Social Media Hacks for Your Franchise Marketing Plan

Social media plays an important role in any franchise marketing plan. And while most of us use social media every single day, few people truly understand the art and science of using these platforms for franchise marketing.

In today’s post, we discuss 4 social media “hacks” you can use to distinguish yourself from the competition.

Spends More Time On What Works

When outlining your franchise marketing plan, remember that time is your greatest asset. If you’ve opted to manage your social media on your own, make sure you’re putting effort into the most effective platforms. Research has indicated that Facebook is most effective platform for building franchise awareness, driving interested parties to your website, and engaging audiences, so emphasize this in your social media strategy.

Leverage Locally Relevant Information To Increase Audience Engagement

It goes without saying that your franchise marketing plan should use a consistent voice that aligns with your corporate brand, but sticking too closely to the script is a surefire way to repel readers. As soon as somebody notices that your franchise location’s social media posts are just regurgitating message from the brand headquarters, they’ll cut out the middleman and start visiting that site directly, which means less engagement with audiences you care about.

One of the best ways to engage local audiences while using the “brand voice” is to leverage locally relevant information in your posts. Mention local knowledge, folklore, historical factoids, weather, news, and events. The more you do, the more your posts will resonate with the locals, and this holds true even in cases where you’re sharing “generic” updates to your products, services, or hours.

Jump On Automation Opportunities

When constructing your franchise marketing plan, keep an eye out for opportunities to automate tasks as often as possible. This can help you save time, strike that sought-after work-life balance, and coordinate big offline-and-online promotional pushes with relative ease. Many software tools allow you to schedule posts ahead of time, which allows you to cover weeks or even months worth of updates in a single work session. This works great for holidays: since the dates don’t change, you can schedule a lifetime’s worth of “modified hours” posts with a few easy clicks. This kind of pre-planning and automation also helps you avoid potential conflicts. Alternately, bigger companies might prefer to automate their entire social media franchise marketing plan via outsourcing. This might not be for everyone, but there is clear value in leveraging the expertise of longtime industry players for hands-free citation-building, media sharing, and word-of-mouth advertising.

Emphasize Engagement Over Sales

We’ve already shared a simple hack to increase local audience engagement, but it’s worth reiterating that social media is about connecting with your customers more than it is about selling to them. While social media savvy can have a huge indirect impact on your sales, these platforms are rarely effective as sales-oriented “infomercials” for your business. Keep your voice consistent, strive to make your content as interactive as possible (i.e. quizzes, polls, Q&As, giveaways, and competitions), and provide as much behind-the-scenes insight as you feel comfortable doing, but never hock products or services without this value attached. A good litmus test here is to ask yourself if you’d be comfortable sharing the social media post you just wrote on your personal account – is it fun, interesting, and likely to be enjoyed by your readers, or will you be coming across as a sales shill?

For more franchise marketing plan tips, check our blog or schedule a free consultation with a member of our team at https://clicktecs.com