand the rise in customer service on social media, develop a plan for responding promptly, increase customer satisfaction, and generate positive engagement with customers. By using our tips, you’ll have an easier time engaging with your audience and coming up with a foolproof way to make sure they’re happy.

The Rise of Customer Service on Social Media

Zendesk reports that 60% of customers think the most important part of good customer support is solving issues quickly. Oftentimes, this means turning to social media channels rather than email or phone support, under the assumption that issues will get resolved in a more timely manner.

So even if your brand doesn’t already have a way to provide customer support through social media, customers could be leaving comments, sending you direct messages, and posting online reviews about your brand. It’s important to pay attention to what they’re saying so you can provide support wherever needed and preserve your brand’s online reputation.

Respond Quickly

The faster you can respond to a customer’s concern, the better off you’ll be — both in terms of keeping your customer happy and demonstrating responsiveness as part of your brand’s value proposition. Responding within an hour or less is ideal during normal business hours. Being responsive also can help to improve your local SEO and search engine rankings.

To account for messages received after hours or on weekends when people are using social media platforms like Facebook Messenger or Instagram DMs, make sure you have auto-responses in place. You’ll need to connect your Instagram Business account to Mega Business Suite to set up auto-replies and away messages. With these messages in place, you can at least let customers know when to expect a response (and hopefully maintain some work-life balance while you’re at it).

Related: Why Reviews Matter and How to Make the Most of Them

Watch Your Language

Yes, this means literally watching what you say, but pay attention to the tone of your responses, grammar, spelling, and the words you choose. Don’t use canned responses; respond with the same voice and tone you would use in person, not a “corporate” voice that might seem stiff and distant. Use names whenever you can, and mention any specifics from their message that lets them know you’re a real person. While it’s smart to use AI technology (aka “bots”) to help address basic questions (more on that next), some questions require real human interaction.

When responding to customers, be polite and honest about what you know or don’t know right away. If it takes more than one response to get all of the information needed, tell the customer upfront that there will be more steps ahead before you can provide them with an answer or resolution to their issue or question — but be sure to let them know when they’ll get their next update from you.

At times, you’ll get customers who are argumentative or confrontational with you. Be as professional as possible to avoid escalating the situation, and be careful not to insult anyone; just address their concerns in a professional manner with no unnecessary rudeness. Also, work to take any conversations offline rather than continuing to post publicly for all the world to see. If necessary, don’t be afraid to let a customer go who clearly isn’t going to be happy no matter what you do.

Use Technology

With social media being such an important tool for customer service and marketing, it’s important to make sure that your company has the right tools in place so that you can answer questions quickly and easily. Here are some ways that you can use technology to help manage the support process.

  • Use a tool like Rallio for all your social media management needs. Rallio not only lets you schedule out posts in advance but also pulls in all your social comments and engagements as well as reviews from connected platforms. You’ll have everything in one dashboard and set up notifications so you’re alerted when there’s a new comment, message or review so you don’t miss anything important.
  • Incorporate AI into your website to make it easier for people to get answers to FAQ and get help when they need it. You can integrate your chatbot with a customer support platform like Zendesk or Freshdesk to help with managing the support process. This can help to keep some of the support issues off of social media and more contained with your support team.
  • Automate the process as much as you can by using auto-responses, as discussed above. Create templates for responding to reviews that can be customized according to the situation by adding names and more personalization. This makes it easier to delegate review responses to your team so nobody has to reinvent the wheel on standard customer responses.

Be Proactive

Brand engagement is about building relationships with customers and potential customers. If you’re engaging with your audience on social media, you’re more likely to be seen as a brand that cares about its customers, which can improve your brand image. With that in mind, it’s a best practice to post highly engaging, local content that reveals your brand personality.

In other words, don’t post boring content!

The goal of brand engagement is to make it easy for people to interact with your business and feel like they’re part of the community. This isn’t just about posting photos of your products — it’s about being an active member of the community and sharing relevant photos and videos or useful information that will interest your followers. You’ll find that with a highly engaged community, even negative comments don’t go far. In fact, people are likely to stick up for you even if a negative comment makes its way onto your page!

Final Thoughts

If you provide excellent service, people will want to share their experiences with others. Some companies have even built entire brands around the idea that people will buy from them because of the way they treat customers on social media.

There are no shortcuts to building an amazing business on social media, but the effort is worth it! The rewards of having happy customers and a great reputation can compound into a powerful marketing force for years to come. So, when the opportunity presents itself, take the time to provide your customers with exceptional customer service on social media, and you will reap the rewards in the long run.

Categories
Social

12-Day Social Media Plan

If you’re like most small businesses, your social media marketing is hit or miss. You probably have more work to do than you think. And social media is a marathon, not a sprint, so results don’t come lightning quick.

Tired of spending hours on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn trying to be a social superstar only to get lost in the clutter? Want to solve your marketing problems that revolve around social media? Then our free 12-Day Social Media Plan is just what you need. 

Day 1: Establish goals

Social media marketing is a great way to build your business and engage with your customers. But if you don’t have a clear strategy, it can be difficult to measure the success of your efforts. That’s why the first step toward transforming your strategy is establishing clear social marketing goals. Here are several examples of goals you can set:

  • Raise brand awareness and engagement
  • Generate and nurture leads
  • Increase product sales
  • Boost traffic to your website
  • Increase followers on social media
  • Increase customer engagement and loyalty
  • Establish brand authority and trust
  • Enhance the customer experience

Once you’ve defined your goals, you can use them to drive your content production, ensuring that all your posts support the goals you’ve defined. 

Day 2: Define success metrics

How will you measure the success of your social efforts? Decide which metrics you will use to determine whether your strategy is working to support your goals. Consider owned, paid, and earned media as you define these metrics; all three are important elements of your strategy.

For example, you can use audience engagement metrics as an indication of whether you’re making progress on a goal of increasing brand engagement. You could choose to track engagement over a period of time, such as over a month or a quarter, to see your progress.

Day 3: List out your challenges

What challenges are you facing when it comes to social media marketing? Whatever barriers are in your way, write them all down. This could be anything that’s keeping you from making an impact with your social content. Examples of obstacles could be:

  • Having time or resources to post consistently
  • Lack of engagement on posts
  • Drop in organic and/or paid reach
  • Trying to align social with other parts of your business
  • Inability to get quality leads
  • Lack of ROI or understanding of how to measure ROI

Learn more: 5 Social Media Challenges Brands Are Facing in 2022

Day 4: Brainstorm

Take your list of challenges, and start brainstorming solutions to all of them. Get out a big whiteboard, gather your team together, and list every possible solution you can think of to the problems you are facing with your social media marketing. Be sure to consider how each solution will address the challenge and what the end result will be.

For example, one solution to a lack of time to post consistently would be to dedicate an in-house resource to posting, either by hiring a social media manager or adding tasks to someone’s workload. Another option is to use technology like Rallio’s scheduling platform to streamline the work; you can also outsource the work of creating content. Compare costs and potential benefits of any possible solutions to find what works best for you.

Learn more: www.rallio.com 

Day 5: Conduct a competitive analysis

When you’re working to build your brand on social media, it’s important to know what your competitors are up to. A social media competitive analysis will help you see how you stack up against them and identify opportunities to get ahead.

The purpose of a social media competitive analysis is to reveal both your strengths and weaknesses on social platforms, as compared to your top competitors. You can use your social media competitive analysis to: 

  • Identify your primary competitors on social media
  • See which platforms they’re on and how they’re using them
  • Stack-rank yourself against your competitors
  • Do more of what’s working well in terms of content, ads and lead generation
  • Determine any threats to your business on social media, i.e., any potential ways your competitors might outperform you
  • Eliminate underperforming content and ads
  • Add in new content and strategies to strengthen your position on social media

See our five-step process to complete your analysis: How to Conduct a Social Media Competitive Analysis in 5 Easy Steps

Day 6: Conduct a SWOT analysis

It’s easy enough to set up your social media pages and put a checkmark next to that box on your to-do list. What’s not so easy for busy entrepreneurs is keeping up with posting, engaging with their audience, boosting their content, and responding to followers’ questions and reviews.

To avoid falling into a “set it and forget it” mindset, we recommend performing a social media SWOT analysis — identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Walking yourself through this process will help you stay sharp on social media and amplify your results.

With a social media SWOT analysis, you’re able to analyze your social media marketing strategy based on four quadrants: 

  • Strengths: What are you doing right on social media? What are your competitive advantages, and how well are you conveying them?
  • Weaknesses: What factors might be holding you back on social media? Do you lack internal resources, budget or time?
  • Opportunities: What do you stand to gain on social media? Is it new followers, greater engagement, new leads, brand awareness?
  • Threats: What are some of the external forces that could hinder your progress on social media, such as competitors or economic factors? 

Read our guide: How to Do a Social Media SWOT Analysis and Amplify Your Results

Day 7: Do an audit on your content

Don’t get intimidated by the word “audit.” The idea is simply to identify which content performs the best and worst.

Using a spreadsheet — Google Sheets works well — create columns for the following: 

  • The platform and URL for each platform you’re auditing
  • Follower counts for each account
  • Engagement metrics for each account
  • URL or screenshot of popular content
  • URL or screenshot of anything that’s a dud
  • Any other relevant info you want to know

Neil Patel’s social media audit guidelines are an excellent resource for taking a closer look at all aspects of your social media so you can make improvements where needed.

Day 8: Spruce up your social profiles

Although the content you post on your page is important, don’t neglect the real estate available right on your page. Things like your profile picture, bio and contact information are important to include so you make it easy for people to see who you are and what you’re all about as well as locate your business. Check the following to ensure your profiles are optimized:

  • Use a consistent profile picture across social accounts, such as your logo. This makes you easy to recognize no matter what platform your audience is on.
  • Complete all sections of your profile. Fill out every available field, including your website and address. The more details you offer, the easier it is for people to understand what you do.
  • Include keywords and hashtags. Conduct keyword and hashtag research to identify the words and phrases you want to be associated with as people search conversations, products and services related to your brand.

Day 9: Find your target buyer

In order to advertise on social media, which you should if you want to reach more people, you’ll need to identify your ideal buyer persona, including information such as:

  • Demographics
  • Career
  • Lifestyle
  • Hobbies and interests
  • Purchase behaviors
  • Buying power
  • Pain points (aka problems you can solve for them)

Day 10: Respond to everyone

As you start posting quality local content featuring real, authentic people from your business, and as you start advertising on social media, you are bound to get more comments, questions, messages and reviews. This is a good thing! But you need to make sure you are responding to everyone. Whether you’re thanking people for supporting you, responding to an online review, or simply having a conversation with customers in the comments, it shows people you’re listening and care about your customers when you engage with them.

The flip side is not engaging or responding, and people don’t care for that. If you don’t engage or respond to customer concerns or praise, it’s like ignoring them when they’re knocking on your door.

Day 11: Select content types

Thinking about the buyer persona you created, you can consider the types of content you think your audience would enjoy. From how-to videos to inspirational quotes, there are many different types of content you can post to start engaging more with your audience. 

To make sure you have a good mix of content types, try alternating content types on different days. For instance, maybe on Mondays you post #mondaymotivation posts, and on Thursdays you post #thirstyThursday posts when your team goes to happy hour. Here are some possible content types to consider:

  • Memes and GIFs
  • Infographics
  • How-to videos and articles
  • Polls
  • Contests
  • User-generated content
  • Real-life photos of your team members and customers
  • Pet photos

From there, you can create an editorial content calendar that lays out all of your different content types for the month. Rallio has a built-in calendar tool to make it easy to schedule all of your content for the month and keep it organized. Aim to post at least three times a week for the best results.

Day 12: Review your social media plan and results

The only way to improve your social media is to review past performance. Use the metrics you defined above to measure how your campaigns are doing, which posts are the most popular, and how and when your audience is the most engaged. The more informed you are, the more you can refine and improve your social media plan as you go.

By now, you should have the basic tools you need to tackle your social media marketing.  Follow the steps each day to get the results you want from your social media campaigns — specifically, more leads, more sales, and more followers. Once you’ve developed your own strategy, we think you’ll find that you see better performance from your social media efforts than ever before.

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Social

Best Practices for Franchises to Address Privacy Changes

In the world of social media marketing for franchises, the landscape looks decidedly different than it did even just a year ago. With new ad-targeting and privacy changes impacting the ways that brands can reach and engage with their desired audiences, franchise brands are having to rethink the ways they find local customers. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal notes that while Facebook and Instagram marketing is still among the most effective forms of promotion, brands still need to adjust their marketing strategies and be prepared for some trial and error with their advertising dollars.

What’s Changed?

In April 2022, Apple began requiring apps to ask users for tracking permissions across apps, meaning people have an easy way to opt out of tracking throughout the web. If a consumer opts out of tracking, this makes it more difficult for brands to target customers who expressed interest in products or services like theirs.

Meanwhile, starting in January of this year, Facebook changed its detailed targeting options related to potentially sensitive topics, such as those related to health, sexual orientation, religious practices and groups, political beliefs, social issues, organizations, and public figures. 

Combined, these changes require a sea change in the ways that brands focus their marketing and advertising efforts — particularly small and independent businesses that are trying to make a name for themselves. Even established brands like well-known franchises need to ensure they are using their time and money as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. In the following guide, we break down what’s shifted for franchises and how they can reprioritize their resources to keep up with the changing times.

What Franchise Brands Have Going for Them: Brand Recognition

WSJ notes that Apple’s new policies have impacted many younger direct-to-consumer brands that lack the name recognition, alternative sales channels, and diversified marketing plans of their larger counterparts. In many ways, franchise brands have an advantage in this regard, particularly for franchisees, in that: 

  • Even startup franchisees can take advantage of the brand recognition that goes along with owning a franchise. This is one of the biggest benefits of franchise ownership, allowing franchisees to use the company logo, branding and established reputation to build their local businesses.
  • Franchisees often have franchisor support for their marketing, both in terms of the assets provided and even national advertising dollars in many cases. Franchisees can immediately use a plug-and-play marketing system that achieves results rapidly.
  • Franchisees can skip over the steep learning curve of marketing their businesses and tap into proven systems. Ongoing support ensures that they can get their questions answered quickly.

Related: Facebook Ad Targeting Changes and What They Mean for Your Business

Best Practices for Navigating Privacy Changes

While naturally, some franchisors are better at providing the needed support than others — franchisee satisfaction surveys like those from Franchise Business Review and listings like Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 are a good starting point for research — franchisees who do their due diligence can easily find and invest in a franchise system that works. With the support of a franchisor, paired with proven marketing systems, franchisors are navigating privacy and targeting changes with success. 

Below are some of the best practices we recommend to our franchise clients looking to improve their overall marketing strategy. The goal is to build a community around your local business and around your brand in general — so that even if changes come down the pipeline, you’ll always have a loyal base of customers. 

1. Create organic social media posts.

It’s not enough to pay for ads anymore — you need to be creating organic content that people want to see. Organic content does not require a big upfront investment; with little more than a good smartphone with a camera, you can begin taking photos and videos, posting them on your social media pages, and creating a following around your brand.

For the most effective organic content, make sure it’s authentic. That means posting pictures from your location such as customers who frequent your store, writing blog posts about topics related to your business, and sharing videos featuring real people from your place of business. 

2. Generate original content

Along the same lines as organic content, your content should be original, too. It’s important to remember that the whole reason you’re creating social media content is to promote yourself and your brand, not someone else’s. You want people to seek out your content and keep coming back for more. If you’re just sharing other creators’ content, what will make them come back? 

On the flip side, if you consistently post original content that makes your followers’ lives easier, entertains them, explains a complex topic in a way they can understand, inspires them, or solves a problem for them, then your followers will eagerly seek out your content. 

The key word here is consistently! You can’t post once and expect results; aim to post at least three times weekly on the major social media channels for the best results, with a mixture of posts, Stories and Reels. A great way to ensure you have great content going out consistently is to make use of user-generated content from employees and customers. The Rallio mobile app makes the process of collecting, managing and storing such assets incredibly easy, so you and your franchisees always have a flow of original content to choose from.

3. Be Responsive to Messages, Comments and Reviews

The quickest way to lose a follower, or a customer, is to ignore them when they reach out online. It’s vital that as a business page owner or manager, you respond to every comment, direct message and online review (both positive and negative) within 24 hours — even quicker is ideal. Not only is this just good customer service, but it also ensures that Facebook continues to view your page as a responsive business that’s happy to help its followers. 

And while Facebook’s algorithm can change at any time — it has done so consistently over the past decade — as of now, Facebook prioritizes content in people’s feeds based on ranking signals that they define as “meaningful interactions,” such as:

Engagement

  • Comments, likes and shares
  • Engagement with content shared by friends
  • Shares via Messenger
  • Replies to comments

Relationships

  • Who posted the content (users are more likely to see content from friends and businesses they have interacted with)
  • Percentage that the page’s profile is complete 
  • Interactions between people (those between people and pages are not given the same weight)

Content type

  • Type of post, such as photos, videos, or links
  • How informative the content is
  • Time spent viewing the post

Recency

  • Newer posts are shown first
  • Technology (type of phone and internet connection used)

Final Thoughts on Privacy Changes

It’s important to note that we don’t advise stopping your advertising completely on social platforms, especially considering that your competitors are likely continuing their ad campaigns. Keep in mind that you can always check your competitors’ Page Transparency tab to view the current campaigns they are running. 

Aside from that, you can continue to reach your audience through Engagement Custom Audiences, Lookalike Audiences, targeted lists, and other methods that comply with the recent privacy and targeting changes.

Like Facebook’s algorithm, its ad policies can always change, and you can expect to see more changes coming down the pipeline in terms of targeting restrictions as early as next year. As such, we advise following the best practices above in order to best navigate the current and future changes. 

Here at Rallio, we are helping franchise brands grow their local businesses on social media with our all-in-one platform that connects all your social platforms in one place — pulling in every interaction, review and message generated through your pages, so you never miss an opportunity to engage, respond and connect with your community. To learn more about our suite of solutions, reach out to sales@rallio.com.

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Social

Brand Storytelling: Guide to Telling Your Story on Social Media

With the rise of social media, we have seen an increase in the number of brands building their own voice in a crowded space. One of the most effective methods of establishing your unique identity is through brand storytelling, the practice of sharing your values, background, and reasons for doing what you do. By telling a brand story in a relatable and engaging way, brands can build a loyal following that engages with their content and is more likely to take the next step in the customer journey. This guide will help you understand the basics of brand storytelling and discover the power behind it for your brand.

What Is Brand Storytelling?

We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded by content. For brands to survive in this environment, they need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. Brands are doing this by creating real connections through storytelling that conveys who they are as a company, what they stand for, and what value they add to people’s lives. 

The power of storytelling lies in its ability to inspire us to take action or change our beliefs or behaviors, but it also can be used as a way to express your brand’s core values. The best brands use their stories to build long-lasting relationships with their customers by creating meaningful experiences for them.

It’s not just about telling your story; it’s about how you tell it — and how you use it to connect with people. Companies that use brand storytelling effectively are able to establish emotional connections with people based on the values they share with them, helping to foster a relationship between brand and customer. Here are five ways innovative companies are using brand storytelling to fuel growth.

Related: 4 Huge Reasons to Start Storytelling on Social Media

1. They understand the value of empathy

Consumers want brands to be more empathetic when interacting with them online — even if they’re just shopping for something as simple as coffee mugs or socks. They want to feel like individuals whose voices are heart, not faceless customers. And because many customers use social media as a customer service channel — via comments, reviews, and DMs — it’s imperative that brands respond to them. Having a dashboard like Rallio that pulls all your customer engagements into one inbox makes the process simple, so you never miss an interaction with a customer and a chance to make their day.

2. They use narrative techniques

From the hero’s journey to the three-act structure, there are many different narrative techniques that brands can employ to tell their stories. These are the kinds of narratives that have been around since the beginning of time, and for good reason: They resonate with audiences and help them to remember a story from start to finish. 

Other writing mechanisms can come into play for a well-rounded story, including anecdotes and metaphors, fairy tales, legends, and any other tools that resonate with you personally. Don’t get too caught up in the technique at the expense of sharing your story authentically; just write what you know as though you are sharing a story with a friend, which leads us to #3 below.

3. They’re authentic

The most compelling brand stories come from a place of authenticity. When you’re creating a brand story, you have to be honest about who you are and what you stand for. This allows your customers to connect with you on a deeper level.

The best brands don’t just talk about themselves, too — they share their story. When people see the real behind-the-scenes moments that led up to the creation of a product or service, they can relate to it in a way that’s real and authentic.

Not only do these stories help build trust between your brand and customers, but they also showcase how much time and effort goes into each product or service. This can lead to greater customer loyalty over time as people get to know your brand on a more personal level.

4. They make it a collaborative effort

Effective brand stories facilitate a connection between the audience and the brand — even making followers a part of the narrative. Getting audience input, interacting with followers via comments and DMs, and sharing user-generated content helps to build a bridge between brand and follower.

Ultimately, your audience needs to feel like they are part of your brand story — not just another follower on your page. They should feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves; that their contribution matters; that they have an impact on what happens next; and that their voice matters in shaping the future of your company, product or service.

Before you start crafting your messages, take some time to dig deep into who your audience is — what makes them tick? What are their values? What do they find important? What makes them laugh? What makes them cry? By getting inside their heads first, you can tailor your messaging with more accuracy.

5. They tailor messaging

When telling your brand story on social media, you can’t simply write it once and post it on every platform. For example, when you’re publishing on Facebook, your posts might include links to your blog, but on Instagram, you need to tell more of a visual story. Tailoring your message for each platform ensures you are reaching your followers where they’re at and seeing what’s relevant to them based on their interests and the networks they follow. With the Rallio platform, you can create different versions of your posts and schedule them out from one place instead of having to log in to each platform to do so.

Related: Content Marketing 101: Engage Your Audience With Great Storytelling

Conclusion

Great storytelling isn’t just for sitting around a campfire; it’s what allows your brand to stand out on social media and build relationships with your audience. The more you use storytelling, the better you’ll get at it — so dive in today! Check with the experts at Rallio about how to use our platform to streamline the process, saving you time and money and helping you tell your brand story both now and in the future. 

Categories
Social

Toolkit: Unlock Social Media Success for Your Local Business

If we’ve learned anything over the past couple of years, it’s that social media is critical to the success of local businesses, creators, and influencers. Yet at the same time, some brands may struggle to find the right strategies for connecting with and influencing their audiences. If that sounds like you, fear not! We’ve put together this toolkit to help anyone from startups to enterprise-level decision makers ramp up their social media success, both now and in the not-so-distant future.

What’s Inside

  • How to: Create Engaging Local Content
  • Tips: Provide Outstanding Customer Service on Social Media
  • Checklist: Find the Right Content Mix for Your Brand
  • Video: Increase Exposure With Both Paid and Organic Posts
  • Tool: Get Organized With the Rallio Dashboard 

How to: Create Engaging Local Content

You may already know that people are more likely to make purchases from companies they feel are relatable. That’s why it’s so important that your social media marketing strategy includes local content. If you’re not posting local content on your social media pages, you’re missing out on opportunities to connect with your audience, build trust, increase leads, and ultimately boost your sales.

While it might sound complicated to create local content, it’s quite simple. The steps look something like this:

  1. Snap a photo of someone or something in your store, at home, or behind the scenes of your business. You can also film a short video.
  2. Upload it to your social media channels of choice. We recommend, at a minimum, posting on Facebook and Instagram for B2C businesses and including LinkedIn and Twitter if you’re looking to develop B2B and professional relationships.
  3. Add a caption. Tell your audience what’s going on in the photo or video. Add hashtags when posting on Instagram. Tag other people and/or businesses to increase exposure.
  4. Post your photo or video. You’re almost done!
  5. Go back later and check your post analytics to see how it performed. Make any tweaks as needed to the content. Boost at least one post per week to increase its reach.

Here are some ideas for engaging local content:

  • Create posts based on calendar events, such as holidays and national celebrations
  • Share relevant news stories and blog posts on Facebook
  • Post pictures and videos of your products in use
  • Link to stories about others in your industry
  • Show “before and after” photos if your business lends itself to that type of content

Tips: Provide Outstanding Customer Service on Social Media

Social media has become the go-to place for people to share their experiences and get feedback from others. If you’re a business, you must monitor your social media channels for customer service opportunities.

When a customer has an issue with your product or service, they may be more likely to reach out on social media than to call the company directly or submit a complaint through its website. Here are some tips for providing outstanding customer service on social media:

  • Be responsive. As soon as you see a question or comment from a customer, respond to them as quickly as possible. The faster you respond, the better the odds they’ll be satisfied with your response and won’t escalate their complaint any further.
  • Be helpful and proactive. Your ability to help customers goes beyond just answering their questions; sometimes it means anticipating their needs before they even ask for them! For example, offer to credit their account with $10 for their troubles.
  • Respond to positive comments and reviews, too. This shows you’re listening and you’re grateful for your customers.
  • Use technology to help you manage the process. Rallio’s dashboard pulls in comments and reviews and allows you to respond to them directly.

Related: Responding to Online Reviews in 3 Easy Steps

Checklist: Create a Balanced Mix of Content for Your Brand

Your social media content mix is the combination of different types of posts you share on your social profiles. It’s important to have a good balance to reach your audience with the right type of content at the right time. To create a balanced mix, make sure you’ve checked off the items on this list so you know what type of customer you’re trying to reach. This list will also help you with creating targeted ads.

  Identify audience demographics such as age range and geographic location

 Develop messaging that this audience will find relatable and authentic

 Determine which social media platforms your audience uses the most

 Take photos throughout your location of team members, customers, products, etc.

 Film four or five short videos to use throughout the month 

 Gather customer testimonials

 Create a content calendar that includes key holidays and events

 Identify two dates per month when you will go “live” with your audience

 Create four different Instagram Reels and/or Stories

 Curate four different inspirational quotes that will resonate with your audience

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you go through the checklist:

  • What are your business goals?
  • What do you want people to do after they see your post — i.e., what’s your call to action? Buy something? Sign up for a newsletter? Share it on their profiles? Whatever it is, make sure this is clear in every piece of content you create so that you can measure success.
  • Are there any key performance indicators (KPIs) you’d like to use to evaluate success?
  • Is there someone on your team you can rely on to be a dedicated social media manager, or do you need to outsource your social media management? At a minimum, having someone who can take photos will help you stay on track.

Tool: Get Organized With the Rallio Dashboard

Rallio’s social media dashboard is a great tool for managing your business’s social media accounts. The dashboard allows you to schedule posts across platforms, view analytics, engage employees in advocacy, respond to reviews and comments, and monitor what’s going on with your brand — all with a single login. Easily monitor your follower growth and engagement rates, as well as view detailed analytics for each post. If your business has multiple locations, Rallio allows you to schedule and syndicate content across locations.

Our dashboard is a powerful tool that helps you get organized with your social media marketing and can help you uplevel your efforts. You’ll spend less time trying to organize your efforts, leaving you more time to engage with your followers, and focus on your business. Here’s how:

  • Activate Rallio’s Local Tech and Local Team to ignite the engagement of your local pages. 
  • Engage REVV, our reputation management app, to add massive numbers of positive reviews to your online reputation. 
  • Finally, use our local listings management solution to maintain consistent location data across the web and give Google confidence to list your locations at the top of the search results.

It’s the ultimate solution to maximize your local social media engagement and improve your local search results. Ask us about the details, bundled pricing solutions, and case studies to prove the measurable results.

Video: Increase Exposure With Both Paid and Organic Posts

There are two main ways to increase your exposure on social media: paid and organic posts. What’s the difference between the two? Organic posts are posts that are shared by users who see your post and decide they like it enough to engage with it or share it with their friends or followers. Paid posts are ads that pop up on someone’s screen when they’re browsing Facebook or Instagram and may include both boosted and sponsored posts.

Paid Posts

Paid posts are the easiest way to get more exposure for your business on social media. You have two options when purchasing paid posts: boosted posts and ads. A boosted post is simply a regular post for which you pay to increase its exposure, while an ad is a completely separate piece of content that uniquely promotes your brand and requires an Ads Manager account connected with your business page. Both can be used to promote your business and website, but they’re different enough that you should consider using both if possible.

Organic Posts

Organic posts are free but take a lot more time and effort to create than boosted posts do. However, they can help build credibility with followers by showing them that you care about their interests and opinions — even if they don’t always respond or share what you post. You can also increase your reach with organic posts by engaging employee advocates; Rallio enables you to provide limited logins to employees on your team so they can upload and share more content.

Start Using Your Toolkit Today

The future of social media is interwoven into the fabric of our society and will continue to grow and expand. As such, you must investigate and adopt new tools and tactics to keep up with these changes. Social media marketing requires that you become a curator for all social networks, using social listening and insights to keep current, enhancing your content with multimedia and live-streaming, as well as engaging your customers in fresh ways. Hopefully, this toolkit has provided you with some practical tips for getting the most out of your social media engagement and taking your marketing to the next level.

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Social

Spring Clean Your Social Media in 4 Easy Steps

Social media can be a powerful tool for your company. However, if you haven’t spruced up your social accounts in a while, it’s time to take out your spray bottle and squeegee and get to work. Take a look at four quick ways to spring clean your social media accounts, and get your social media marketing working even harder for you as we head into the summer months.

1. Update Your Branding

You may be tempted to use a selfie for your profile photo, but that’s not the best way to make a great impression on your audience. Use a professional logo that highlights your brand and helps people recognize you wherever they see it. Be sure to use the same photo across all of your profiles so your audience can easily recognize you, no matter the platform. “This not only ensures consistent branding but also helps make it easier for people to recognize you when they see your profile image on each of the different social media platforms,” notes Social Media Today.

2. Secure Accounts

Review the access and privileges across your accounts. Remove any employees who are no longer with your business, and make sure all current employees have access only to the information they need to do their jobs well. This way, you can avoid inadvertently giving them too much access, a recipe for problems down the road.

For current employees you wish to give access to your Facebook page, you have the following options for page roles:

  • Admin. This is the highest level of access; admins have the ability to manage all aspects of a Facebook page, including creating ads and viewing analytics.
  • Editor. This is one step below an admin; an editor can do everything an admin can except assign page roles.
  • Moderator. A moderator has more limited access; while they cannot post content, they can respond to messages and comments, create ads, and see Facebook insights, for example.
  • Advertiser. As the name implies, an advertiser can create ads and view insights.
  • Analyst. An analyst has the least amount of access; they are restricted to viewing insights and cannot create ads or post to the page. An analyst view can be helpful if you want a third-party expert to look at your campaigns without giving them access to your page.
  • Custom page roles. A combination of roles as per your specifications.

Related: 5 Ways to Use Social Media Marketing to Promote Your Franchise

3. Audit

If you’re looking for ideas on how to improve your social media marketing strategy, you might be wondering what to do with all of those old posts. Though it may be tempting to delete them and make way for new content, there’s a lot of valuable insight that can be gained from reviewing past posts. Check out posts from the past and ask yourself:

  • Which topics are resonating the most with my audience?
  • What kind of content do my followers respond best to?
  • How many people did I reach?   
  • How many likes or shares did each post get?
  • Do people comment on or share my posts? If not, why? If so, what makes this post so engaging?
  • Did any of my posts go viral or get picked up by other blogs?   
  • Did any of them end up being featured on other sites (for example, did one of my photos get used by an influencer)?   
  • Did any of my articles rank well in Google search?
  • Which posts have outstayed their welcome?
  • Which channels drove the most traffic and conversions? Which ones underperformed?
  • What types of images work best? What captions work best? Are there any themes in my photos that might make sense as a series of posts?
  • How many times per day should I post (and at what times)? How often does my audience engage with my content across platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)? How do these numbers compare to competitors?

Yes, this is a long list of questions, but it’s necessary to answer them all as you’re working to spring-clean your social media.

4. Set New Goals

Based on the insights and analytics you see on your social media posts, you can use that information to make your new content even better. Take a look at your existing key performance indicators to set new goals that will take your social media marketing to the next level. The most basic KPIs are related to engagement and follower growth, such as:

  • Number of likes and saves
  • Number of shares
  • Number of comments
  • Number of new followers

There are also more advanced KPIs that can help you get even more insight into how people interact with your content and what they think about it, including:

  • Unique visits. This metric tells you how many different people visited your site from your social media posts. If you have multiple sites or landing pages linked to from your social media accounts and want to know how many people visited each one in total, this is the KPI for you.
  • Brand awareness. Reach and impressions are two of the most popular metrics used to measure brand awareness. These measures indicate how many people saw your posts, but they don’t tell you whether or not anyone actually saw them. To measure brand awareness, you’d want to use an image KPI like click-through rate (CTR) or engagement rate.
  • Sales. You can also use social media to drive sales by tracking your conversion rates — the number of people who convert into customers after seeing a particular ad or promotion on social media — and ROI (return on investment). Your conversion rates will vary depending on your industry and audience but should be tracked across all platforms so you have a good idea about what works best for your business.

Spring Clean Your Social Media for Better Results

Use these four tips to take a fresh look at your social accounts and spring clean your social media marketing, especially if it’s been a while since you analyzed your accounts. By doing this, you can make sure your efforts are as effective as possible both now and for the remainder of the year. If you need any extra tips as you spring clean your social media, reach out to our experts via support@rallio.com and we’ll help you get on track.

Categories
Social

5 Ways to Use Social Media Marketing to Promote Your Franchise

Social media is important for any business in today’s world. But it can be even more important for franchises because of the nature of your business. Franchises are about spreading brand awareness and building loyalty — not just at a local level, but often at a national or international level. To promote your franchise, it’s essential to have a social media component to your marketing campaigns.

With the ability to reach a wide audience and garner the interest of potential customers, social media is one of the most cost-effective marketing tools at a franchise’s disposal. However, if you are a franchise owner, your use of social media must be strategic. While you want to leverage the social media platforms your customers use, you need to do so in a way that is consistent with the branding of your parent company.

To help you promote your franchise consistently and effectively, here are five ways that you can use social media marketing as a powerful tool.

1. Share Content From the Parent Company

For consistent branding and brand awareness, it’s a good idea to share content from your parent company. These branded assets are typically created at the corporate level and may feature brand-wide promotions, customer testimonials, and specific messaging that the parent company wants to make available to all franchisees. 

As a franchisee, using these assets for your local page builds trust and credibility for your business. Customers who see this professional-looking content will feel more inclined to engage with you and learn more about your brand. 

2. Share Local Content

For franchisees, it’s important not to rely solely on the parent company’s content for their pages. Although corporate-created content lends credibility, you also want to seek out ways to give your page a personality and a localized feel.

Share photos, funny anecdotes related to your business, and special deals or promotions you’re running. Give a behind-the-scenes look at what’s going on in your shop. Social media is about letting people see into your world — let them join you for a shift, or let them peek at the amazing new product you’re working on! With personalized content, you’re able to let your followers know what makes you different from the other franchises in your area. You’ve already got clientele, and you know what makes you stand out from your competition, so make sure to highlight those aspects of your franchise on social media.

Related: Case Study: How Local Content Boosts Engagement and Follower Growth for The Spice & Tea Exchange

3. Respond and Engage

If you have customers who are engaging with your brand on social media, it’s important to connect with each of them individually by responding to comments and messages they’ve left on your social media accounts. You’ll find that oftentimes, customers will reach out via social media if they need to get in touch with you. Other times, customers may leave a review about you, whether formally through an online review site or casually via comments on social media.

In any event, make sure you get back to customers — whether they had something nice to say or they have a problem. Promptly respond to any questions or concerns that are posted via social media sites or directed at you via private message on Facebook to ensure the highest level of customer service.

4. Reach Out to Old Customers

You probably already have a list of previous clients and customers that you send emails to on occasion to keep them updated on what’s new. When you send out your email campaigns, be sure to include links to your social profiles, along with information on any promotions or contests you’re hosting on social media. This is a great to way to create integrated campaigns, increase your social following, and also grow your email list.

Related: 5 Easy Steps to Run a Successful Social Media Contest

5. Share User Content

If a fellow franchise has just announced an exciting new product, share their post with a message of congratulations! The more you share, the more they’ll share, and it builds a sense of community around the business as a whole.

Try out some user-generated content, too. When customers tag you and share content related to your brand, be sure to repost their content on your pages to increase your reach. Get your employees involved with employee advocacy programs that boost morale while helping to promote your franchise.

How Rallio’s Technology Can Help

Rallio is a powerful SaaS platform combining cloud-based social media technology, artificial intelligence and employee advocacy. As the supplier of choice for franchise organizations and small businesses, Rallio enables multi-location brands and SMB operators to optimize their social media engagement, while managing their entire social media presence, online reputation, and online directory listings in one dashboard for all locations. By automating agency-like services and employee advocacy across their social media pages, brands multiply their reach exponentially and experience rapid month-over-month growth on social media. 

Whether you’re a franchisor looking for greater control over your brand and the ability to promote your franchise across platforms, or a franchisee looking for ways to create more impact at the local level, Rallio has solutions to meet every need. Reach out to sales@rallio.com to learn more and schedule a demo.

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