Author: Rallio

3 Major Forces Shaping Social Media Marketing for Franchises — and What to Do About It

Post author By Rallio
Post date September 21, 2020

The changes brought about by the pandemic have been felt universally — and franchise organizations everywhere have had to pivot, adjust and change with the times. Social media marketing for franchises has become more important than ever.

Those businesses that haven’t embraced social media marketing are either lagging behind those that have — or, worse, closing their doors altogether.

On the up side, the pandemic has opened up doors of opportunity for franchises and small businesses. As we discuss in a recent webinar produced for the International Franchise Professionals Group (IFPG), a membership organization for franchise professionals, three major forces have come into play. Our Vice President of Business Development, Ryan Hicks, delved into a discussion of these three forces as they relate social media marketing for franchises.

Below, we’ve recapped the key points that Hicks addresses, plus our best practices for tackling social media marketing for franchises. We recommend putting these tips into play in order to set yourself up for success moving forward.

Force #1: Economics

As we know, 2020 has been a volatile year, full of uncertainty. While some sectors have experienced gains, others have struggled to keep their heads above water.

Unquestionably, economics are influencing social media marketing for franchises, either for better or worse. The initial knee-jerk reaction for some businesses was to slash their marketing and advertising budgets.

“But what brands are realizing is they need true connection with their communities to survive, and I mean that in every sense of the word,” explains Hicks, who is also a Certified Franchise Professional (CFE) with over a decade experience in the franchise sector, as well as host of the MODRN Business podcast.

Key takeaway: Rather than cut marketing and advertising, franchises should consider ramping up those budgets.

Force #2: Social Influences

We’ve seen everything from virtual baby showers and weddings to drive-by birthdays and graduations in 2020. In the absence of in-person experiences, people have had to turn to online events.

If you’ve been invited to a Zoom event or a socially distanced celebration in 2020, then you know what we’re talking about. The trend has taken hold in business, too. Curbside pickup, online ordering, delivery, and contactless ordering and pickup are now an essential part of doing business today.

Key takeaway: Connecting with your customers online and shifting the way you do business gives you an opportunity to survive and thrive.

Force #3: Technology

As a natural extension of these shifts in online behavior, we’ve seen engagement explode on social media. Not only are we using online platforms to take the place of in-person events, but we’re also using them to communicate with one another and stay up-to-date.

By embracing technology and social media platforms, businesses are able to communicate about new, safe ordering options and stay in front of customers.

“Brands that did not used to consider social media as a worthy marketing channel before this pandemic have realized that may have been a mistake in the past,” says Hicks. Using technology to communicate with customers ensures you stay top-of-mind in a time when you could easily drown in a sea of competitors.

Key takeaway: It’s more important than ever to stay in front of customers. Technology is a huge driver of social media marketing for franchises.

Best Practices in Social Media Marketing for Franchises

Respond to all your online reviews

One of the biggest mistakes we see franchisors and franchisees make is not responding to every online review, says Hicks. While they might reply to the one- and two-star reviews, they’re not always getting back to customers who leave glowing reviews. Those are missed opportunities.

Consider the following stats:

86% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses
89% of consumers read businesses’ responses to online reviews
85% of consumers think reviews older than three months are no longer relevant

Not only will responding to all reviews improve your online reputation, but it can also potentially improve your local SEO. To streamline the process, consider using a solution like the Rallio Dashboard to pull in all your reviews in one place. With Rallio, you can respond to Facebook and Google reviews without having to leave the platform and log in somewhere else.

Respond to all your social media comments and messages every day

Just as you should be responding to all your online reviews, the same is true of any comments, direct messages and other engagements on your social media pages. If you’re not paying attention and getting back to customers, it’ll look like you’re ignoring them.

You also risk missing customer service inquiries, potential leads and sales opportunities. If you don’t get back to them, they’re going to move along and never come back. And if they raise a customer service issue and you don’t respond, they’re going to be angry — maybe even take to an online review to air their concerns.

Moreover, Hicks adds, the algorithms on social media platforms are paying attention to your response times and engagements. How quickly are you getting back to your followers? Are you even getting back to them at all? The social media wizards behind the curtain are paying attention, even if you’re not.

“If you have people trying to engage with you and you’re not even responding, that’s a problem,” warns Hicks.

If you don’t have time to dedicate to social media marketing for franchises, you’re not alone. When you’re busy running your business, social media may fall to the bottom of your to-do list. You can either assign the task to someone on your team, or outsource to a third party like Rallio. In addition to social media marketing services for franchises, we have an all-in-one Dashboard to help you view and respond to all your comments and messages.

Craft your own custom local content three times a week

Most franchise brands have at least a cadence of corporate content getting syndicated across the brand, notes Hicks. This is the “bread and butter,” if you will — the professional, branded content produced at the corporate level.

You need this kind of content as a franchisee to help identify you as a part of the brand. If someone comes across one of these posts on your local page, they’ll be able to trust that you’re a legitimate business.

At the same time, this isn’t the only thing you should be publishing. Successful social media marketing for franchises includes content that isn’t “overproduced.” It’s authentic and local, with real pictures and videos of team members, customers and the local community.

“So wait,” you’re thinking. “I can’t just rely on corporate to handle my social media marketing?” For franchises, this is a common question.

And we get it. It’s a lot to handle. Again, Rallio has a team of Social Strategists who can help create, post and caption your content. Many of our clients also receive weekly emails with content ideas if they’ve opted in for that service.

If you want to give posting a try yourself, here are a few ideas of what to post:

“Before and after” photos, if it makes sense for your business.
Team or customer testimonials. Try Canva.com for free graphic design tools.
Pictures or videos of your product or service in action.
Partner shoutouts: What partners work with you and why?
Your work with the local community. Document any photos showing how you support local businesses, nonprofits, schools or other groups.
How-to videos. What knowledge do you have that your clients do not?
How does your product or service make your clients feel? How can you show that?
Networking events, even if virtual.

Boost your posts at least once per week

As you’re posting local content, boost this content at least once a week to see even greater results. Even on a modest budget of $5 a week or more, you can begin to target your local audience and people who aren’t already connected with you.

If you’re taking the steps above, you should start to see massive growth on social media. According to our research, people who followed these tips tended to:

Rank an average of 2.68 spots higher in Google search
Receive 53% more online reviews
Produce 25% more website traffic from social
Generate 4 times more leads from social each month

Bonus tip: Solve the content problem through crowdsourcing

Rallio has still other tools and services to help business owners organize and manage social media marketing for franchises. We can also help you activate and incentivize employees and customers to post images from your business. In this way, you can “crowdsource” your social media and create a much richer user experience for anyone visiting your page.

As an Entrepreneur Top Franchise Supplier for three years running and an Inc.com 5000 fastest-growing company, Rallio is prepared to handle social media marketing for franchises — from corporate down to the location level. Feel free to reach out to Hicks directly via ryanh@rallio.com, or head over to rallio.com to explore our full suite of services.

To tune in to the full IFPG, webinar, click here, or visit ifpg.org to learn more about membership.

Tags franchise social media, social media marketing for franchises

Social

6 Powerful Benefits of a Business Instagram Account

Post author By Rallio
Post date September 15, 2020

There was a time when all Instagram accounts essentially had the same functionality. There was no “personal” versus “business Instagram.”

Back in the day, everyone had a personal Instagram profile with a name and a bio. At the risk of sounding like your grandparents, we’ve got to tell you: Times have changed.

Today, you have a choice between a personal and business or “creator” Instagram account (which is similar to a business Instagram, with added features designed for influencers, content creators and public figures).

And the possibilities are now endless.

While many brands and influencers have changed over to a business Instagram, others aren’t so quick to make the switch. What gives?

If you don’t spend a lot of time on Instagram — or if you’re perfectly happy with your personal account — you might not immediately understand the benefits of switching to a business Instagram. However, when you consider the many opportunities available to you as a business account, you might change your mind.

Whether you’re a startup business or an established brand, a mega corporation or a micro-influencer, there’s much to be gained from a business Instagram account. Take a look at 6 powerful benefits below.

You Instantly Look More Professional With a Business Instagram Account

If you compare a personal and business Instagram account side-by-side, you’ll notice some key differences right away.

Personal account: You can display your name, username, website and bio. Other information is private.
Business Instagram: In addition to the above, you can display public business information such as the business category, additional contact options, and action buttons like “Order Food” and “Gift Cards.”

Having your contact information front and center gives you a more polished look and instills trust in your audience. It also makes it easier for people to get in touch with you — always a good thing in the world of fleeting attention spans on social media.

You Can Access Ad Tools and Analytics

One of the hugest benefits of a business Instagram account is the ability to run ads. (Note that you need to make sure you have a Facebook business page and attach your Instagram to it, because Instagram ads are created through Facebook’s ads manager. We recommend reading through Facebook’s how-to guide, Create an Instagram Business Account, for all the steps needed to get up and running.)

By running paid ads, you’ll be able to grow your following and extend your reach. With ads both within feeds and in Stories, you’ll be able to create highly targeted ads that expose your brand to your desired audience.

When you switch to a business Instagram, you also gain access to insights you wouldn’t have with a personal account. Simply tap on the Insights tab from your account dashboard to view your most recent activity.

From there, you can see how your paid ads are performing and also view post performance, post engagement and audience insights.

With your Rallio Dashboard, you can access even more robust analytics. Go to rallio.com to explore your options.

You Can Link From Stories

If you have a personal account and want to send your audience to a certain website, you can’t simply type out a tappable URL within a post. Instagram won’t hyperlink to the website the way it would on other social media platforms. To link directly to a post, you would need to add the link to your bio (hence the phrase “link in bio”).

Of course, business Instagram accounts can link to a post this way, too, and it’s not a bad idea to include an important link in your bio. However, your business Instagram gives you other options, too.

For business accounts with 10,000 followers or more, you gain access to swipe-up options within Instagram Stories. This means users can swipe up within a Story to go directly to a link of your choosing.

Story links are a great way to send your audience directly to a certain link — such as special promotions or new products. Without it, you risk losing out on link clicks from people who don’t want to take the time to click away from your Story and head over to your bio.

Note: Yet another option for both personal and business Instagram accounts is to use a link collector such as Feedlink or Linktree. These tools help you optimize the one link in your bio by collecting all of your links under one central URL. Each of these tools works slightly differently, so be sure to research your options to see which one may work best for you.

Learn more: 10 of the Best Link in Bio Tools for Instagram

You Can Create Shoppable Posts

With a business Instagram, you can turn your photos and Stories into shoppable posts. This is a huge benefit for product-based businesses. You can either augment your existing ecommerce operations, or set up an entirely Instagram-based shop if you choose.

To get started, click the hamburger-looking icon with three horizontal lines at the top of your profile and go to your Settings. Tap Business and then Shopping. You can then walk through the steps to get approved for Instagram Shopping. (Check out How to Set Up Instagram Shopping for more in-depth instructions.)

From there, you’ll be given the option to set up Instagram Shopping on your account. Once you set up an Instagram shop, you’ll be able to:

Showcase your products with a customizable storefront on your Instagram profile
Tag products in your posts and Stories and create shoppable content
Access insights about your shop such as product views and engagement

Convert to a Business Instagram Today

With so many robust tools available to business Instagram users, it just makes good sense to convert your account. There’s no cost involved other than the advertising costs you incur, which are worth every penny if you set up your ads correctly.

Rallio gives you even more options as a Rallio Local client if you switch to a business Instagram account. From the Rallio Dashboard, you have one login to all your social profiles, one inbox for all your comments and engagements, and additional tools like the ability to respond to comments and reviews.

Our Rallio Local program also pairs you with your own Social Strategist. Consider it your personal teammate who can help you get set up, run ads, handle all your social media engagements and questions, and make sure you’re making the most of your business Instagram.

Tags social media marketing

Uncategorized

Should You Outsource Your Small-Business Social Media? 4 Compelling Reasons It Makes Sense

Post author By Rallio
Post date September 11, 2020

With the recent launch of Rallio Local for Small Business here at Rallio, we’ve had a few questions come up about outsourcing small-business social media.

It’s not an unusual question by any means. Most small businesses’ social media needs are greater than their resources. After researching their options, many entrepreneurs decide that outsourcing their small-business social media makes sense.

How so, you wonder? We’re glad you asked.

#1: You Can Lean on Experts

Here at Rallio, we’re on social media all day, every day. We live, breathe, eat and sleep social media. That’s because it’s our business to do so — just as it’s your business to live, breathe, eat and sleep your own business.

So if you’re busy running your own business, it’s likely that you don’t have the time to manage your social media. You also might not particularly want to manage this task, much less become an expert in it.

That’s all OK, because when you outsource, you can hire people who are experts in social media like Rallio. You don’t have to waste time or resources on something that draws you away from your core functions as a business owner.

Rallio, an Entrepreneur Top Franchise Supplier and an Inc.com fastest-growing company, has earned nationwide recognition for its service of the franchise sector, from corporate down to the franchisee level. With its new Rallio Local for Small Business division, Rallio will also be able to lend its expertise to small businesses that are independently owned and operated.

“Rallio has become the trusted provider of choice for thousands of franchise operators by offering best-in-class social media solutions and top-notch customer service for our clients,” says Chuck Goetschel, CEO of Rallio. “With our new Rallio Local for Small Business division, we are now able to further translate this experience and expertise into serving the local bakery, barber shop, restaurant, dentist, tire shop and other types of small businesses in all different verticals.”

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/posts/1723817577771407

#2: You Can Access Top Technology

Rallio’s solutions include a social media management platform where users can access and manage all their social media accounts, in one central dashboard with a single login. Along with a mobile app, the platform enables clients to upload and schedule content, implement employee advocacy programs, reply to comments, messages and reviews, and much more.

Basically, Rallio makes small-business social media management a much smoother, easier process. Rather than having to log in to multiple platforms with different logins, you can simply log in to your Rallio Dashboard.

You’ll also avoid letting anything slip through the cracks like a negative customer review or an important sales lead. Everything will be in your inbox to review and respond to.

#3: You Get the Service and Support You Need

In addition to Rallio technology, the Rallio Local for Small Business program includes social media services for busy entrepreneurs. Clients are paired with their very own Social Media Strategist who manages the entire small-business social media process — from posting and boosting local content to interacting with the page’s community and even responding to online reviews.

Our team will do the heavy lifting for your small-business social media needs. Don’t know what to post? We do. Don’t have time to respond to your reviews? We do. Can’t figure out boosting? We have the formula for your success.

All of these factors make Rallio Local for Small Business an essential component to your overall marketing program, especially during the pandemic.

“This program is a must for small-business owners as they continue to address the ongoing pandemic,” adds Goetschel. “With social media usage at an all-time high and businesses having to pivot to meet COVID-related demands, having Rallio in their corner is going to be invaluable. Businesses simply can’t afford to ignore social media as part of their overall marketing strategy. Outsourcing the work saves them time and is much more cost-effective than trying to take the work in-house or do it themselves.”

#4: You Could Get Free Services

As part of the Rallio Local for Small Business program’s rollout, Rallio will be offering referral incentives to small businesses. New clients have the opportunity to get one month of free small-business social media services when they refer another small business to Rallio. To qualify, both businesses must commit to three months of service. Email localsales@rallio.com to inquire about the referral program.

In addition, Rallio will be hosting an ongoing social media contest to give away one month of free service to three lucky small-business owners. Here are the rules and entry requirements:

Visit Rallio’s Instagram and Facebook pages (@rallio).
Look for the post with the hashtag #RallioLocalSmallBusiness.
Tag another business on the post.
Each time you tag a business, you earn one entry in the contest.

Three lucky winners will be announced on Sept. 30. (Future contests will be announced at a later date.) Note: To enter, you must be an independent business owner. Tagged businesses may also enter by tagging other businesses.

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/posts/1721821871304311

Let Us Handle Your Small-Business Social Media

Our Rallio Local for Small Business division is an extension of our existing social media management and marketing solutions. As a top-ranked provider of social media technology, employee advocacy and local social media services, we’re thrilled to be offering our all-in-one social media solutions to small, independently owned businesses.

If you’re ready to outsource your small-business social media and focus on other parts of your business, contact localsales@rallio.com, and visit www.rallio.com/getlocal or www.rallio.com.

Learn more: Should I Outsource My Social Media? 6 Questions to Ask Yourself

About Rallio

Rallio is a powerful SaaS combining social media technology, creative services and employee advocacy. As the supplier of choice for franchise organizations and small businesses, Rallio enables brands to manage their entire social media presence, online reputation and online directory listings in one dashboard for all locations. Business owners can either take charge on their own, with easy-to-use desktop and mobile technology, or recruit the help of Rallio’s in-house agency. Rallio’s motley crew of social media strategists, brand managers, designers, producers, writers, engineers, geeks, freaks, change-makers and born leaders helps businesses ditch boring content forever and light up their social media pages.

Uncategorized

How to Do a Social Media SWOT Analysis and Amplify Your Results

Post author By Rallio
Post date September 9, 2020

As a small-business owner, you might know it’s important to have a social media presence. At some point when you’re wearing multiple hats, however, you also might forget to pay attention to your social media — much less think about doing a social media 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.

What Is a Social Media SWOT Analysis?

By fine-tuning your social media, you’ll ensure you’re investing your money optimally on social media — not pouring money into the medium “just because.” 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?

You can perform an overall social media SWOT analysis periodically, perhaps on a quarterly basis. This will help dictate your general social media marketing strategy. However, it’s also wise to perform a social media SWOT analysis anytime you want to analyze a campaign or project.

Keep in mind, too, that your SWOT analysis requires that you measure not only hard numbers, but also customer sentiment about your brand. This means you’ll be looking at both your analytics as well as “softer” factors such as reactions to your posts and follower growth. Together, all of your metrics add up to social media success when all your gears are working properly.

“In 2020, an estimated 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion in 2025.” — Statista

What Are Your Strengths?

What are you doing well on social media? Your analytics will show you how well you’re engaging with your community and which types of posts perform well. Other factors that might be considered strengths include:

Brand-consistent messaging, imagery and use of assets such as company logos
Authentic content featuring real people and places associated with your business
Well-written captions that encourage engagement
Ongoing boosting campaigns to make sure your content is more visible and has a better reach
Audience engagement such as likes, comments and shares
Replies to your followers’ comments, direct messages and reviews

Together, the strengths above help to differentiate you on social media. Instead of being just another company, you can set yourself apart. Over time, your strengths help you grow your social media presence and increase the chances of meeting other goals, such as new leads and sales.

What Are Your Weaknesses?

In many ways, you can look at your strengths in reverse in order to identify any weaknesses. Just as your analytics will show you what you’re doing well, they will show you low-performing posts and lack of engagement. Potential weaknesses could be:

Off-brand imagery, poorly constructed captions, and inconsistent messaging and use of company assets such as logos
Poorly written captions that don’t inspire your audience to engage
Worn-out content featuring stock images or lacking variety (maybe you’re posting links all the time but no images or videos)
Lack of ad budget, meaning your content isn’t getting seen because you’re not boosting it
No audience engagement such as likes, comments and shares
Few or no replies to your followers’ comments, direct messages and reviews

These weaknesses will prevent your page from working as hard as it could for you. Bottom line: Iron out your weaknesses to make them your strengths.

What Are Your Opportunities?

Analyzing your opportunities helps you weigh the risks against the possible rewards. It also allows you to see any potential areas for growth. This analysis might look something like this:

Is the money I spend on boosting likely to help me gain new followers (risk versus reward)?
Are there opportunities to engage with my existing follower base? (Keeping a current follower is just as important as gaining new ones, if not more so!)
Are my customers asking the same questions or making the same requests over and over again? That is, is there an opportunity to improve my product or service, create certain offers and promotions, and better appeal to my customer base?
Am I reading all my comments and messages to inform point #3 above?

Answering these questions will help you continue to grow on social media. Even when you have strengths or weaknesses, you need to keep re-assessing what’s working and what’s not.

What Are Your Threats?

Last up in your social media SWOT analysis: threats. Much like you’re making educated guesses about your opportunities, you’re doing the same with possible threats. Those threats might include:

Economic factors that could impact buying behavior and social media usage, as we’ve seen during the pandemic.
Competitors who come out with new offerings before you do. They could eat into your target market and gain market share.
Other factors out of your control, such as new laws or regulations.

You can’t prepare for every threat, especially if you get blindsided like many businesses did with the pandemic. Not many people could have predicted how business would unfold in 2020, but COVID-19 has taught us not to get too comfortable doing things a certain way. For example, businesses had to shift to virtual offerings, online shopping, social distancing, safety protocols and other pandemic-related changes.

As much as possible, prepare for the unexpected. Think about worst-case scenarios and have a plan to address them.

And once you’ve laid out a complete social media SWOT analysis, you can identify your next move on social media. You’ll also be equipped to analyze any particular campaign before launching it.

The more you can play on your strengths and opportunities, and address your weaknesses and threats, the greater your results will be on social media. In many cases, your social media SWOT analysis can help you make the best decisions while avoiding any pitfalls.

Reputation

How’s Your Customer Response Time? 6 Simple Ways to Step It Up

Post author By Rallio
Post date September 4, 2020

If your customer response time is lagging on social media, your followers and customers are going to notice. Whether they’re looking to get questions answered or to leave a review, you can count on customers using social media as a customer service channel.

Is your customer response time fast enough for them? The typical recommendation is a customer response time of less than 24 hours. However, if you really want to impress them, you’ll want to pick up the pace even more.

Additionally, make sure you’ve got all your bases covered as far as responses go. Below, we’ve outlined six simple ways you can improve your customer response time and keep your customers happy.

But first, let’s look at why you should care about customer response time in the first place.

Why Customer Response Time Matters

It’s no secret that responding to your customers is important. If you have a successful business, naturally you have some type of system for customer support. For instance, maybe you have a support email and phone number for customer service inquiries.

However, it’s not enough to provide only email and phone support. The influx of support requests during the pandemic has led to a spike in customer service inquiries, and social media is a part of that equation.

With pandemic-related extended wait times over the phone and, sometimes, a delay in email response time, it’s critical that you enable your customers to reach you and have their issues resolved via social media. Whether they’re checking on shipment status, inquiring about refunds and exchanges, or looking for information on a product or service, customers are putting on the pressure to get answers, fast.

Intercom explains, “As the virus spreads around the world, many support teams are experiencing significant shifts in customer requests. In our survey, nearly half (47%) of support teams report that inbound volume has increased since the outbreak and by an average of 51% above their normal volume.”

Pandemic aside, a fast customer response time is one of the best ways to build customer loyalty. According to Gartner, customers are significantly more loyal when their expectations are met versus when their expectations are not met.

With loyalty, you increase the likelihood of customers sharing about their experiences on social media. From there, you increase your reach and the chances of acquiring new followers and customers.

It all begins with your customer response time and the quality of your responses. So, yes, it’s pretty important that you get this aspect of your business squared away sooner rather than later.

Automate Your Customer Responses

One of the first ways to improve customer response time on social media is to automate responses. Facebook will allow you to set up auto-responses to your frequently asked questions.

Think about the questions you field over and over again. Maybe they include:

What are your hours?
How do I make an appointment?
Where are you located?
Can I see a menu?
Do you deliver?

With Facebook auto-responses, you can fill in the answers to FAQ and handle many customer service inquiries without having to lift a finger. Here’s a quick walk-through from Facebook to help you set these up.

Facebook points out that these instant replies are not included in your page’s response rate and response time. These are measures of how quickly and consistently you respond to messages. With a high response rate and fast response time, you earn a “Very responsive to messages” badge that you can display on your page.

Still, though, giving your customers quick answers will help to improve their satisfaction with your brand. In their eyes, you are providing a fast customer response time — even if Facebook isn’t officially recognizing your instant replies as part of your response metrics.

Did you know? 54% of social browsers use social media to research products. GlobalWebIndex

Respond to Direct Messages

The DM feature on your social media pages — Facebook and elsewhere — is a great way for customers to contact you directly without picking up the phone. And while instant replies can handle some of the incoming questions, they won’t cover every single issue.

That’s why it’s important to check your DMs and make sure you’re responding to them. It takes real humans to manage this task. You can either assign this job to someone in-house or outsource the work, but make sure you have it covered.

Responding to DMs quickly not only ensures optimal customer response time, but also improves customer satisfaction. Your customers will be less likely to leave a negative review if you handle their inquiries promptly and professionally.

Improve Your Library of Help Content

Within your auto-responses and any other automated customer service mechanisms such as live chat, you can also direct customers over to your help library online. That is, of course, if you have a help library.

If not, now is a great time to create one!

Help libraries are useful for answering any common questions, providing how-to tutorials, and explaining your customer service or shipping policies. You can keep this library continually updated, adding to it anytime you see a new customer service need.

In addition to providing text-based tutorials and answers, it’s a good idea to add video content to your help library. Many people prefer to watch a video rather than read something, and videos are another way to support your customers and improve your customer response time.

Respond to Social Media Engagements and Reviews

Yet another way that customers will seek out customer support is through your social media posts themselves. In some cases, customers are simply commenting on a post with something positive. Other times, they may actually be posting a question or a negative comment about your brand.

And in still other scenarios, customers may be leaving reviews of your company on a review platform like Google My Business or Facebook.

In any of these cases, you should respond to your customers quickly. For positive comments, express your thanks and let them know you’re eager to serve them again in the future. For anything negative, offer to help resolve the problem and make it right for the customer.

Avoid getting into back-and-forth arguments or being defensive. Try to take the conversation offline. Don’t fear negative feedback, however. It can be an opportunity to:

Take the high road. Show that you’re willing to resolve problems quickly.
Avoid having your comments and reviews appear “fake.” It’s rare that a brand never gets criticized.
Consider the criticism as an opportunity to grow if the customer has a valid concern.

Utilize Social Media Management Tools

This is perhaps one of the best ways to ensure a better customer response time: Have everything housed under one roof.

Rallio technology gives you a single login to one central dashboard that will pull in all of your likes, comments, messages, reviews and other engagements. It also allows you to respond to them. Rather than having to log in to several different platforms and keep up with all of the above, you can keep everything organized.

Not only will you reduce your customer response time by having everything centralized, but you’ll save yourself a lot of time, too. You’ll also reduce the chances of anything slipping through the cracks.

Always Look to Improve Your Customer Response Time

The quicker you can respond to customers, the happier your customers will be. With a blend of personalized responses and speedy response times, you’ll gain customer loyalty and build your online reputation.

In addition to Rallio technology tools, you can work with our Rallio Local division if you’d like us to handle all your customer responses. Whatever your needs may be, we can find a solution that works for you.

Tags coronavirus, social media management tools

Social

Top 5 Reasons Rallio Is a Top Franchise Supplier

Post author By Rallio
Post date September 1, 2020

The rankings are in, and for the third year running, Rallio has been named a Top Franchise Supplier by Entrepreneur magazine. This list recognizes top companies that provide services and support to franchisors and franchisees in 10 categories: Accounting, Banking/Financing, Franchise Broker/Referral Networks, Franchise Consulting/Development, Legal Services, Marketing, Merchant Services, Other Technology Services, Public Relations, and Real Estate Services. Rallio was ranked #7 in the Marketing category.

To determine who the Top Franchise Suppliers are, Entrepreneur surveyed more than 700 franchisors to find out 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 position on the ranking 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 2020 issue of Entrepreneur.

With three-year revenue growth exceeding 360 percent, Rallio has worked tirelessly over the past few years to fine-tune our franchise social media technologies and services. 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.

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/posts/1697932420359923

#1: Team, Not Just Technology

Technology is great, but humans are better. Your social media management technology isn’t going to think of captions for your posts, curate hyper-local content specific to your business, and reply to your reviews using real, human responses.

We love technology at Rallio, and plenty of our clients choose to use our platform without our additional services. However, we’ve also seen time and time again that many of our clients need and want a personal touch.

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 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.

#2: But Also … Technology

The Rallio technology makes everyone’s lives easier, both for clients and our own in-house agency. 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 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, either using the technology to take control or pairing the technology with our local services. Our clients love having the freedom to choose the level of service that works best for them.

Moreover, COVID-19 has also taught us the critical importance of technology. Not only does technology keep us connected, but it allows us to continue providing the most cutting-edge innovations to our clients. The clients who likewise invest in technologies — like what we offer at Rallio — set themselves apart from their competitors.

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/posts/1684839781669187

#3: True Partnership

We’re more than just a Top Franchise Supplier. We’re a partner with our clients.

To illustrate this point, we point to the current pandemic. When the COVID-19 crisis hit, Rallio quickly began to work with our clients to help them pivot. We saw an opportunity to guide them through the challenges. We shared our insights with them and enabled them to keep marketing themselves.

We weren’t doing this to make money. In fact, many of the tips and services we’ve provided have been free of charge, no strings attached. We simply wanted to see our clients continue to succeed.

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. 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 these stressful times.

#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 personnel, 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 Springboard webinars featuring prominent brands. He’s also helping to organize the Springboard “virtual conference,” to be held Sept. 21-23, with 500 franchisors in attendance. Check out the full lineup of brands in this informative series: https://franchisors.com/webinars/.

Again, we’re solving problems.

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/posts/1710443975775434

#5: Fun

Take a look at 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 500 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 10 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.

View our press release about the ranking here.

About Rallio

Tags franchise social media, Top Ranked Social Media Company

Social

12 Secrets to Social Media Success: Part 2

Post author By Rallio
Post date August 28, 2020

If you read 12 Secrets to Social Media Success: Part 1, you might have already started changing things up on your social media pages. Today, we’re rounding out the series with part 2, revealing the final six secrets to social media success.

We recommend reading up on the first six, but these secrets to social media success are not listed in any particular order. You can implement any of these 12 changes and instantly improve your pages.

Let’s dive right in to social media secrets 7 through 12.

Secret #7: Do Some Light Housekeeping

If you haven’t touched your profile picture, cover photo and profile information in a while, it’s time to dust off the cobwebs. Make sure your logo is current, your pictures are high-res and all your contact information is up to date.

For multi-location franchises, it’s important to present a consistent image across your organization. Many franchises choose to keep the same profile and cover photos across the board.

The cover photo provides a good opportunity to showcase seasonal specials, too. It’s like having a static billboard on your page to highlight any current promotions. Side note: You can also pin any promotional posts to the top of your page to make them more visible.

Having up-to-date business information also ensures anyone can find you easily when they search for you or businesses like yours. Statista reports, “In July 2020, over 98 percent of active user accounts worldwide accessed the social network via any kind of mobile phone.” That means you have an opportunity to connect with users and help them find you as they’re browsing on-the-go.

Want to make sure your information is accurate anywhere it appears online? Rallio’s tools allow you to update your business listings everywhere to keep them consistent across the web.

Secret #8: Be a Detective on Your Competition

No list of secrets to social media success would be complete without a little light spying, don’t you think?

It’s fairly easy to perform a little detective work on your competitors. Once you know what they’re up to, what they’re doing well and who their customers are, you can apply some of that knowledge to your own business. How?

Visit the social media pages of your competitors. Read the comments on posts, so you can see what types of content resonate with their audience. Look under Page Transparency to see what ads they’re running. Get a feel for the customer service questions that tend to pop up over and over again. You can address these very questions in your own content.
Visit competitors’ websites. Sign up for their email newsletters (you might want to use a non-company email to remain covert). Get a feel for the kinds of offers they’re promoting and whom they’re serving. Walk yourself through the site through the eyes of a customer. What are they doing well that you could improve on your own site? What are you doing better than they are that you can capitalize on through your own marketing?
Do a little SEO hunting, too. What keywords is your competitor targeting? Check page titles, meta descriptions and on-page copy. Open a private browser and search for some of the keywords you want to rank for. Any competitive sites that appear in search results gives you an idea of blog articles and other SEO copy you can create to help improve your chances of ranking.

Secret #9: Surprise Them

Have you ever won something? Or been surprised with a special gift? Hopefully, the answer is yes, and the experience put a big smile on your face!

That’s what this social media secret is all about: surprising your followers and your employees, too. There are many inexpensive ways to show appreciation for the people who support your business:

Host contests on social media. Give away something for free! It could be a product or a service, and it doesn’t have to be something huge. Even a small gift, a free session or a complimentary service will impress your followers. It may help you get new followers, too. Ask your followers to like your post and tag friends to enter, and you’ll expose your business to new people.
Apply the same logic to recognize and reward your employees. Spotlight an employee on social media and give them a gift card or some kind of reward. They’ll appreciate the kudos and might even share the post on their personal pages, too.

By the way, activating your employees on social media is a great way to reach new audiences. With an employee advocacy program, you can incentivize employees to post about your company. It’s a win-win for you as well as the employee getting rewarded.

Secret #10: Leverage LinkedIn

Don’t forget count LinkedIn among your biggest secrets to social media success. According to LinkedIn research, its platform is considered the most effective for B2B lead generation. Some 80% of social media B2B leads come from LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is largely a professional platform connecting businesses to each other and helping job seekers locate opportunities. As with any kind of networking, you never know what kind of valuable contacts you might make on LinkedIn.

New connections who don’t appear to have anything to offer your business might actually be the exact people you need to make an important introduction to someone they know. Other connections might open you up to their customer base — people who may be interested in what you have to offer.

The important thing to remember about LinkedIn is that you can’t spam your new connections with referral requests. Just as you would take the time to build a relationship with your followers on Facebook, you must do the same with new LinkedIn connections.

The big mistake many professionals make is sending a connection request and then firing off a sales email as soon as the request is accepted. That’s the quickest way to get ignored and even removed as a connection.

When you send that first message, send something short and friendly. The easiest approach is to take an interest in some aspect of their profile. Examples might be:

“Thanks for connecting, Joe. How did you like attending UCLA? I’m a huge Bruins fan!”
“Happy to connect with you, Marie. How did you get into financial planning?”

In other words, start off with an open-ended question targeted at getting to know the person. Avoid the tired “How can I be of service to you?” — people aren’t likely to respond. Instead, build rapport and find out what they may need.

LinkedIn needs to change the button on connection requests from "Accept" to "I'll be added to this person's crappy email list within 30 minutes if I click here."

— Peter Shankman (@petershankman) August 24, 2020

Secret #11: Analyze Your Results

In order to keep creating the kind of content your audience likes, you have to know how it’s doing. Reviewing your analytics on each platform will help you understand your audience, who they are and how well your posts have performed. You can view analytics on all the major social media platforms, or look at them in your one central Rallio Dashboard!

Based on this data, you can tailor your posts to suit your audience’s interests and preferences. If they tend to react better to video content, for example, you can create more of this type of content for them.

Review your analytics at least once a month to fine-tune your strategy periodically. Your frequency will depend on your personal goals and what you want to get out of social media.

Secret #12: Have fun!

All the secrets to social media success in the world can’t help you if you aren’t having a little fun on social media. Think of it as a place where you can get to know your followers, post something funny or inspiring, or just connect authentically with your audience.

Your enthusiasm will shine through when you’re speaking from the heart! And you’ll find the process to be much more enjoyable when followers engage positively with you on social media.

Think about the accounts you follow and why you follow them. The product or service itself might have been the initial draw, but it’s the great content that keeps you coming back for more.

Want More Secrets to Social Media Success?

If you’d rather not DIY your social media and these social media secrets feel a little overwhelming, we can help. Reach out to us to discuss your specific needs — and we’ll let you in on even more social media secrets, too.

Tags social media management tools, social media marketing

Social

12 Secrets to Social Media Success: Part 1

Post author By Rallio
Post date August 26, 2020

In case you didn’t notice, it’s about to be “pumpkin spice everything” season. Fall is in the air, and the holidays aren’t far off. And in the spirit of giving, we’re handing over a few secrets to social media success.

No thanks necessary.

You see, social media can be an incredible tool for reaching your customer base and new followers. It also gives you multiple touchpoints along the customer journey — one that invariably takes customers to online platforms.

However, tackling your social media management can feel overwhelming as a business owner. The secrets to social media success can feel elusive, to say the least.

We want to help demystify social media and make it accessible for any business, from franchise social media managers to independent business owners.

So grab yourself a pumpkin spice something, roll up your sleeves and prepare to have a fantastic fall. Just follow our secrets to social media success we’ve outlined in our two-part series, starting with part one below.

Secret #1: Be Social

Among the secrets to social media success, this one is hiding in plain sight. The word “social” gives you a clue as to what this secret may be.

To be clear: Social media is for socializing. Yet many businesses don’t start with the “social” part before the “selling” part. There are certainly ways to leverage social media to sell your products or services. However, the sales pitch shouldn’t comprise the entirety of your social media strategy.

Instead, focus on building relationships with your followers. Earn their trust and their willingness to devote some of their time to paying attention to your business.

When you have their attention, they’ll be more receptive to your occasional sales messages and promotions. It will also make any investment into social media advertising — which we recommend to all our clients — much more worthwhile.

Read more in our “Social Media Myths, Debunked” article with Myth #5: Social Media Should Be Sales-Focused.

Secret #2: Engage With Your Followers

As you grow your social media following using the strategies above, you’ll start to get engagements on your posts. Comments, messages, questions and reviews may start to roll in at all hours of the day. It’s imperative that you respond to them quickly.

Getting back to your customers in a timely manner furthers the trust you’re building through engaging, social content. It’s no different than a customer standing in your store and having a conversation with you or asking a question. Could you imagine ignoring someone under these circumstances?

Be helpful, be friendly, be courteous, and aim to get back to your followers within 24 hours, max. Even if the engagement requires nothing more than an acknowledgement on your part, your response matters.

“80% of companies online are under the impression that they deliver exceptional social media customer service, while only 8% of their customers say they agree.” — Smart Insights

Secret #3: Use Cross-Channel Marketing

You probably already have other marketing channels in place, such as email marketing. What are some opportunities you can identify to integrate your social media marketing into these other channels?

We’ve written about this topic in-depth in 5 Ways to Integrate Email Marketing With Social Media Marketing. Give the article a read for more ideas of how to maximize your marketing efforts.

Don’t stop with email, however. Look for ways to cross-promote from one medium to the other. Your emails, targeted social media ads, blog posts and website can all be working together for your marketing strategy. This way, you’re not only presenting a clear brand image, but also giving your customers a seamless experience with your brand.

HubSpot writes, “With cross-channel marketing, you’re bringing each of these venues into unison with each other so that they build off of each other and amplify their impact. For example, if a lead reads a blog post you wrote about the pitfalls of an issue that your business solves, the marketing email they later receive might provide a customer testimonial from someone who overcame that same issue using your product.

“Then, when the lead gets on social media later that evening, they’ll see an advertisement with a catchy headline about how your products or services completely remove the issue they were initially reading about.”

Secret #4: Share Different Types of Content

Having a page with a variety of content makes it more appealing for your followers. What do we mean by “variety”?

Different types of images that authentically showcase your business, such as photos of owners, employees and customers
Video content with how-to tips, employees explaining why they love your company, or events at your location
Occasional shared content from a complementary business, with that business tagged
Themed and/or hashtagged content that commemorates holidays, days of the week like #tbt, or national “days” that naturally tie in with your business

Not only will this approach keep your page interesting, but it’ll also help you come up with content ideas. Check out a few other articles from our blog for inspiration:

Secret #5: Use Technology to Get Organized

Would you rather have one dashboard for your social media, with one login — or multiple logins for multiple platforms? We’re guessing you’d prefer just the one.

Shameless plug alert: The Rallio Dashboard is one such single-login technology designed to simplify your social media management.

It’s great for businesses with multiple locations that need to syndicate content or keep tighter controls over their locations’ social media pages. However, it’s also great for small businesses that want one central location to post to their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.

In addition to posting, you get scheduling options, analytics, boosting, and various management tools like image and video libraries and inbox/outbox. You can also unlock other advanced features, including employee advocacy, to get your employees involved with your social media.

Whatever technology you choose, the point is that technology can help you manage, well, other technology.

Secret #6: Hire Humans to Add Personality

Along with technology, you need humans to help with your social media. Although technology can help automate and organize everything, humans are the real secrets to social media success.

What can humans do that technology cannot?

Write your captions with appropriate hashtags
Engage with your audience
Offer customer support
Respond to inquiries and reviews that go beyond your auto-responses
Infuse your pages with personality
Boost your content and decide what to boost
Make sure your content matches your brand voice and messaging

Our Rallio Local division was born out of the need by many businesses to have someone taking care of these everyday tasks. Because social media is always “on,” 24/7, you can’t take a break from it. Having a team like Rallio Local ensures nothing slips through the cracks — and you’re that always growing on social media.

More Secrets to Social Media Success to Come

This was part 1 in a two-part series with the top 12 secrets to social media success. Watch for part 2 coming later this week for the final six secrets.

Tags franchise social media, social media management tools

Social

The 6 Most Common FAQ About Local Social Media, Answered

Post author By Rallio
Post date August 20, 2020

You may have heard of local social media, but perhaps you’re not clear on what that is or why you should care.

Well, we’re glad you’re here!

This article will answer some of the most common questions we get about local social media — questions that you may have pondered yourself if you own a business. In this post, we’ll cover the following FAQ:

What is local social media?
Why is local social media important?
How do I get started?
What about my promotions and special offers? Can I post those?
So I can set it and forget it, right?
How can local social media help during the pandemic — or during any kind of business interruption?

What is local social media?

In our world, the term “local social media” largely refers to franchisees who are part of a franchise organization. The franchisor has their national page, and franchisees have local pages. Whereas the franchisor mostly publishes social media posts that are relevant systemwide, the local pages should be posting local social media that’s specifically relevant to their location.

We developed our Rallio Local division here at Rallio to address this very need within franchise organizations. What often happens is that franchisees only post the content that’s getting syndicated by the franchisor. They aren’t posting anything that differentiates the individual location from the franchisor. As a result, it’s harder to make an impact and draw in customers from the local community.

The term also applies to small businesses that aren’t part of a larger organization, however (and at Rallio, we also serve small businesses in need of local social media). In this case, they may be posting just a slew of sales offers or stock imagery that, again, doesn’t allow the business to stand out from every other business posting on social media or connect with a local audience.

The key element that makes local social media, well, local, is that it shows the real side of your business. These posts are usually snapshots of the owners, employees, customers, product recommendations, how-tos, and other authentic-feeling images and videos.

It’s the difference between a post with a stock photo or a sales graphic versus a real photo or a video of a team member. When you see it, it’s instantly more relatable and engaging than something that feels like you’re being sold to.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1459606934429303&id=541879122868760

Why is local social media important?

The nature of social media is that these are fundamentally social platforms. Your followers come to social media to engage with their communities and the brands they love.

Getting to the point where a follower loves your brand takes time. They don’t follow your page and fall in love with you overnight. There’s a courting process, and you’ll need to do the work to take people from “follower” to “fan.”

With local social media, you’re better able to build a relationship with your audience. As you entertain, inform and inspire your audience with local posts, they’ll slowly gain trust and confidence in you.

How do I get started?

We’ve written tons of different articles with content ideas, and we recommend giving those a read:

In addition, oftentimes you can simply open up your photos app and take a look at the different pictures and videos you’ve captured — both recently and in the past. That picture of your dog enjoying a birthday ice cream cone? Or that video of your team gathered around for a baby shower? Those are perfect local social media ideas.

Try it right now. We’d bet there’s some local social media potential just sitting inside your phone, there for the taking.

https://www.facebook.com/RubberOnWheelsMobileTireShop/posts/2796910650409727

What about my promotions and special offers? Can I post those?

Yes, but proceed with caution. As you’re posting local social media and gaining your followers’ trust, your audience will be more receptive to occasional promotions and special offers.

The general rule of thumb is that 80 percent of your content should be non-promotional, and the other 20 percent can be more promotional. Adjust your own numbers according to your goals to find the right mix.

You can also boost your content, including promotions, to get your content in front of new followers and their friends. Spending even a modest amount of $50 per month will help you broaden your reach. Our Rallio Local program includes $50 of ad spend in your monthly budget, which our Social Strategists allocate toward different posts throughout the month.

If you can budget for ad spend but don’t want to have to think about how to spend it, our Rallio Local program could be a good fit for you.

So I can set it and forget it, right?

Sorry, no. You still need to be engaged and listening on social media.

As Social Media Today puts it, “It’s possible to have thousands of followers who never read your posts or click on your links. The key is to build a thriving online community of your ideal fans, the ones who’ll actively engage with your content, share it with their networks, and ultimately, become paying customers. It takes work to establish such, but that effort can pay off, big time.”

Just like in the real world, you must follow up with customers and prospects. You have to put in effort to retain existing customers (or followers, on social media). So even when you publish a local social media post and advertise it, your work is not done.

If you’ve done the steps we recommend — post local social media and boost your content — your posts should start to get some good engagement. That means people will be commenting on your posts, asking questions and maybe submitting online reviews.

The way you handle those engagements will dictate your ability to:

Keep the followers you have
Obtain new followers
Maintain stellar customer service
Build brand awareness
Practice reputation management

You’ll want to either have a dedicated social media manager on staff, or outsource the work to an agency like Rallio. The nominal expenses you incur from in-house or outsourced social media management is nothing compared to the costs of losing followers (who can become leads, who can become sales, if you move them through the social media marketing funnel).

How can local social media help during the pandemic — or during any kind of business interruption?

We’ve discussed before that the COVID-19 crisis has presented both challenges and opportunities for businesses. The challenge is obviously that many businesses have had to close or adjust their usual course of business due to the pandemic. The opportunity lies in local social media.

As more and more people are going online for everything from online shopping to ordering food or finding social interaction, local social media has proved to be more important than ever. Consider the many ways you can take advantage of local social media right now:

Offering virtual classes and events
Communicating the ways people can continue shopping with you, such as curbside pickup, free delivery, and safe in-store shopping experiences
Entertaining your followers if they’re stuck at home
Letting your followers know if you have adjusted your hours of operation (see Why You Need Your Social Media Company to Do Directory Listings, Too)
Responding to customer service inquiries that may happen on your social media posts, via online reviews or through direct messages on social media

Pandemic or no pandemic, many of the new practices you’ve implemented are worth keeping. Many businesses have discovered a new kind of business continuity planning through social media — one they might not have had before.

In effect, social media can help you quickly pivot in the event of not only health crises, but also any type of emergency or disaster.

How’s that for a silver lining?

If you have more questions about local social media, we’re always happy to help. Head over to rallio.com to explore our solutions or contact us today.

Tags franchise social media, social media marketing

Social

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

Post author By Rallio
Post date August 18, 2020

Video content is bigger than ever — and the trend is only getting more popular. Yet not everyone can come up with video content ideas at the drop of a hat. Can you relate?

According to Social Media Today, 66% of people prefer short videos of products or services. In addition, 85% of businesses use video marketing. If you’re not already employing video content ideas in your business, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with your audience.

Plus, you have so many different quick and easy options for sharing video content, there’s no reason not to use this format. In addition to simply filming something from your smartphone and posting it to social media, you can create live videos. And, now you have Instagram Reels — Instagram’s answer to TikTok — to create short-form video content.

Never fear if you’re feeling stumped in the video content ideas department. We’ve got seven video content ideas below to help you get started. Repeat these ideas using different content, and you’ll never run out of video content ideas again.

Learn more: How to Improve Your Social Video Content: 10 Tips From the Pros

Idea #1: Explain How to Do Something

What is something your customers are always asking about? What are some ways to use your products that customers might not be aware of? Think about the things you could potentially teach to your audience. Then get the camera rolling!

Sometimes, it seems counterintuitive to “give away the secrets,” so to speak. If you’re a cleaning business, for instance, why would you want to tell your customers how to clean their stovetop? Don’t you want them to hire you instead?

Yes, the ultimate goal is for your followers to become customers. However, social media shouldn’t be viewed simply as a sales platform. The majority of your time on social media should be spent building rapport with your audience, not trying to make a sale.

So when you share a secret with them or teach them how to do something, you’re building trust and confidence. You telling them how to clean their stove isn’t going to prevent them from ultimately hiring you, if that’s what they’re looking to do.

People don’t hire a cleaning business because they can’t figure out how to clean — and likewise, they don’t not hire one just because they saw a short “how to” video on Facebook. If and when they hire, it’s because they don’t want to clean their house themselves — and they’ve found a company they believe they can trust to get the job done. That could be you!

https://www.facebook.com/TutorDoctorSugarLandSouth/posts/676330072958961

Idea #2: Describe a Popular Product or Service You Offer

As a business owner, you likely use the products or services you offer. Your employees probably do, too. What are some of your personal favorites and why? Tell your followers all about them!

This is the equivalent of the “staff picks” wall you might see in a bookstore or music store. You might not know these people personally, but don’t you feel more confident buying a book that someone else has recommended?

You can string together these “staff picks” into one video or create a series of videos to share over time. Invite user engagement by asking your followers to share their own favorites in the comments.

For example: Cartridge World Vestavia Hills explains popular back-to-school printer options

Idea #3: Share a Customer Testimonial

Along the same lines, you can ask your customers to share about their positive experiences with your company. Have you received any notes or words of appreciation from your customers, or online reviews from customers you know? How about sharing them in a quick video?

If you have a physical location with customers who are “regulars,” you can simply ask them if they’d be willing to be filmed. You can also reach out to customers directly and invite them to submit a video testimonial themselves.

Like that “staff picks” wall we mentioned above, a “customer pick” is another great way to build trust and confidence in your brand.

https://www.facebook.com/psporlando/posts/182003340107855

Idea #4: Share the Personal Side of Your Business

Especially right now during the pandemic, many of us are spending more time at home, taking up new hobbies and finding different ways to stay busy. Show your followers some of the ways you’re making the best of these strange times!

When you share a video of you gardening, baking, playing with your kids or pets, or working on a home-improvement project, you show the human side of your business. You’re not all about making money and selling things. You have a real life, and your followers can relate to you.

After all, who hasn’t tried baking a banana bread or converting their garage into a gym these past few months? These posts will hit home with the “we’re all in this together” crowd.

Idea #5: Film a Quick Clip of Something Bigger

Maybe you have a fitness business and you’re doing online classes. Or you’re a tutor offering virtual lessons. Try sharing a short clip from one of your full videos to give your followers a taste of what to expect.

If you continue sharing these clips, in time your audience will start gravitating to them. Invite your audience to turn on notifications for your posts so they get alerted when you drop a new video!

Again, you’re not giving away the entire farm. You’re building trust and rapport. You’re increasing the likelihood of followers converting into customers without going in for the “hard sell.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEANKtygXdg/

Idea #6: Share a Testimonial of Your Own

Do you have any favorite local businesses you can shout-out? Film a video testimonial of your go-to restaurants, markets, boutiques or service businesses.

When you post the video, be sure to tag the business in the post. Doing so increases the likelihood of them sharing the testimonial to their own audiences. And just like that, you increase your reach!

You can also invite engagement from your audience by asking them to drop a comment in the caption tagging their favorite businesses. You’d be surprised how much traction you can get from a post when you show some love to a fellow business owner!

Idea #7: Go Back in Time

Do you have any videos from when you first started your business? Or any other videos that take a page out of history? Share them with your followers for a “Throwback Thursday”!

People enjoy seeing what your business was like when you were first getting started. Caption your video with a few fun facts about your startup days. Ask your followers if they remember what the times were like back when you opened your doors.

Maybe they remember when you first opened, or they’ve lived in your town since before you got started. They can share about their own experiences from “back in the day.”

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/videos/1681365468683285/

Video Content Ideas Don’t Have to Be Complicated

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of coming up with video content ideas, pause and take a breath. Think about the videos you like to watch on social media. How can you mimic what others have done successfully?

As you get started, keep the following quick tips in mind to improve the quality of your videos:

Record videos in landscape orientation, not portrait.
Position yourself in a quiet space with no background noise, including TV, music, voices or even a noisy appliance.
Make sure that the light is shining in front of you, not behind. Filming while facing a window usually does the trick.
Speak slowly so you’re easy to understand.
Make sure your front-facing camera is clean!
Keep your video fairly short for social media. A minute or less is ideal for quick clips.

Each week at Rallio, we send many of our clients video content ideas and other social media ideas to help them keep their pages fresh. Get in touch with us via rallio.com if you could use some help filling up an idea bank of your own.

Learn more: 6 Ways to Create Memorable Content for Your Business

Tags social media marketing