Category: Social

Labor Shortages Got You Down? Use Technology to Help With Recruiting Top Talent

Post author By Rallio
Post date October 25, 2021

In these strange and unpredictable times, recruiting employees has become a job all on its own. “Help Wanted” signs in store windows, understaffed checkout counters and restaurants, and unfulfilled job vacancies are stark reminders that we haven’t quite reached the other side of the pandemic.

As of July 2021, there were nearly 11 million job vacancies in the United States. That number decreased somewhat at the end of August, to 10.4 million, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In what the Washington Post calls an “acute staffing shortage,” restaurants, leisure and hospitality are among the hardest-hit sectors. Both franchises and independent businesses alike are struggling to fill positions left vacant by workers who have moved on to new opportunities or are otherwise choosing not to reenter the workforce.

Whatever the reason for the labor shortages, it’s become clear that a “Help Wanted” sign isn’t going to cut it. If you’ve found yourself among the many businesses experiencing recruiting woes, you’ll want to begin implementing the following tips as soon as possible. With the help of technology, you can set yourself apart as an employer of choice and start down the road to recovery.

The Current Situation

QSR magazine reports that hiring competition is fierce for operators. Oftentimes, there may be hundreds, if not thousands, of job openings in one geographic area alone. “This opposite supply and demand curve has made it critical for HR teams to look beyond traditional hiring tactics and job boards when it comes to fulfilling exact roles in each brand location,” says QSR.

Here’s where technology, especially social media, can work to your advantage. In the same way that social media can help to attract local customers, it can be leveraged to find ideal local job candidates. QSR reports that as much as 84% of recruiters use social media to find qualified employees, making social media an invaluable tool for targeting and reaching local recruits.

Hype Up Employee Culture With Local Content

If you want to attract top talent, your social media pages should be filled with posts that illustrate your company culture. Photos and videos of team members who actually look like they enjoy working for you are essential. These real-life, authentic posts allow you to:

Convey the type of work environment that new employees can expect. Are you all about team celebrations? Bringing pets to work? Hosting Halloween costume and pumpkin-carving contests? Providing free snacks and drinks? Whatever makes your company special should be captured on film and plastered all over your social media profiles.
Generate social proof that not only makes your company look like a fun place to work, but also a great place for customers to spend their money. People want to do business with (and work for) companies that care about their employees more than they care about profits.
Build your follower count and engagement. People are more likely to engage with photos and videos that feature real people, places and things rather than generic stock imagery.

Local content is one of the most crucial elements of an employee recruiting strategy. The more often you post this content, the more authentic and inviting you become, and the more you solidify your brand vision in the eyes of job candidates.

Boost Your Top-Performing Posts

Getting hyper-local content posted on your pages is just one part of attracting top talent. In order for people to see your posts, it’s important to boost top-performing content, including those that promote company culture.

Although boosted posts do not offer the same level of customization as Facebook ads created in Ads Manager, they still help to increase visibility, engagement and follower count. To understand the difference between boosted posts and Facebook ads, read this article.

Boosting a post is as simple as choosing a piece of hyper-local content, clicking the boost button, and then choosing your budget and audience. One strategy we’ve seen work well recruiting-wise is creating job posts for specific roles from a location’s page and then boosting the post.

As you select your target audience, you can target candidates for specific roles near the location. These candidates will then see open roles while getting a feel for your work environment. Here are a few examples of campaigns we’ve run:

One residential cleaning franchisee reached nearly 8,000 people and had over 360 engagements on a boosted post that included a link to apply for a housecleaner position.
A dog grooming franchisee reached over 2,500 people and had over 380 engagements on a boosted post seeking experienced groomers.
A cargo and freight company reached nearly 1,200 people and had 47 post clicks on a boosted post seeking logistics coordinators and sales representatives.
A damage restoration company franchisee reached 1,840 people and had 164 engagements on a boosted post seeking new hires for several positions. The same franchisee has run multiple recruiting campaigns with success.

Be Responsive

As you’re boosting posts, you’re likely to get more engagement, including comments, likes, shares, messages and reviews. Be responsive to every engagement, and reply to your messages and feedback promptly.

With job applicants, be sure to acknowledge their application and get back to promising candidates within 24 hours if possible. In this current climate, you don’t want to leave people hanging or they might move on.

You can also use Facebook’s built-in Messenger tools to automate responses to FAQ and even pre-screen candidates with important questions.

Turn Employees Into Advocates

At the end of the day, it’s up to you as the business owner to set the tone for your work environment and company culture. Lead by example, and reward your employees for a job well-done. A little recognition and occasional incentives go a long way toward employee retention and loyalty. In turn, your employees will be more likely to champion your brand on social media. Here are some ways to encourage employee advocacy:

Feature your employees on social media to tell their stories and highlight their achievements, interests and hobbies. Recognize them as the rockstars that they are.
Reward your employees. They are choosing to spend a majority of their time working for you. Celebrate their successes in any way you can, whether that means higher wages, promotions, recognition for employees of the month, incentives such as gift cards or special outings, or other benefits (McDonald’s franchisees are offering higher hourly wages, paid time off, backup child care and tuition payments, reports CNBC).
Use social media to brag about your employees and mention any examples of how they are taking advantage of special benefits. Do you offer paid time off for volunteering, for instance? Ask employees to take photos when they volunteer and post them on social media (or send to you for posting; our mobile app helps with this process. More on that below.).
Roll up your sleeves and stand proudly alongside your employees. Nothing boosts morale more than seeing the boss willing to get in the trenches and support their team — especially when you’re short-staffed. Consider the example of Raising Cane’s, where 50% of the corporate team is showing up to work inside short-handed stores and recruit talent amid the labor shortage — proving that nobody is above being a fry cook or a cashier.

How Rallio Can Help With Recruiting

Recruiting and retaining employees can sound like a monumental task, especially when you’re busy running your business and navigating staff shortages. However, Rallio has several tools available to streamline the process and manage some of the heavy lifting.

Here’s how Rallio can help:

Rallio Dashboard — Our all-in-one dashboard and mobile app put all your social profiles in one place for easy scheduling, time savings, analytics, and leaderboard stats across locations and employee logins. Pull everything into one central location instead of having to log in to multiple platforms.
Rallio Local — Our Local division automates the process of getting content on your pages, adding captions, boosting content for more visibility, and responding to comments, messages and online reviews (both positive and negative).
Rallio Activate — Our employee advocacy tools allow you to activate employees as brand ambassadors. They get limited employee logins to our mobile app so they can upload photos and post about your brand. You can even reward top performers and see leaderboard stats.
Revv — Our reputation accelerator can tie in directly to your POS system and help you get more positive reviews. We’ll send a simple survey via text to customers after a purchase so they can leave a review or get help with any customer service issues. The more positive public reviews you have, the more you become an employer of choice for people checking out your brand before they apply for a job.

In the same way our technologies help businesses increase their brand awareness, leads and sales, they can help you with recruiting the best employees. Contact us at sales@rallio.com or visit rallio.com for help finding the right recruiting solutions for your needs.

Rallio

Rallio | Powered by Ignite Visibility is a powerful SaaS platform designed to help multi-location and franchise brands streamline their social media, online reputation, and directory listings management. With AI-driven content creation, scheduling, and analytics, Rallio ensures brand consistency while allowing localized engagement. The platform also features employee advocacy tools, review generation, and seamless integration with social ecosystems, making it the ideal solution for brands looking to optimize their digital presence across multiple locations.

Tags social media company

Social

4 Big Reasons You Need Localized Social Media Content

Post author By Rallio
Post date October 13, 2021

Social media is the first and last impression your customers will see of your brand on the web. You need to stand out from the competition and post localized social media content that is engaging and speaks to your audience.

There are several benefits of posting localized social media content on your profiles. For one, it lets people know that you understand their needs and interests — and that there are real humans behind the scenes. Because social media is a fast-moving platform, it pays to have content that’s relevant and tailored just for your audience’s needs.

Not convinced yet? Here are 7 reasons you should ditch generic posts and create localized social media content for your business’ social profiles.

#1: Localized Social Media Content Shows You’re Invested in Your Community

Posting localized social media content that includes real photos and videos of your team, your location and your community allows you to showcase your brand’s personality. When people see your content, they’re more likely to engage with it if it comes across as authentic. There’s no better way to illustrate your authenticity than with real-life snapshots of a day in the life, team celebrations, birthday parties, pet pictures, customer testimonials and community events.

Consider how you personally interact with posts on social media. Would you rather like and comment on a post that’s entertaining, inspiring or informative — or a post that includes a stock photo and a generic caption? When you post locally relevant content to social media, it has the effect of building relationships with locals 1-on-1. This can be beneficial for business because it makes local communities feel “known” and understood.

#2: Localized Social Media Content Differentiates You From the Parent Company

Most franchisors have social media marketing assets that they share with franchisees, and there’s a place for this branded content. After all, as a franchisee, you joined a brand for the name recognition, processes and systems. So why not use the brand name to your advantage?

While it makes sense to make use of your parent company’s marketing tools, it’s important that you don’t rely exclusively on them. When you personalize your pages with real photos and videos from your location, you send a message to your followers that you’ll treat them as individuals, not just another follower on your page.

#3: Localized Social Media Content Generates More Opportunities

By posting localized social media content and attracting more likes, comments and shares, you create opportunities for more leads and customers. If a follower comments on your post, you can interact directly with that person, showing you’re interested and engaged with your community.

At times, your followers may have questions that they leave within the comments section or through a direct message. Or they might even leave a review about your business on a review platform. When you stay engaged and alert to what customers are saying about you, you have an opportunity to make that customer happy. You also show prospective customers who are checking out your business online that you care about your customers.

#4 You Create Loyal Customers

According to Salesforce Research reported by Hubspot, 89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience. When you consider that many people turn to social media for customer support issues, you can better understand why you need to stay on top of your local social media page.

“Despite social media’s role as a place to connect with friends and coworkers, many businesses and consumers are using it to connect as well,” notes Help Scout. “Functionality like Facebook and Instagram messaging have made it easy for users to connect directly with brands in a more meaningful and authentic way than they used to. Because of that, many companies are striving to create more presence in those environments.”

If a customer were to comment on a post or reach out via Messenger and other forms of direct messaging, they expect a speedy response. When you make a habit of checking your engagements, posting regularly and monitoring mentions of your brand, you’ll be able to follow up on any customer service issues promptly.

Localized Social Media Content + Consistency Are Key

As you may know, there is plenty of competition out there for brands like yours. Localized social media content, posted at least three or four times a week, will give you the consistent online presence you need to stand out from the crowd. Over time and with the addition of ad spend, you’ll build a relationship with your customers — and you might even enjoy the process of getting to know them. If you need more help creating that localized presence and automating the entire process, reach out to us at rallio.com.

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

–Jeff Bezos

Rallio

Tags social media marketing

Social Uncategorized

Case Study: Why Localized Social Media Matters

Post author By Rallio
Post date October 7, 2021

As a franchisee, you buy into a system that includes brand recognition and certain business processes. Instead of starting from scratch, you can lean on the corporate brand to an extent as you get up and running. There are, however, certain things you shouldn’t rely on completely — including localized social media marketing.

It’s true that most parent brands provide assistance with social media at varying levels. Some brands supply branded content and social media guidelines. Others leave it to their franchisees to create a social media presence. But in all cases, it’s important to have localized social media, and that’s something that can’t come from the corporate office.

By localized social media, we’re referring to social media posts and advertising that takes place on a franchisee’s local page. So you have a franchisor with a national page representing the brand, and individual pages representing their specific locations. Ideally, there’s a balance between the two — but in reality, that localized presence often falls short.

Challenge

Franchisees are faced with no time and, often, no desire to post on social media. At Rallio, we see franchisees make the mistake of ignoring their local social media pages.

These franchisees may have corporate-syndicated content on their pages — a process that’s streamlined for them through our technology platform — but they aren’t building a localized presence through real-life images, videos, special offers, recruitment posts and advertising.

They are therefore missing out on opportunities to connect with their local communities, respond to customer reviews and inquiries, build relationships with their followers, attract new talent, and give people a reason to visit their location or pay for their service.

Essentially, they are invisible on social media because not only do they lack localized social media, but they also aren’t doing any advertising, an essential component of social media marketing success.

Solution

Our Rallio Local division automates the process of posting locally, gathering assets via uploads from team members, and boosting posts for greater visibility. Franchisees who want extra help are paired with a dedicated Strategist who connects one-on-one with owners.

Social media posting, reputation management, directory listings and employee advocacy are wrapped up into one platform to serve corporate and franchised locations alike. We’ve seen many of our brands go from zero following and engagement to month-over-month gains.

Results

The results below provide an idea of the results franchisees experience by posting localized content with our help. The goal is to flood their pages with hyper-local content that shows the personality behind the location.

With some franchisors that we work with, franchisees have a choice of whether to opt in to our Rallio Local program. Others choose to implement a systemwide rollout of Rallio Local.

We have found that Rallio Local locations consistently outperform non-Rallio Local locations month over month in terms of followers and engagement.

Over a six-month time frame from March to September 2021, one spice and tea brand had a 58% increase in the number of average daily engagements and a 66% average following growth.
Over the same six-month time frame, a laboratory services franchise had a 225% increase in the number of average daily engagements and a whopping 7,229% average following growth.
With a pet supply franchise, we have an agreement with corporate to publish localized content to all franchisees’ pages. During the pandemic, the localized content combined with boosted posts has helped franchisees to introduce new services, such as curbside pickup and delivery, and build awareness of how the franchise is serving its communities. As a result, in 2020, over $1.7 million in purchase conversions was generated brand-wide, thanks to localized social media.

Conclusion: Localized Social Media Makes a Greater Impact

Every brand will experience different results of their social media marketing efforts, depending on factors like franchisee buy-in and contributions to their localized social media as well as ad spend budget. However, one thing remains consistent: hyper-local content is more engaging, entertaining and likely to connect with audiences than mass-syndicated content.

To learn more about how localized social media can help you, go to https://www.ralliolocal.co/ and explore our various packages.

Rallio

Tags local social media

Social

3 Simple Ways to Increase Your Exposure Online

Post author By Rallio
Post date September 20, 2021

Are you looking to increase your exposure online? With so many different types of media competing for your audience’s attention, standing out can feel challenging — but it’s not impossible.

Rather than try to implement every idea under the sun as far as social media marketing goes, try a few of the simple ideas below. Set aside an hour a day for your marketing efforts, and little by little, you’ll be able to make progress.

Get Active on Social Media

If you haven’t already, start by setting up social media profiles on the major platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Each platform is slightly different in terms of how content is presented and the types of tools available. But don’t worry about that too much right now. Just start with the basics of a profile picture, cover photo, bio, and information about your business such as website and contact information.

Then, start posting content! Does that sound scary? It shouldn’t. All it takes is a smartphone with a camera to get started.

You can snap photos of people, customers who wish to provide testimonials, fur babies who visit your location or belong to your team, community events, and other real-life people and places. These types of authentic photos will help you connect with your audience and provoke conversations online. (Nobody can scroll past a cute puppy, right?)

See our article 15 Social Media Content Ideas for Small Businesses for more ideas of what to post on social media.

Hold a Contest

Running a contest on social media can help you not only grow your following, but also build brand awareness while rewarding your loyal followers.

Some of the possible goals you might have in running a contest on social media could include:

More views of your posts. Ask people to like and comment on your contest posts, so that more people will see them. Add a boost to these posts for even more visibility.
Brand awareness. As more people see your content, they’ll become more aware of who you are and what you have to offer. Partner with complementary businesses and influencers to be introduced to their followers, too.
Email list growth. In addition to asking for engagements on your social contest posts, you can also request entry via name and email address. (Tell your followers this is an optional step that earns them an extra entry, however — otherwise, you risk losing people who don’t want to provide an email address.)
Buzz around your brand. With an exciting offer, you’ll generate buzz and increase the chances of gaining new followers.

Make sure you have a good giveaway to offer; consider partnering with a complementary brand to award a unique product or service. This way, it doesn’t cost you much to increase your exposure online, and the other brand can help spread awareness, too.

See our article 5 Easy Steps to Run a Successful Social Media Contest for specifics on running a social media contest.

Engage in Conversations

Visit Facebook and LinkedIn groups related to your brand, and get involved in conversations to help increase your exposure online. Respond to questions that people post. Establish yourself as an expert on a topic, and drop subtle hints about your own brand.

Subtle is the key word here. Don’t use these groups as a way to pitch your products or services unless someone specifically asks a related question.

For example, if there’s a question about the best tires for a certain type of truck, and you own a tire shop, it would be natural for you to provide your recommendation and mention that you have a special going on these tires.

If someone asks for a referral to a gardener and you’re a housecleaner, this is not a natural place for you to mention your housecleaning services. However, if you know of a gardener through your business connections, you can tag them in your reply. By mentioning another business, you build trust with the audience. The gardener might be inclined to mention your services, too, if the need arises for a housecleaner.

We Can Help Increase Your Exposure Online

It might take a little effort to increase your exposure online, but it doesn’t have to be labor-intensive. By putting in a little effort consistently, you can gradually reach more of your intended audience, grow your brand, and eventually let your followers do some of the work through word-of-mouth referrals.

Do you need some help coming up with ideas of ways to increase your exposure online? Rather have us do the heavy lifting for you and let our technology automate the entire process? Visit rallio.com to request a demo or contact us for more information.

Rallio

Tags social media marketing

Social

Free Tools to Help You Create Social Media Posts From Scratch

Post author By Rallio
Post date August 27, 2021

If you want to create social media posts from scratch, you may quickly discover there are a lot of moving parts. From coming up with content ideas and capturing great photos to creating graphics and videos, there are several steps involved with getting from concept to finished product.

Rather than reinvent the wheel every time you post, however, you can come up with a set of posts that are easily editable from week to week. Once you have the idea, you can swap out photos, graphics, video content and captions to make your posts fresh each time.

To create social media posts from scratch, try some of the free resources we’ve rounded up below. As you get familiar with these tools, they’ll become second nature to you. And before long, you’ll be cranking out social media posts like it’s your full-time gig.

Free Imagery

When we say free imagery, that can mean a few different things. First and foremost, we recommend getting authentic when you create social media posts from scratch — meaning, post real photos of real people doing real things.

What it does not mean is searching the internet for the image you have in mind and then snagging the first image you see. If you use someone else’s photo without permission from the photographer or the publisher, you could be in violation of the copyright on that photo.

When you use your own photos, you avoid this problem altogether. However, there may be times when you need a stock photo for some reason — in an ad, for example, or for a visual representation of a concept you’re discussing in the caption.

If you need stock photos, use websites that offer royalty-free images, often free of charge. Here are a few of our favorites:

Unsplash and Pexels — Search for images and download them in your desired size.
Google Images — Search for images in Google and then filter your search by Images and by Creative Commons. Creative Commons photos typically have public-domain licenses, but double check the fine print if you want to use the photo in any kind of commercial capacity.

Be sure to take note of each platform’s specific requirements for downloading images, such as crediting the original source.

Free Videos

The same principle applies to videos as with photos: The more original video content you post, the better. And again, don’t ever take someone else’s video and claim it as your own.

Pull out your phone and film a day in the life of your store manager. Or the dog that frequents your shop with his human. Or a how-to video explaining how to use your newest product. Or a customer testimonial.

You get the idea: Video content should be authentic and real.

Again, though, there may be times when you want to share a video that someone else created. Say, for example, you find an inspirational video that you think will resonate with your audience.

In this case, you can simply share a link to the YouTube video and add your own caption. This type of post works for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If the video is on Instagram, simply share the video to your Stories or Reels. Instagram will automatically include the original source of the video, so you won’t have to add any additional text — unless you want to layer a quick comment or GIF on top of the video.

Free Graphic Design Tools

Need to create a quick graphic or quote post? We love Canva.com, a robust free option that’s simple, intuitive, and user-friendly even for newbies.

From the home page, choose a post type from the social media templates — you’ll see options for Facebook and Instagram posts, for example, because each platform has different image size requirements. You can also create social media posts from scratch, but the templates make things quick and easy.

Once you find a template you like, you can play around with fonts, colors, icons, photos, and other design elements. If you like, upload your logo and layer it on top of the design to help brand your image wherever it’s posted. (Side note: You can create a logo in Canva, too!)

Rather Not Create Social Media Posts From Scratch? Rallio Can Help

We know how time-consuming it can be to create social media posts from scratch. All the free tools in the world won’t get your time back if you have to spend hours researching ideas, creating designs, filming content, and posting on different platforms.

At Rallio, we take away a lot of the pain points people experience when they create social media posts from scratch. Our technology gives you a single dashboard where you can create and publish to multiple platforms. You’ll also be able to view and reply to comments, direct messages and online reviews.

In addition, we have a team of Social Strategists who help our clients maximize their time and create social media posts that are engaging.

To learn more about how we work with franchises and small-business owners, head over to rallio.com and explore our different options.

Rallio

Tags social media content

Reputation Social

Top 4 Social Media Trends for 2022

Post author By Rallio
Post date August 26, 2021

It’s hard to believe, but the new year isn’t too far away. Now is the time to look at the top social media trends we can expect to see in 2022. A good place to start is by looking back at the blur of a year we’ve had thus far.

Look to the Past to Predict the Top Social Media Trends

When the pandemic first hit, businesses were forced to pivot in the face of lockdowns, local mandates, and an overall seismic shift to business as usual. Franchisees and other small-business owners that relied on a physical presence, as opposed to online operations, quickly discovered they had to implement major changes in order to survive and continue thriving.

Those that refused to shift, or that perhaps had no means to implement rapid changes, may have learned hard lessons about business continuity in the face of a crisis. Some have had to close their doors permanently. Some are still struggling to get back to pre-pandemic revenue levels. Still others have been able to make positive changes that are now contributing to their bottom line.

With the pandemic still ongoing, it’s important to stay agile. Take a look at the top social media trends you can expect to see in 2022 and beyond, and continue your efforts to prepare for any unexpected twists and turns.

#1: Digital Options Will Continue to Grow

Businesses that have implemented curbside and delivery pickup options were able to continue operating even if in-store traffic dipped. Although these contactless services might have thwarted efforts to attract impulse purchases in store aisles and at the checkout, they’ve also created new lines of business.

Think of it this way: If your customer wants to place an order from your sandwich shop, they expect they’ll be able to place an order online or through an app. They want a seamless pickup or delivery experience. They don’t necessarily care about the extra bag of chips at the cash wrap.

If they can’t order how they want to order, they’ll move on to the next sandwich shop. You’ll have lost a sale while your competitor gained a customer.

The takeaway: Give customers what they want through digital ordering. And promote your easy ordering options on social media. Not only will you better serve your current customers, but you’ll most likely gain new ones, too.

Rallio product: Post Creative. If posting is falling to the bottom of your priority list, leave the weekly posting to a Rallio professional. A Rallio social media professional will create up to four unique posts per week for your social pages.

#2: Your Online Reputation Is Key

Along with digital ordering options, people are more inclined to leave online reviews when they have either a positive or negative experience. Expect that trend to continue ramping up in 2022.

In addition to online reviews, usage of social media as a customer service channel will continue to grow. Customers and followers might interact with your page via comments and direct messages, and you need to reply to them all. When you respond to customer feedback, you show you’re listening and care about what your audience needs.

Without that interaction, customer comments and messages go into a black hole, leaving them feeling neglected — maybe even inclined to complain about you elsewhere online.

The takeaway: Be in the know about what your customers are saying. Even positive comments need a response, but especially negative comments require your immediate attention.

Rallio product: Online Reputation Bundle. A Rallio social media expert will ensure all of your online reviews on Facebook, Google and Yelp are responded to within 24 business hours. Plus, a Rallio social media expert will ensure all your Facebook and Instagram comments and messages are engaged with within 24 business hours.

#3: Video Remains Popular

Even though in-person experiences are starting to return, there’s still an opportunity to go online with your events, classes, tours, how-to explainers, and other video and live content. With virtual formats, you can connect with audiences just about anywhere while also catching the attention of social media users who gravitate to videos as they’re scrolling.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram make it easy with Stores, Reels and live streaming. Even if your business is mainly brick-and-mortar, these videos can help to draw in your online visitors and attract people to your location.

You don’t have to be a videographer to get into video. Take out your phone and film a 30-second video of you giving a tour of your shop, or a how-to video for your homemade cinnamon rolls, or a series of workouts for your personal training business. Boost the high-performing posts with a few ad dollars, and improve your reach.

The takeaway: Video is here to stay, and you need to get on board.

Rallio Product: Premium Bundle. With this bundle, your entire social media marketing efforts will be handled by a Rallio Social Strategist, including weekly boosting.

#4: Advocacy Is More Important Than Ever

New Apple privacy changes are making it harder to track customers across apps and gain insights from third-party data. One way to combat the changes is by looking toward other social media marketing methods that don’t rely on tracking.

Employee advocacy is one such method. With advocacy, your employees do some of the work to promote your brand by either posting your branded content, or simply posting about your business, on their own pages.

People are more likely to trust the recommendation of a third party over the brand itself, meaning there’s a huge opportunity to integrate advocacy and influencers into your strategy.

Try spotlighting employees on social media and engaging them in the process of posting. Provide brand-approved content, and encourage them to share their own photos and videos about your business. You can also work with micro-influencers who have a smaller following and will share about your brand on their channels.

The takeaway: Activate your employees as your best brand ambassadors.

Rallio product: Rallio Activate. Leverage the power of your employees to reach your customers like never before. With Rallio Activate, your employees become your built-in brand ambassadors. Create reward programs to your exact specifications, and incentivize your workforce to submit their own images and videos for brand content or share your message across their own pages.

We’ll continue to update this page as we see more trends unfold closer to 2022. For now, however, implement the strategies above — and reach out to us for help getting it all done.

Rallio

Tags social media management tools

Social

Build Your Perfect Social Media Program With Rallio A-La-Carte

Post author By Rallio
Post date August 2, 2021

Our new a-la-carte services menu is making it easy for business owners to select the exact social media program they need to grow their online presence. With no annual contract, month-to-month billing and a large menu of a-la-carte options, you can shop for many different services and only buy the ones you need.

It’s also easy to upgrade or change packages at any time as your needs change. It’s no wonder we’re the social media platform of choice for hundreds of business owners in a variety of industries.

We have a handy roundup of all our a-la-carte services in this post, and we recommend giving it a read to start exploring your options. Then, go shopping and make it an “add to cart” kind of a day!

Finally, for some comic relief, grab some popcorn and watch our a-la-carte video series. Or, hey, just order something off our a-la-carte menu and leave the cooking to us.

Little Pig

If you’re a pig who builds things, Rallio Local A-La-Carte will let you focus on doing the things you enjoy while leaving the heavy lifting to us. Plus, it’s affordable for any size budget — for example, just $25 a month to have someone take care of your reviews for you.

As Seen on TV: Rallio Local A-La-Carte

Having trouble with your social media content? No time to respond to reviews? Are you just over the whole idea of social media? Luckily for you, Rallio Local A-La-Carte has a program for you. Roscoe explains.

Rallio Roadhouse

Think you could use a dedicated strategist who will analyze your profiles every month and strategize with you? Or how about weekly boosting to get more of your popular content seen?

As we mention here, “By working with a Strategist, you’ll have unlimited direct access to their genius mind. Your Strategist will analyze your social media profiles in their current state and develop a monthly strategy to help you maximize your results using goals and benchmarks you will decide upon together.”

And with boosting, “Rallio’s weekly boosting service guarantees you’ll get the eyes you need on your best and most important posts. Each week, a trained Rallio social media professional will place some of your monthly ad dollars on one of your recent top-performing posts. If you want something specific boosted or you want to up your budget, Rallio can accommodate those requests.”

Say Oui to Rallio Local A-La-Carte

Bonjour and Bienvenue to Le Chateau Rallio, where we have everything you need to build your perfect social media program. Choose from one of our many a-la-carte options, and say au revoir to your social media woes.

What’s the Perfect Social Media Program for You?

There is no one size fits all when it comes to determining the best social media program. What works for one business won’t necessarily work for all.

We designed our Rallio Local A-La-Carte program to give you the flexibility and control you need to make informed decisions about your social media services. And if something isn’t working for you, we’ll work to get things right until you have the right mix of services specifically for your business.

If you’re not up for buying the entire family meal, Rallio Local a la Carte gives you the exact social media services you need, when you need them. And when your needs change, we make it easy to make the switch.

However, you can also get the family fun pack if you choose, letting you bundle and save. This option works well for anyone who wants to be mostly hands-off with their social media and online reputation.

To get started, visit the links above or reach out to a Rallio Local expert at sales@rallio.com.

Rallio

Tags social media management platform

Social

Top 4 Benefits of Using a Social Media Management Platform

Post author By Rallio
Post date June 30, 2021

Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a life without technology in it. For businesses in particular, it’s essential to make use of technology tools in order to run leaner, smarter and faster. Having a social media management platform to organize all your social media posts, comments, reviews and messages isn’t just a nice thing to have; it’s a necessity.

Still not convinced? If you’re in the camp that’s logging into multiple platforms to manage your social media presence, let’s just say you’re wasting a lot of time — and potentially losing out on business. It’s easy for things to slip through the cracks when you don’t have everything right in front of you in one tidy dashboard.

That’s what Rallio can be for you and your business: a place where you can log in once to our social media management platform and take care of posting, replying to engagements, advertising your business and building an audience. Take a look at the top four benefits of using a social media management platform — specifically, Rallio — and we think you’ll be convinced to make the switch.

Benefit #1: You’ll Have Business Continuity

The pandemic has revealed the need for technology to step in and take over when real-world interactions are not possible. The businesses that were able to pivot and take their businesses online are the ones that have survived and, in many cases, thrived. Those that did not? Well, sadly, many of them didn’t make it.

Consider the case study in which we discuss our client Pet Supplies Plus and their response to the pandemic, with Rallio as their social media management platform: “As more and more people took to social media and platforms like Google My Business to discover their local PSP’s latest operating hours and updates, PSP knew they couldn’t rely on foot traffic alone to connect with their neighbors; they had to entirely alter certain methods of operating their business so they could accommodate their neighbors’ needs while hitting their own numbers. With Rallio’s help, the brand has been able to address these obstacles and even exceed their neighbors’ expectations.”

Benefit #2: You Can Cut the Clutter

Ever feel like you’re on technology overload? We all do. It’s everywhere, and it’s incessant. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by it all unless you have a way to streamline your processes.

With the Rallio social media management platform, you have one central location where all of your brand assets live. You’re able to syndicate, publish or schedule social media content with just a few clicks — whether to a single location or an entire network of locations.

It’s also easy to view analytics, respond to your online reviews and social media engagements, run ad campaigns, and control your brand message. Using one dashboard with a single login lets you cut the clutter and focus on the things that matter most in your business.

Pair our social media management platform with our Rallio Local services, and you can free up your time even more. You have a ton of responsibilities as you’re running a business, yet social media content and reputation management are crucial to your success. Our Rallio Local team will automate the process of creating engaging local content as well as respond to all your social comments and online reviews. How’s that for time management?

Benefit #3: You Have a Way to Activate Employees

If you’re not getting your employees involved with advocating for your business, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to rapidly scale. Digital Marketing Consultant Neil Schaffer cites Nielsen data, where 84% of consumers say they value recommendations from friends and family above all forms of advertising. In addition, 77% of consumers are likely to make a purchase after hearing about it from someone they trust (such as your employees, aka regular people doing regular things).

Toward that end, our Rallio Activate platform allows you to leverage the power of your employees to reach your customers. Turn your employees into your best brand advocates, with built-in reward programs that incentivize your workforce to submit their own images and videos for brand content or share your message across their own pages.

Benefit #4: You Can Easily Update Your Business Listings

Another cool feature of Rallio’s social media management platform? You can easily manage your digital profiles across global business locations. Whether you have a change of hours, or you want an easy way to reach more consumers and promote your brand across social media, traditional search, mobile marketing and voice search, our Business Listings service makes the process simple.

With Business Listings, you can deliver a more engaging customer experience, instantly update your key business content across locations, and control and optimize your data across third-party digital platforms. Take a microscope to the channels you’re using to measure, optimize, and improve your brand-wide discoverability and search rankings.

Choose the Top Social Media Management Platform: Rallio

With digital marketing, businesses have multiple ways to communicate with customers and prospects even when they’re not seeing them face to face. Rallio simplifies the entire process with our award-winning social media management platform and services. Reach out to sales@rallio.com to learn more.

Rallio

Tags social media company, social media management platform, social media management tools, Top Ranked Social Media Company

Social

Now Introducing: Rallio Local a la Carte Social Media Services

Post author By Rallio
Post date June 10, 2021

Sometimes, when you hit the drive-thru, all you want is an order of fries. That’s it. No burger, no pink lemonade, no chocolate chunk cookie. And no matter what that person taking your order says, you’re simply not going to cave in.

You’re going home with your order of fries. That’s it. Nothing else.

Now, at some point, you may decide that your fries weren’t enough. Suddenly a chocolate milkshake sounds like the perfect dipping sauce for your fries. And you find yourself back in the drive-thru again.

Where are we going with all this fry talk, you ask? Compare that order of fries to the social media services you might need. Maybe all you want is someone to create ads for you or post content on your page, and you’re not ready to commit to anything else.

The good news is, our a la carte services menu has you covered. Now, when you sign up for Rallio Local social media services, you can pick and choose from among our many different services and only buy the ones you need.

Later, if you decide you need that proverbial milkshake or want to switch social media services altogether, it’s easy to make the change. We bill month-to-month, with no annual contract — because, like that midnight milkshake craving, how are you going to know what you want or need 12 months from now?

With Rallio Local a la carte, you can revisit our online shopping portal anytime to select the social media services you need. Below, you’ll find a quick rundown of each menu item. Click on the link below each description to start filling up your cart with social media services today.

Post Creative

If posting is falling to the bottom of your priority list, leave the weekly posting to a Rallio professional. A Rallio social media professional will create up to four unique posts per week for your social pages. Both you and your employees will utilize Rallio’s mobile app to snap in-the-moment photos and videos, or even upload previously snapped content from your camera roll. Our team will select only the best content for your pages, craft highly engaging captions, and publish on your behalf. Want to approve the posts before they publish? Our post-approval feature can be turned on at any time.

Click here

Reputation Management

Responding to your online reviews, whether positive or negative, is a digital marketing must. Rallio’s reputation management services will ensure all of your online reviews on Facebook, Google and Yelp are responded to within 24 business hours. No robots here! Rallio’s trained staff of social media professionals will craft custom, unique responses to each of your online reviews in an authentic and professional way. You will also have the ability to approve review responses before going live. with our review response approval system.

Click here

Dedicated Strategist

If you feel like your social media needs a little extra attention, partner with a dedicated Rallio Social Media Strategist. By working with a Strategist, you’ll have unlimited direct access to their genius mind. Your Strategist will analyze your social media profiles in their current state and develop a monthly strategy to help you maximize your results using goals and benchmarks you will decide upon together. From that point, you can take the strategy and run with it yourself or you can opt into Rallio’s Post Creative, Weekly Boosting, Reputation Management and Social Care subscriptions and have your dedicated Social Strategist handle it all for you.

Click here

Social Care

A Rallio social media expert will ensure all your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn comments and messages are engaged with within 24 business hours. Questions, messages and comments that require simple answers able to be found using your website or other information on the web will be published automatically. Some messages and comments might require a little more insight before they receive the proper response. In those cases, a Rallio professional will contact you to ensure you are alerted of the message and even recommend a response for you to publish yourself.

Click here

Weekly Boosting

Rallio’s weekly boosting service guarantees you’ll get the eyes you need on your best and most important posts. Each week, a trained Rallio social media professional will place some of your monthly ad dollars on one of your recent top-performing posts. If you want something specific boosted or you want to up your budget, Rallio can accommodate those requests.

Click here

Following Growth

Growing your following is a major part of increasing your overall brand awareness. This service guarantees that you’ll receive new followers month over month. A trained Rallio social media professional will target people in your actual community, ensuring that you always reach real people with real customer potential. If you want to up your budget, Rallio can accommodate that request.

Click here

SEO Management

Having your business information consistent across the web is important for your online search rankings. A Rallio expert will optimize your listings on over 30 different online directories to make sure that your customers can find you in the places that matter most.

Click here

Advertising Bundle

Bundle Rallio services and save. Includes $70/month in advertising dollars.

Bundle Rallio’s Weekly Boosting service and Following Growth service to guarantee you’ll get the eyes and followers you need on your social pages.

Weekly Boosting: Each week, a trained Rallio social media professional will place some of your monthly ad dollars on one of your recent top-performing posts. This will ensure that your post reaches your desired target audience with a specific call to action, like “Call Now” or “Send Message”.

Following Growth: A trained Rallio social media professional creates a campaign encouraging potential customers in your actual community to follow your business page.

Click here

Online Reputation Bundle

Bundle Rallio services and save.

Bundle Rallio’s Review Responding service and Social Care service to guarantee your customers get a response everywhere, every time.

Review Responding: A Rallio social media expert will ensure all of your online reviews on Facebook, Google and Yelp are responded to within 24 business hours.

Social Care: A Rallio social media expert will ensure all your Facebook and Instagram comments and messages are engaged with within 24 business hours.

Click here

Premium Bundle

Bundle all Rallio services and save.

With this bundle, your entire social media marketing efforts will be handled by a Rallio Social Strategist. This bundle includes:

Click here

Get the Social Media Services You Need With Rallio Local a la Carte

Forget about buying the entire family meal; Rallio Local a la Carte gives you the exact social media services you need, when you need them. And when your needs change, we make it easy to make the switch.

To get started, visit the links above or reach out to a Rallio Local expert at sales@rallio.com.

Learn more: Why Social Media Is Important for Business Marketing

Rallio

Tags social media marketing

Social

Upgrade Your Social Media in 4 Simple Steps

Post author By Rallio
Post date June 4, 2021

The realization that you need to upgrade your social media doesn’t necessarily come naturally. If you’ve had your social media pages on autopilot, posting sporadically or simply relying on the status quo to get by, then you might not recognize there’s a problem brewing.

It’s like when you’ve been driving around your reliable, fuel-conserving car for a number of years. It’s easy to get comfortable with your ride, right? You trust that you’ll be able to pop in your key, turn on the engine, and drive away into the sunset (or the local coffee shop, depending on what strikes your fancy).

Then one day, you turn your key and hear a dreadful gurgle, a noisy clatter, a wheezy cough — or, perhaps worst of all, deafening silence. And you realize it’s time to head to the mechanic or maybe even upgrade your ride altogether.

If the day comes when your social media pages seem to be gurgling, clattering, wheezing, or producing the sound of crickets as your followers fade into the night, then you’ll know that’s the day to upgrade your social media.

Never fear, because the following four simple steps are here to make your life easier. If you complete even one or two of these upgrades, then your social media pages should be humming along again in no time.

Step 1: Create Videos

This step is so easy, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been posting videos all along. Video content is huge on social media, now that anyone with a smartphone has a built-in video camera. All you need to do is pull out your phone and film a short video, upload it to social media with a fun caption, and maybe boost your best video content for better results (more on that later).

Here at Rallio, our video content is professionally scripted and filmed, with carefully crafted story lines and themes. However, you needn’t worry about getting too fancy if you don’t have the resources or time.

A simple how-to video or a quick “hello” to your audience can be enough to breathe life into your social media pages, helping you move beyond just image-based content. You can also use live formats on Facebook and Instagram to build even more excitement and catch your followers in the moment, as they scroll.

We reveal several different video content ideas in our article 7 Proven Video Content Ideas Guaranteed to Liven Up Your Social Media. Read through it to see what types of content might resonate with your audience. Happy filming!

Step 2: Humanize Your Content

Creating video content is a great way to bring an authentic look and feel to your pages, but you can also extend that concept into all your different types of content. Posting real photos of your team, your location and your customers, along with their testimonials, is another way to humanize your content with your audience.

Know what doesn’t work? Bland, stale, “stock photo” imagery of random people doing random things. One of the simplest ways to upgrade your social media is by getting rid of anything that doesn’t authentically represent your business.

Your followers can sniff out a phony from a terabyte away. And on the flip side, they’ll be instantly drawn to your page and your content if you ditch any photos that you, your team or your customers didn’t snap from your own cameras.

Step 3: Crowdsource Your Photos and Videos

By the way, another easy upgrade to your social media is through crowdsourcing content. You don’t have to be the one running around with a camera all day; assign the task to a social media manager, or distribute the task to a few different team members.

You can also get your entire team involved by creating an employee advocacy program. With this program, you can formalize the process of taking and submitting photos, as well as rewarding your team for their contributions.

We go into more detail with our Employee Advocacy Checklist: “Did you know your employees have greater social reach than you do? And that people are more likely to buy something that’s been recommended by a friend or family member? It’s a hard truth, but one worth embracing. The fact is, your employees’ posts are more likely to earn engagements and visibility than content you create and post on your brand page.”

Walk through the steps to set up an in-house program that will help bulk up your social media presence, increase engagement and boost your following.

You can also try our Rallio Activate platform to organize all your assets in one place and incentivize team members. Need a hand creating and scheduling content? Our Rallio Local program gives you even more options to outsource the work.

Step 4: Toss Some Ad Dollars Around

If you’re new to advertising on social media, it can feel overwhelming to know where to begin. However, advertising is a non-negotiable when you’re looking for ways to upgrade your social media. As we write in this article: “Advertising on Facebook and other social media channels helps you to build brand awareness, generate leads and grow your following. [The] winning combination of great content, coupled with ad spend, increases the likelihood of making your content visible in newsfeeds.”

To get started, try boosting your popular content with a small amount of ad dollars. This way, you can push out your content in front of more eyeballs without spending a lot of time or money. In time, you might wish to incorporate additional ads in Messenger, Instagram Stories and other areas in order to increase your visibility even more.

Read through the article referenced above for a complete breakdown on the process. Again, our Rallio Local program can take this task off your plate if you’d rather let our experts get it done for you.

It’s Easy to Upgrade Your Social Media

Maybe you’ve put off upgrading your social media due to time constraints or lack of motivation to get it done. That’s understandable — and that’s why we’ve kept these four steps fairly simple.

As author Mark Victor Hansen says: “Don’t wait until everything is just right. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

The simple actions you take will start to propel you forward into additional actions and successes. This week, commit to just one of the steps above, and before you know it, you might just find yourself making additional upgrades to your social media.

Rallio

Tags social media marketing