5 Ways to Use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for Your Franchise Business

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Bryan Nisperos

Facebook is important. Twitter is important. LinkedIn is important. It’s also important not to put all of your eggs in one social media basket, which is why you need to identify a few really good ways to use a few different channels. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Facebook

1. Create a community around your brand. Let your customers know that they can come together on your Facebook Business Page to share their experiences with one another.
2. Establish your business as a trusted industry resource. When people are looking for information related to your industry they don’t want to jump all around to different sites. By providing timely and valuable information your Page can become the one go-to place for industry updates.
3. Provide customer service. It’s not always convenient for someone to pick up the phone to call for support. They are chasing toddlers or multi-tasking during their busy day at the office, so make it easy for them to go to your Page and ask their questions. The key here is to answer their questions in a timely manner to keep them coming back. (They may even brag about your exceptional customer service!)
4. Offer deals and discounts exclusively for your Facebook fans. The number one reason people ‘Like’ a Page is for the discounts – so give them what they want.
5. Use your Page for research and development. Before you officially roll out a new product or service, use the Facebook Questions application to poll your audience to find out what they think. People love to tell you what they think, especially if they have a criticism, so this can be a truly great way to get candid feedback during your development stage.

Twitter

1. Spy on your competition. Follow your competition to see what they are up to. It’s not wrong – they will do it to you, too.
2. Listen and respond. People love to flock to Twitter to spread their satisfaction or dissatisfaction in 140 characters. Search for your business’ name and then save your search to make sure you are always seeing what’s being said and respond accordingly.
3. Get on the radar of people in your local area. By using the Advanced Search feature at http://search.twitter.com you can search for people who are tweeting in a particular geographic location then follow them with hopes that they will follow you back.
4. Cultivate brand ambassadors. Encourage your most enthused clients to tweet and retweet your information to help your messages go viral.
5. Feed the search engines. Only a very small amount of your followers, if any, will see your tweets at the exact time they are posted. Sorry, it’s true. The beauty of Twitter, however, is that the words in your tweets are indexed by both Twitter and the search engines so when someone is looking for information related to your products and services, your message may just intersect their query at the right time.

LinkedIn

1. Showcase your sites. Make sure your website, Facebook Page, Twitter and Blog are listed in the website section of your profile making it as easy as possible for people to connect with you across multiple channels. Remember, the more impressions your brand makes, the more likely it is to be remembered.
2. Show-off your recommendations. Yes, it’s painful to ask for recommendations, but your anxiety will be well worth it when your prospects can read the great experiences that others have had working with you and your business.
3. Become an answers expert. Use the LinkedIn Answers section to answer questions related to your industry. Nothing helps establish relationships more than being helpful and establishing trust.
4. Develop credibility. Join groups and participate in discussions. Who was that exceptionally knowledgeable person with that thought-provoking point? That was you! And people noticed and were impressed with what you had to say.
5. Turn cold calls into warm calls. Gone are the days when you had no choice but to blindly pick up the phone without having any information about the person whom you’re about to solicit. Before your call or meeting, use LinkedIn to look at the profile of the person with whom you are meeting – perhaps you have shared contacts, went to the same college, or have some other commonality that will help you establish rapport and win the sale.

Written by AK Stout
AK Stout is the Owner of Saying It Social, LLC. AK has been working with social media for the past 6 years, having been amongst the first group of people introduced to Facebook. Read more about AK Stout