Internet Marketing for Franchise Business – Part 2
In part 2 of “Internet Marketing for Franchise Business”, Nick Strong discusses the increasing importance of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to your business. Nick looks at how using these important social platforms can make a difference to the growth of your franchise business.
This presentation was recorded during the Franchise Supplier Showcase event in November 2011.
For the rest in this series – see also Part 1 and Part 3
Busker plays garbage from a bin in Cambridge
When visiting Cambridge for a family get together this weekend and some enjoyable alfresco dining by the river, we witnessed a number of street acts and got hustled quite a lot by punters selling trips on the river and tours of the city’s colleges. The one act that caught my eye was the guy that did his busking from inside a litter bin!
I have often though about the effectiveness of novelty and how it can or might be used effectively in marketing. Looking at the ‘garage busker’s’ takings he was no great advert for prosperity. Perhaps he was so ashamed of his low income that he consigned himself to the rubbish. However, his singing was pretty good. He gave a reasonable version of the Beatles classic ’obladi oblada’ but sitting in the bin had not seemed to increase his income. Not a great advert for revenue building then.
Having said that, this is the guy I am writing about now and not only me but also the Daily Mail. Because he was adventurous and did things a bit differently he got lots of attention at the time and now he is appearing in this blog post. Perhaps if he had sponsored the bin and put his Facebook address on his collection mat he would be getting bookings from garden party organisers countrywide.
When it comes to using the likes of Facebook for profile building this is something to bear in mind. Keep what you have to say interesting and fun. Don’t just push what you want to sell but do make sure that you make it clear what you do and how people should contact you when the time is right for you to serve them.
Franchisees that use social media for building their brand and service can reach out to a new audience via the web. Keep your content fun and many people will like what you have to say and do you the favour of forwarding your content to their friends. Over time this will raise your franchise profile and create incoming enquiries from customers that you have not had to pay to get.
Think carefully about your Internet strategy. For assistance contact Nick Strong director of Select Your Franchise, Franweb and Chair of Affiliates for the British Franchise Association.
Social media for Franchise system growth
Nick Strong - Franchise Recruitment Advisor
The use of social media for franchise system growth is a hot topic in UK franchise circles at the beginning of 2011. For this reason the British Franchise Association (BFA) have set up a training and day called Social Media Uncovered. The event will be held on 24th February at the BFA offices just outside Abingdon in Oxfordshire.
The day is focused on how franchisors can develop their SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time specific) goals and objectives for the use of social media platforms that will help them and their franchisees achieve specific commercial objectives.
There will be six sessions during the day. Nick Strong will lead three of these sessions which are titled:-
- Why get involved with social media?
- Social media tools and ways you and your franchisees can use them?
- How to start a movement using social media
Dan Archer of Xpress Legal Services and Katie Moffit of Pyjama Drama will speak on the subject of How their franchise businesses have maximised their profile using social media and Andrew Hayward of Owen White Solicitors will outline the legal issues to consider.
During the day we will be investigating theoretical and tried and tested approaches to social media adoption. Within this context we will investigate specific mainstream platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Places and Twitter and consider how they can be put to good use for the purpose of franchise system growth.
It is vital to identify that all business building tools have to be the servant of any businesses key objectives. Social media adoption is no different.
The main challenge for most UK franchise brands is having to enter uncharteded waters in a key area of business development. Franchisees join a franchise system so they can replicate a proven system.
Most franchisors have not yet developed their proven model for social media adoption. This specialist seminar is to help all the franchise directors that attend to start the journey of discovery so they can start the planning needed to identify proven and replicable best practise for their system.
For a copy of Nick Strong’s the slides you can contact nick@franweb.co.uk
Tags: franchise growth, nick strong, social media
