How Franchises Are Successful With Social Media

Posted on June 07, 2011 by Bryan Nisperos

Social media is increasingly becoming a critical part of the PR and marketing strategy of any business. Franchises generally benefit from a central marketing department which handles marketing and PR for the franchise as a whole, freeing up the franchisee to focus on the day to day operations of their franchise. While some franchisors have thousands of franchisees and multi-million dollar ad campaigns, smaller franchises, in many cases, will be left to their own devices to market their product, build relationships with repeat customers and offer incentive programs to drive new customers in. This is where social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Gowalla level the playing field for businesses large and small, and many franchisors are using these tools in new and innovative ways to great success.

Tasti D-Lite, a dessert franchise specializing in "reduced guilt" ice creams and desserts, recently launched a loyalty program allowing customers to link their Twitter and Foursquare accounts to their TastiRewards loyalty card. This program not only adds value to the typical reward program card, but adds a social gaming aspect that rewards customers for interacting with the company online. The program has been hugely successful thus far for the company and has caused many other companies to adopt a similar strategy, benefitting from the wealth of consumer information that social media interaction brings to the company.

Tasti D-Lite's program works well for them, mainly because it appeals directly to their target demographic of 18-34. This sort of campaign doesn't translate directly to every business, since many people over the age of 40 don't use Foursquare, or use Twitter for news and business, but rely on Facebook for personal interactions. Every franchise, however, can learn from this model.

Knowing your key demographic and how they utilize social media is the first step in using these sites to your advantage. With over 500 million users, chances are that no matter what business you're in, a sizable portion of your customers use Facebook, so getting in front of your customers (and potential customers) through Facebook can be a hugely successful way to promote your business and gain some free, word of mouth advertising. To that end, here are a few quick tips for marketing your franchise through social media sites:

• No Spam - While customers that follow you on Twitter or like you on Facebook want to hear what you have to say, try to limit your posts to one or two per day. This will keep people from getting overwhelmed and ultimately ignoring your posts altogether.
• Talk Naturally - People like to read posts that sound natural, not just a summary of your press releases. Companies that get this right will often post replies directly to their customers and when they do post advertisements or PR info, it reads like a friend telling you about it, not a PR staffer disseminating information.
• Finally, listen to your followers. When you have fans or followers on a social media site, you'll often get lots of comments and replies from people that are listening to you. These are the vocal minority, and pleasing these folks and keeping them happy about your product or service means that they'll talk to all their friends about their experiences, good or bad.