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Top Franchise Social Media Marketing Trends for 2020

In case you haven’t noticed, 2019 is rapidly coming to a close — and soon, we’ll be tackling new challenges in 2020. Before we get there, though, it’s important to take some time to reflect on the past year’s successes and identify opportunities for growth in the coming year.

Social media is one of the areas of your business that will always be in flux, requiring continual evaluation to gauge what’s working and what’s not. To help you get set for a new year of growth on your social media pages, keep the following top trends in mind as you create your 2020 marketing plans.

Continue to Focus on Local Content

Local content continues to be critical to reaching your local target market and building an engaged local audience. Today, you’re competing not just with your direct competitors, but also with the barrage of all other types of digital media that users are consuming daily. That means your content needs to give them a reason to stop, read and, hopefully, engage with your content in some way.

Here’s what won’t work: sharing only corporate content. Although corporate content has its place on your page — say, for special promotions and branded pieces — it can’t be the only thing you post. Your local content is meaningful to your local audience and is what will get them to engage with you like the real human you are. 

Personal, real-life photos and videos are what will capture your audience’s attention in 2020. Videos, in particular, are vital to your social media success, especially on mobile devices. The 2017-2022 Cisco Visual Networking Index estimates that by 2022, 79 percent of the world’s mobile data traffic will be from video.

It isn’t just engaging your local audience that matters, either. You have to keep them engaged once you grab their attention. Many users are on “social media overload” and will even voluntarily turn away from social media if they feel:

  • They’re wasting time scrolling through their feeds mindlessly
  • They need a social media or digital “detox”
  • They’re worried about protecting their own data, due to recent privacy concerns on social media platforms
  • They don’t trust the brand/person posting content because they’ve heard about “fake news”

Your local content lends credibility and gives them a reason to stay, with memorable, meaningful glimpses into the people behind the product or service. Like any good relationship, it adds value to their lives rather than causing them to feel like it’s a distraction or something from which they need to “detox” from time to time. 

It’s the difference between them simply clicking like (or even love), versus taking the time to type out a response, share it and insert themselves in a conversation. 

The bottom line: If you’re at a party and there are a few different conversations going on, which one would you rather join in on: the one where one person is talking about himself and everyone else is staring at their phones, or the one where everyone is laughing, telling jokes, sharing stories and having a great time? Remember, a high number of followers doesn’t mean much for a business if those followers aren’t engaging with the brand.

https://www.facebook.com/541879122868760/photos/a.597667927289879/1211714625885203/?type=3&theater

Pay to Play

Along with having great, hyper-local content, you need a healthy ad budget to get seen in the overcrowded social media space. According to Social Media Today, you should consider increasing your social media ad budget in 2020 in order to remain competitive.

“All social media platforms are improving the machine learning behind their advertising platforms. For these machines to learn, they need data, and as social media advertising campaigns run, they collect and aggregate data in search of users who are most likely to convert,” writes author Nathan Mendenhall (@NCMSocial). 

So you’re not just paying for people to see your content — because goodness knows they’re not going to see it if you rely solely on organic reach — but also for that data. Spend less, and you have less data aggregation. Spend more, and you shorten the time to convince and convert leads and generate positive ROI.

The bottom line: Social media platforms have to make money, just like you. Consider paying a little more for advertising so you can start maximizing brand reach with the people you want to reach, right when you want to reach them.

Encourage Employee Advocacy

Expect employee advocacy to play a big role in the success of your social media pages. When your team members post positively about your brand, it generates social proof in a way that you can’t — in other words, people will be more likely to believe it if you’re not the one tooting your own horn.

At Rallio, our clients have had great success with activating employees who are given limited mobile access to their brand’s social media assets. They’re able to post to their own social media pages on behalf of the brand and help spread the word in an authentic way.

As they help with word-of-mouth marketing, employees are helping to build a community around your brand. From that community you may find a number of “microinfluencers” who are willing to share their honest feedback about your products or services. Consumers are more likely to trust the recommendations of their peers over a brand advertisement — even people they don’t know! 

Forbes Communications Council member Haseeb Tariq writes: “Engagement trumps number of followers. An influencer can have 10 million followers who see your product or business promoted, but without enough engagement, your campaign will fall flat. Micro-influencers, on the other hand, might only have a few thousand followers, but they are often more engaged in the influencer’s posts and may not only buy your product but also promote it to their own networks for free.”

Whether it’s an employee or a microinfluencer, the concept of small, engaged communities will drive the growth of your brand and, likely, your sales. You get greater engagement at a lower advertising cost, plus the priceless benefit of gaining greater trust in your brand that’s more likely to result in conversions.

The bottom line: The days of posting content and hoping people swing by to engage with it are coming to a close in many ways. Although you may have some organic growth with good content, it will be quite slow — so slow, in fact, that it won’t keep pace with the number of people who stop following you over time. To stay competitive, you need an army of people continually advocating for your brand — in the form of both employees and microinfluencers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc5CctxgGVa/?utm_source=ig_embed

Serve Your Customers on Social

According to Smart Insights, 28% of consumers have turned to social media to communicate directly with a company over the past year. Although email and phone communication are still popular methods of getting in touch, evidently, people also find social media to be a quick, convenient method of voicing questions or complaints and leaving reviews. 

They expect fast responses, too — think minutes, not hours or days (and no, they don’t care if you’re a small business with limited time to check your social media).

The bottom line: It’s critical that you or someone on your team dedicate time daily to respond to reviews, comments and questions on the major platforms. Whether it’s positive or negative feedback, taking the time to reply to your customers lets them know you’re listening and you care.

What are some other trends you expect to be important for franchise organizations in 2020? Comment below and let us know. 

If you think your franchise could use expert guidance to navigate franchise social media marketing in the new year, get in touch with us at Rallio. Give us 10 minutes, and in two days we’ll get back to you with a social media audit of your existing follower count, engagement, online reviews and reputation — stack-ranked by location and by brand average in each category. Click here to submit our quick online form and get started.

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Best CEO? Yeah, We’ve Got That

As Rallio’s first employee, I’ve had the pleasure of working with our CEO, Chuck Goetschel, for over six years. What began as a side hustle turned into a full-time hustle, and we’ve gone from sitting on cardboard boxes in a shoebox-size office to enjoying the twists and turns of a rapidly growing enterprise located in the heart of Orange County.

Yesterday, I also had the pleasure of announcing that Chuck has earned a Best CEO award from Comparably.com, a compensation, culture and career website, in its annual Best Places to Work ranking of CEOs and their companies.

Comparably Awards are based on sentiment ratings from employee participants who anonymously rate their employers. Following the year-long eligibility period that ended in November 2018, the best CEOs were identified based on approval ratings that employees gave their chief executives.

All questions were assigned a numerical score and then compared to companies of similar size across the United States. Additional weight was given to scores at companies with more participation from their employee base. The final data set was compiled from nearly 10 million ratings across 50,000 U.S. companies on Comparably.com.

Among small and mid-size companies — those with fewer than 500 employees — Goetschel earned a score of 99/100, placing Rallio in the top 5 percent of U.S. companies with 11 to 50 employees and in the top 5 percent of other companies in Los Angeles. “The most successful businesses are led by amazing CEOs who serve as a visionary, positive example and support system for their teams,” said Jason Nazar, Comparably CEO. “The chief executives on Comparably’s Best CEOs list were the highest rated by employees for their inspiring, transparent, and engaging leadership.”

 


In response to earning the Best CEO distinction, Goetschel was quick to point to his team. “This award speaks volumes about the talented team and creative, inspiring culture we’ve created together at Rallio,” said Goetschel, who is also an author and a speaker. “Just as we strive to provide the best products and services for our clientele, we are dedicated to building an elite workforce with a focus on innovation, teamwork, and a sense of purpose and ownership in our work.”


Rallio recently rebranded with a new logo reflecting its mission of “rallying” around brands to help them build a local community, share experiences and drive local business through social media. The profitable SaaS company more than doubled its staff headcount in the past year and is poised for rapid growth in 2018.

In September 2018, Rallio was named one of three top finalists at the OCTANe High Tech Innovation Awards competition for Outstanding Emerging Technology. In addition, Rallio earned a spot in the inaugural ranking of Top Franchise Suppliers by Entrepreneur magazine. This ranking put Rallio in an elite position in its space as determined by Entrepreneur, identifying the companies that provide behind-the-scenes support for franchisors and their franchisees.

[bctt tweet=”ICYMI: Read the USA Today article about the Comparably winners https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/12/11/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-ranked-best-leader-us-comparably/2206490002/?fbclid=IwAR2XsrmPVzV_BZp0zF3DVzRVHGhdENnAYqYFELglQmaK8y5yRksgEb0twTg” username=”rallioHQ”]

Rallio has an undisclosed number of investment dollars from various private venture capitalists and angel investors. For more information or to arrange an interview with Goetschel, contact Karen Spaeder, Vice President of Communications, at karen@www.rallio.com. For product and service inquiries, contact Ryan Hicks, Vice President of Business Development, at ryanh@www.rallio.com. The full release about Rallio’s Comparably award is available here.

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What’s New at Rallio

“If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.”
– John Maxwell

We have a lot to celebrate from the past several months here at Rallio. For starters, we were honored to be included as one of three finalists at the OCTANe High Tech Innovation Awards dinner in September. It was a rigorous process even to get to the finalist position, and our CEO, Chuck Goetschel, did an amazing job of connecting with the judges and pushing Rallio to the top of the list. Although we didn’t come home with a first-place award, we are confident that this award was just the start of what will be many future awards and honors to come!

New Accolades

In addition to the High Tech Innovation Awards nomination, Rallio earned a spot in the inaugural ranking of Top Franchise Suppliers by Entrepreneur magazine! This ranking puts us in an elite position in our space as determined by Entrepreneur, identifying the companies that provide behind-the-scenes support for franchisors and their franchisees.

Through their own independent research, Entrepreneur connected with over 300 franchise brands to identify the best of the best in each of seven different categories. Rallio landed in the Marketing category as a top supplier of social media marketing and reputation management services among other companies that provide all types of marketing support. Only three of those companies are specific to social media, including Rallio. As a side note, the top non-social media company listed of the 15 marketing-related companies is one of our resellers!

“At Entrepreneur, we’ve spent 40-plus years covering franchising, but we’ve rarely shined the spotlight on the service providers — ‘suppliers,’ as the franchise world usually refers to them — who contribute to the success of so many franchisors and franchisees. Now it’s time to change that,” writes contributing author Tracey Stapp Herold in the September issue of Entrepreneur.

“The Rallio team is honored to be recognized as one of the most trusted marketing partners in the world for franchise organizations,” says Ryan Hicks, Certified Franchise Executive and Vice President of Business Development at Rallio. “Our team has a tremendous passion for and understanding of the franchise business model. We focus relentlessly on developing cutting-edge social technology for the modern franchise. But we package it in a way that helps franchisors rally even the most ‘technology-challenged’ franchisees.”

Development Updates

The Dev team has been hard at work developing and deploying new features to enhance both our Rallio and Revv users’ experience using the apps. If you’re not familiar with Revv, we developed this app to allow our clients to easily send customer surveys to get feedback about an experience with their business. One of the most significant efforts was the deployment of Revv 2.0 on Oct. 29 with new mobile-friendly features that allow for greater ease in sending surveys, plus more robust analytics and data downloads. This new and improved version of Revv is the result of enormous efforts over the past several months, and the Dev team should be proud of their work! Kudos!

Spotlight On: Anton

Call him the Water Champ, call him leader of the Hydration Nation, call him the H2Ultimate fighter, or call him current reigning holder of the AquaBelt. Just don’t call him ordinary, because he’s anything but. In this, our inaugural Team Member Spotlight, we’re introducing you to Anton Emmerton, who creates content for Pet Supplies Plus as part of our Rallio Local division, which works with many different brands in different industries. Oh, he’s also great at reminding everyone to stay super hydrated!

Anton stepped seamlessly into his role in August 2018 and hit the ground running, working alongside Grace Emmerton, Director of Rallio Local (who happens to be his sister!), to manage the successful implementation of a pilot with 56 PSP corporate-owned locations. By working closely with store locations, creating awesome content and always maintaining a friendly, helpful attitude, Anton helped to secure the support and buy-in of the entire PSP brand.

Before coming to Rallio, Anton managed the ecommerce and shipping/receiving departments for a company that specializes in creating merchandise for bands. In his new role, Anton enjoys the camaraderie among his team members and the challenge of ensuring location owners’ success.

“The best part of my job now is the team,” he says. “I feel that we do everything as a group effort and that no one is left behind. I am greeted every day with a smile and positive attitude, which is more than I could ask for!”

Anton is a pleasure to have in the office and an integral part of Rallio Local. Congrats to Anton for making such a huge impact in such a short period of time!

Welcome to our newest team members!

High-fives all around to our new hires, from left: Giuseppe, Joe, Sabrina and Amy! As part of our Rallio Local division, they each have an assigned brand for which they provide social media content, inbox and review monitoring, advertising support and strategic services.

By working closely with individual location owners, they’re able to ensure they’re getting the most of out Rallio and continually growing their engagement, traffic and sales. Watch for future spotlights dedicated to these four!

 

About Rallio: Rallio is more than a social media management technology. It’s a smarter, simpler way for brands to maximize social marketing efforts. Rallio technology provides a complete social media ecosystem allowing manufacturers, corporate brands and their locations, employees and customers to build a local community, share experiences and drive local business. The Rallio Local division also provides agency-style support services to help franchise locations manage their online reviews, advertise on social platforms, and grow their social media following.

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Social Uncategorized

Step Up Your Instagram Game: Pro Tips, Tricks & Ideas

If you’re new to posting on Instagram, you might be a little overwhelmed at the prospect of growing your following, creating great content, converting followers to customers and making the best use of your sponsored-ad dollars. This article roundup is your starting point to making a real impact on this popular social platform. So without further adieu, let’s dive in to the top tips and tricks!

The Instagram Rules: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Boring

This one’s about Instagram-worthy pictures, frequency of posting, filters, hashtags, likes, selfies and more. Is it beautiful, awesome, hilarious, amazing, inspiring? That’s your first question. Now stick to the rest of these rules, and you’ll instantly step up your Instagram game.

hayley bloomingdale's instagram rules / photo: @hayleybloom

hayley bloomingdale’s instagram rules / @hayleybloom

The Instagram Rules: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Boring

Why Instagram Captions Are the New Blogging

Take a cue from The Rock, and get a little long-winded in your Instagram captions. It might seem counter-intuitive to tell all on a platform that’s seemingly minimalist and mobile-focused on the surface. But ‘grammers are increasingly turning to Instagram as a place not only for their filtered selfies, but also their deepest musings. Note: Some of the original photos highlighted in this article have been removed from Instagram (and, therefore, this article), but the premise is still intact.


Why Instagram Captions Are the New Blogging

18 Times Blake Lively’s Instagram Captions Were Borderline Genius

When you find a celebrity crushing it on Instagram, sit up and take notice. Take Blake Lively, for instance. Her captions are consistently funny, likable and authentic … in other words, everything you want in a social media post. Inspire your inner genius by reading through some of her very best work.

18 Times Blake Lively’s Instagram Captions Were Borderline Genius

25 Funny Captions to Use For Your Selfies That Will Make Your Followers LOL

“Selfie” is now officially a word in the dictionary, and it’s no wonder: Scroll through your Instagram feed, and you’ll find dozens of them. The key to standing out among a sea of brunchin’, flexin’, yoga-posin’ peeps? Add a funny caption, of course. Get some inspiration from the quotes in this article, but remember to add your own unique flair so it doesn’t sound canned.

25 Funny Captions to Use For Your Selfies That Will Make Your Followers LOL

How to Write Good Instagram Captions: 8 Bookmarkable Tips for Perfecting Your Copy

As you know, the hard work doesn’t end once you’ve taken that beautiful photo and added your favorite filter. Your caption gives a voice to your content, and it’s also a place where you can include a call to action, memorable quips, and just the right verbiage that delights your followers and inspires them to double-tap. These go-to tips will keep you on the right track as you craft an awesome caption for that perfectly staged and edited photo.


How to Write Good Instagram Captions: 8 Bookmarkable Tips for Perfecting Your Copy

How to Use Instagram Stories Like an Expert

Introduced in August 2016, Instagram Stories allow you to tell your story in multiple frames using a combination of photos, videos, captions, gifs, music and more. These stories stay on your profile for 24 hours at a time and appear at the top of users’ Instagram feeds, making them ideal for highlighting a snapshot of your day that you don’t necessarily want to live on your profile page. Like telling a story in real life, these Stories are fresh, hyper-relevant to your current goals, and fun to watch. Here’s your definitive guide to getting it done like a true storytelling pro.

How to Use Instagram Stories Like an Expert

What other tips would you add to this list? Include a link to some of your best captions, and we’ll feature the top submissions in a future blog post.

Rallio now has a mobile app that lets you post from your dashboard to your Instagram profile! Get more details via support@www.rallio.com.

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Twitter suspended your account? Here’s what to do

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: You’re humming along consistently with your social media postings, and all of a sudden one day you hit a speed bump. Maybe you get a terrible review from a customer; maybe you forgot your login information.

Or maybe you discover your entire Twitter account has been suspended.

via GIPHY

It could happen to you

Thousands of locations utilize the Rallio platform daily for social publishing without any problems. However, Twitter is making a big push for accounts to publish custom, individualized content. Why? Twitter, in its efforts to crack down on the pervasive issue of bots and spam, is using duplicate content to help identify potential spam accounts. Unfortunately, it also flags legitimate accounts in that process.

[bctt tweet=”Twitter is making a big push for accounts to publish custom, individualized content. #accountsuspended” username=”rallioHQ”]

Twitter states: “Most of the accounts we suspend are suspended because they are spammy, or just plain fake, and they introduce security risks for Twitter and all of our users. These types of accounts are against our Twitter Rules. Unfortunately, sometimes a real person’s account gets suspended by mistake, and in those cases we’ll work with the person to make sure the account is unsuspended.”

There are many different reasons an account can be suspended. Today we are focusing on our multi-location clients who utilize the Rallio platform to syndicate content out to multiple locations. When the same post is distributed across many locations, it can start to look like spam in the Twitter world.

[bctt tweet=”When the same post is distributed across many locations, it can start to look like spam in the Twitter world. #spam” username=”rallioHQ”]

As per Twitter’s terms, one of the factors that Twitter takes into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming includes the following: “If you post duplicative or substantially similar content, replies, or mentions over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account, or create duplicate or substantially similar accounts.”

What to do if your account is suspended

Twitter may prevent you from tweeting for a specific period of time, or ask you to verify certain information about yourself before you may proceed. If your account becomes locked for security purposes or because it may have violated Twitter’s rules, walk through the steps that apply to you in this link. For suspended accounts, Twitter states: “We may ask you to complete certain actions before we start the countdown on your limited state. These actions may include verifying your email address, adding a phone number to your account, or deleting Tweets that are in violation of our rules.”

If you are cannot get your account unsuspended using the steps above, you may appeal the decision. Log in to the suspended account, and then open a new browser tab and file an appeal.

Additional resources

  • Click here for the complete guide to managing your suspended Twitter account.
  • Click here for the complete rules and policies for publishing content on Twitter.
  • Read a description of local content in this post I wrote earlier this year so you can begin publishing custom content that doesn’t look like spam.

Reach out to us at support@www.rallio.com if you’re a current account holder in need of assistance with your social media platforms or if you need ideas of ways to manage and grow your local presence. We’re here to help!

About Rallio

Did you know Rallio was recently ranked as a top franchise supplier by Entrepreneur magazine? In a first-ever ranking of companies that provide franchise support services, Rallio has been named a top supplier for franchises in 2018. The inaugural franchise supplier ranking identifies companies that provide behind-the-scenes support for franchisors and their franchisees in each of seven different categories. Rallio landed in the Marketing category as a top supplier of social media marketing and reputation management services among other companies that provide all types of marketing support.

See the ranking here.

Rallio is more than a social media management technology. It’s a smarter, simpler way for brands to maximize social marketing efforts. Rallio technology provides a complete social media ecosystem allowing manufacturers, corporate brands and their locations, employees and customers to build a local community, share experiences and drive local business. The Rallio Local division also provides agency-style support services to help franchise locations manage their online reviews, advertise on social platforms, and grow their social media following.

 

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Not responding to your online reviews & engagements? You need to read this

One of the divisions at Rallio is called Rallio Local, wherein our customers entrust our team with managing their Facebook ad campaigns, as well as responding to their social media engagements and any online reviews that appear on Google and Facebook. I happen to be the person in charge of the “inbox/review monitoring” portion of things, so my team and I see all of the social comments and reviews that get dumped into each client’s “inbox” on our platform.

We always let our clients know when there’s a review in need of their attention so they can address it personally. Whether it’s a positive or negative review, it’s important that a customer feels heard. An owner’s response to a review has the ability to generate trust in a brand. So, let’s say Sally leaves a glowing review but no one ever says “thank you” to her for taking the time to leave feedback. Or maybe Sally leaves a negative review and no one ever takes the time to acknowledge and resolve the complaint. Either way, it reflects poorly on the business.

It’s About Reputation

Both of the above scenarios contribute to a brand’s reputation either positively or negatively. Here’s an example of a review response for one of our Rallio clients, Pet Supplies Plus. As you can see, the review was positive, but we still recommend posting a reply to say “thanks” for the review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the other hand, it’s not uncommon for a customer to write something negative (or even outlandish) about a location that leaves the owner feeling baffled about what may or may not have happened to cause this customer to leave such a review. In the below review (names withheld for privacy), my team reached out to the owner to ask how he’d like to respond.

Oftentimes, the owners ask us how we recommend they respond to these types of reviews. I always recommend that owners stay professional, courteous and matter-of-fact when responding to negative reviews. Sometimes we’ll write the response for them or help them polish up their response prior to posting.

In this case, the owner took some time to talk with his technician and then got back to me, and we worked together to craft the response you see above. It’s fact-based and respectful, and it offers to resolve the issue in a way that goes above and beyond expectations. Although I do not know the outcome of this issue at this time, it shows good business practices for this customer as well as anyone who happens to come across this review.

What About Former Employees?

In other cases, an oddity will pop up where a disgruntled former employee decides to unleash their venom via an online review. This is a trickier situation because each platform handles these situations differently.

On Facebook, anyone can report a review, but that doesn’t mean Facebook will take it down. On Google and Yelp, there are more checks and balances that give owners some recourse to try and have the review removed. For example, Google‘s policies disallow the posting of content about a current or former employment experience. You are able to flag the review by following the steps outlined here.

Take It Case By Case

Each review is going to be different, and your responses should be just as unique depending on the situation. If you’re unclear on how to handle a review, feel free to reach out to us at support@www.rallio.com and we’ll be more than happy to assist!

 

 

 

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Content Marketing Social Uncategorized

Social media best practices: What is local content?

With Rallio’s recent launch of the Rallio Local division, we’ve created an in-house agency that helps our clients create and execute a local content strategy on Facebook and other social media platforms. One question that comes up frequently is what exactly local content is and why it matters. If you’re asking that question for your own business, today’s post will help you learn what types of content will get you the best results on social media.

The algorithm

Social media is increasingly shifting its focus in favor of local businesses, with Facebook leading the way in terms of how its algorithm serves up content to various audiences. The right type of content, combined with targeted ads, allows businesses to reach customers in their local area, especially those who are using their mobile devices to find businesses in their communities. In addition, the rise of platforms such as Yelp and Google reviews has made it essential that businesses have a local content strategy to reach the people who are likely to do business with them or buy their products or services.

So what is the right type of content? Encourage your visitors and followers to stick around and become a part of your online community by including the following in your social media posts.

Real-life photos from your office and staff

Include not only special events such as birthdays and holiday celebrations, but also simple “day in the life” photos showing what happens in your office. Here’s a post from one of our Rallio Local clients, Pet Supplies Plus Greenfield, with a cute picture of a dog and a great caption:

Spotlights about a star employee or customer

Give props to an employee of the month. Include a photo along with a caption explaining why they rock! You can also highlight customer testimonials and thank customers for their business, feature before and after photos if that makes sense for your business, or simply feature a repeat customer who brightens your day. Here’s a post one of local clients, Pure Barre Anaheim Hills, created to feature a customer testimonial and which we boosted with ad dollars. To date, the post has reached 645 people and has earned 28 likes and loves.

Pointed questions that elicit comments, likes and shares

A question like “Would you rather sleep in on a Saturday or get up and go for a hike?” will get more responses than “Do you like hiking?” You know how they say you have to ask for the sale? The same is true for comments. Quite literally, you can say “Comment below with your response” and it will be more likely to earn engagement.

Videos

Explain a how-to topic, offer helpful information, or feature an interesting aspect of your business or the people behind it. People love to watch short videos and often will watch those as opposed to reading a lengthy post on a topic.

Meat and potatoes

Infographics, blog posts and guides on topics your audience wants to know about are the backbone of your business, the “meat and potatoes” if you will. Prove you’re the guru in your field by creating assets that show off your expertise.

Promotions

Include only occasional posts about current promotions and contests. Stick to the 80/20 formula where just 20 percent of your content promotes your brand and the other 80 percent is dedicated to topics that interest your audience and engage them in conversations. Here’s an example from the same Pure Barre client where they do a nice job of including promotional details within the caption of an inspirational post describing the studio’s “20 in 31 class challenge.”

In general, posts that include more personalized information about your location tend to perform better than general posts. They are more aligned with Facebook’s current algorithm, thus improving your overall reach. If you need a hand creating your local content strategy, click over to Rallio Local.

To learn more about the recent Facebook algorithm change, see this article.

 

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Branding Content Marketing Uncategorized

What Facebook’s Algorithm Changes Mean for Brands

If you read about the most recent changes to Facebook’s algorithm, then you might be wondering how the changes affect brands. As a social media and reputation management firm, Rallio always strives to help brands optimize their online presence and their advertising budgets. So if you’re in full-on panic mode, we’re here to tell you that these changes are not cause for alarm …

IF YOU ARE PUTTING AD DOLLARS BEHIND YOUR FACEBOOK CONTENT.

Pardon me. I don’t mean to yell. But it’s so important to understand that Facebook is a pay-to-play platform where if you want to have any kind of significant impact among your target audience, you need to pay to get in front of them.

If you find it difficult to wrap your head around this concept, think about it in terms of print advertising. Leaf through a magazine, and you see that the nicest, largest, glossiest ads at the front and back of the book. These are the big-money ads. The tiny little classifieds are small and hard to find because the advertisers didn’t pay as much for them.

And those that didn’t pay … well, do you even see them anywhere? Of course not, because nobody expects something for nothing. Or do they?

There are still brands out there that believe they can put up a Facebook page, post content and get it seen without ever paying a dime for advertising. Of course, there’s still something to be said for organic reach in terms of how your audience interacts with your content, particularly with Facebook’s new (or renewed?) emphasis on putting content in newsfeeds that’s community-oriented and focused on engagement among friends and family.

However, there’s an opportunity here for a powerful combination of paid posts and local engagement, one that we at Rallio are already using to help brands.

But Facebook stock dropped. What does it mean? 

It’s true that Facebook stock dropped 5 percent with the news of its algorithm change, because people are worried that some ad revenue will decrease. And, it probably will. However, it’s not going away, and shareholders will demand it doesn’t decrease too drastically.

What we stress with our clients is that we need to be continually considering ways to convert “business” posts into “personal” posts. That is, once a brand gets engagement on a post, that interaction can be seen by others and the content is now falling under the consumer newsfeed algorithm and isn’t simply viewed by Facebook as a business post. The same is true with check-ins: When a consumer checks in to a business via Facebook, it can create great organic reach.

[bctt tweet=”Brands have a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on Facebook’s algorithm changes. Let the others leave, and you step in to reach more and more of your target audience and boost your visibility on the platform! #FacebookAlgorithm” username=”rallioHQ”]

So in actuality, brands have a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on Facebook’s algorithm changes. Let the others leave, and you step in to reach more and more of your target audience and boost your visibility on the platform!

The key is creating the kind of quality content that earns your customers’ comments, likes and shares as opposed to blatantly asking for them. Consider the words of Yuyu Chen in this Digiday article: “For starters, brands have treated Facebook like a pay-to-play platform for a long time, and Facebook said the new algorithm won’t affect paid posts on the platform, although CPM rates for Facebook ads may eventually increase, according to agency executives. However, they think the new Facebook algorithm will filter out clickbait-style promotions (‘Like our product if you think this dog is cute’), which will pressure brands to create more meaningful content over the long term.”
At Rallio, we’ve always stressed the importance of creating quality, relevant content that isn’t overly promotional or “me”-centric. Shift your focus to what your audience cares about, and you’ve got a whole world of opportunity as an advertiser. Do you want to be visible, engaging and relevant? Of course you do. Head over to ralliolocal.com, and we’ll help you get started making a major splash with your local customers.

 

 

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11 Top Tips for Boosting Your Instagram Following

Instagram has millions of active monthly users, and businesses of all sizes are asking themselves how to tap into that user base and gain more followers. It’s an important question to ask as more and more Instagrammers engage with businesses both on and off the app, whether they’re visiting a brand’s website, commenting on posts or showing up in person at a business to claim a special offer.

The general rule to know is that, as with any social media platform, there are really just two ways to do it effectively for long-term success: 1) through organic growth where you’re interacting authentically and consistently with your audience, and 2) through targeted sponsored ads. There are strategies attached to those two methods, and we’ll get into those below, but first, you might be asking yourself, “Why not just buy followers or use bots to get more of them?”

Sure, that seems like a quick way to get a big boost, but it’s an artificial boost that won’t allow you to connect with real people who care about your brand. What you want is an ongoing relationship with your audience, people who are loyal to your brand and able to assist in growing your followers.

[bctt tweet=”Did you know? You could actually hurt your brand by buying artificial followers. #InstagramTips” username=”rallioHQ”]

Moreover, you could actually hurt your brand by buying artificial followers. Take a look at this Hootsuite experiment to see what might happen, i.e., zero engagement and a bunch of followers you don’t necessarily want associated with your brand.

At the end of the day, click-throughs and engagement are the best measures of your Instagram profile’s success. So toward that end, this post focuses on the top ways to build the kind of following you’d be proud to call home about.

1. Use hashtags

Hashtags are one of the best ways to make yourself findable. Choose hashtags that are relevant to your post and likely to be discovered in a search. Instagram makes it easy: Just type in your “#” and start typing a few letters of a hashtag, and Instagram will suggest hashtags that are popular and show you how many times it’s been used.

2. Cross-promote

Use your other social platforms, your website and your email campaigns to tell your audience about your Instagram account. Give them a glimpse of what to expect, such as special offers, behind-the-scenes scoop and advance notice of special events.

3. Hold a contest

I wrote about this topic extensively here, but in short, Instagram contests can be either standalone events you run on your own, or collaborative where you involve other brands in a “loop” type of contest. It’s a quick way to boost your followers among an audience that’s interested in your brand. Check out more examples of contests below.

4 Instagram Contest Ideas to Engage Your Followers

4. Engage with other users’ content

Set aside time daily, even 10 minutes, to like and comment on random photos from your target audience. Selectively follow those accounts that are well-aligned with and complement your brand.

5. Post quality content

Make your brand look sharp! Only post images that elevate your message, not random photos that you’re posting just for the sake of posting. Quality beats quantity every time.

[bctt tweet=”Only post images that elevate your message. Don’t post just for the sake of posting. #InstagramTips” username=”rallioHQ”]

6. Invite engagement

Ask a question or use the word “comment” to encourage engagement from your users. People love to voice their opinions! You can also ask users to “tag a friend,” e.g., “Tag a friend who would love these leggings!”

7. Post at the best times

What works for one brand doesn’t necessarily work for all. You might need to experiment to find the best time for you. You can always try out a scheduler such as Later, which will automatically calculate the best time to post for your account, or just go with a trial-and-error approach to see when you get the most engagement. Here’s a more detailed look at choosing the best times to post:

https://later.com/blog/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/

8. Complete your bio

Incorporate keywords and hashtags in your bio, and don’t forget a link back to your site. If you have specific posts where you want to direct users to a certain website or landing page, you can mention it in the post. For example, if you’re promoting a workshop series, you could say “Link in bio” within the caption of your post, and then swap out your bio link to feature a link to sign up for your workshop.

9. Sponsor your content

Look at your Insights on Instagram to see your most popular posts by impressions, and then throw some ad dollars behind your most popular posts. Just scroll down to the bottom and click on Create Promotion to get started.

10. Use the “Live” feature

Posting “live” on Instagram means you’re filming in real time, and your audience gets notified that you’re live. You have the option to keep these “Live” videos active for another 24 hours after airing.

11. Use Instagram Stories

I saved the best (arguably) for last: Instagram Stories. These stories are accessible at the top of a user’s home page when opening the app and feature a 24-hour snapshot of what’s going on with a brand or a person. After 24 hours, the story disappears, giving them a type of urgency that doesn’t exist with photos alone. You can tap within your own story to see who’s viewed it, giving you a clear picture of engagement. They’ve become an integral part of brands’ success on Instagram, and many brands are getting creative with these stories to promote their products and services.

One stellar example is a recent Chipotle campaign promoting their new Queso dip. For the campaign, Chipotle archived all but a few posts so that only Queso photos appeared on the profile page. In the days thereafter, the brand rolled out more posts, a contest offering a year’s worth of free queso to winners, and a 100-part Instagram Story that saw a 70 percent completion rate, meaning 70 percent of users clicked through all 100 parts of the Story to the end (no easy feat!). Read about it in the link:

http://www.adweek.com/digital/chipotles-instagram-story-featuring-100-pictures-of-queso-generated-a-70-completion-rate/

 

 

There are many more strategies you can use on Instagram, but these 10 are a great starting point! What other methods have you used to grow your Insta following? Leave your comments below.

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Quick Guide to Social Media Marketing: Q&A With Rallio’s Director of Business Development

In working with thousands of customers over the past few years, we’ve learned a lot about the best ways for businesses to use social media to their advantage. Those who have come on board to use the Rallio platform are able to pair our technology with social media strategy to produce incredible results.

Today, I sat down with our Director of Business Development, Avery McCaslin, to discuss our platform as well as the key trends for social media marketers to know today. But first, we had to grab Starbucks and wonder what was inside this Nasty Gal trailer parked behind me at the Irvine Spectrum near our office. They’ll be popping up later today, so we’ll just have to wait. In the meantime … here’s our Q&A.

Karen Spaeder, Director of Content, crushing it on social media

What is Rallio?

Rallio is a software technology that helps businesses create engagement online to increase local demand. For multi-location brands that want to turn on their local impact, our technology empowers them to connect authentically with customers, drive traffic and increase revenue at the local level.

What are the key online trends that multi-location businesses need to know today?

Reviews and online reputation are a huge piece of their SEO. Brand consistency is critical. Perhaps most important of all, they need to be aware of the importance of video content. According to an Animoto survey, four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. Also, Facebook prefers video in their algorithm over traditional content.

Another huge thing for multi-location businesses to understand is that social media is not a free medium anymore, at least not if you want to make an impact with your brand. More than anything, it’s a pay-to-play system, yet it’s still much more cost-efficient than traditional channels.

If you want anyone to see the content you’re spending so much time creating, you should be boosting it! If you don’t, only roughly 15 percent of your followers will see it. But if you do, you get much better visibility.

[bctt tweet=”If you want anyone to see the #content you’re spending so much time creating, boost it!” username=”rallioHQ”]

Why is online reputation important?

Online reputation is so important for new customer acquisition. Before anyone will buy your product or service, the first thing they’ll do is go online to see what other people are saying about you. Your online reviews can either make or break you, and they need to be kept current. In fact, some 73 percent of consumers feel that reviews older than three months are no longer relevant. It’s an ongoing process.

How can businesses use digital coupons to their advantage?

With Rallio technology, you can use digital coupons to incentivize a survey that leads to a positive review. You can use coupons on social media to create full-blown national campaigns, but at a local level. That produces true ROI, all tracked through the Rallio system.

Another huge benefit to using our system is that each of our coupons has a unique tracking code, and it’s completely digital and mobile-friendly. The coupons can only be used once, so you’re getting better analytics and improved ROI. You can’t have the same person using the coupon or a local store manager scanning the same coupon over and over again, so it’s a better way to track the offer.

Also, in Rallio, you can share digital coupons with your friends and they get their own unique code. A map will even pop up to show the nearest store to that friend, so it becomes an interactive experience.

Sharing is caring with Rallio’s coupon integration.

How should businesses use social media to connect with customers?

The biggest thing to understand is that now more than ever, customers want companies to be transparent. Having a company be real and personable is really important to them, especially for millennials, who treat social media like a customer service channel. When they comment or ask a question on social media, you need to get back to them and respond right away.

[bctt tweet=”Nowadays, #millennials treat social media like a customer service channel. #smm” username=”rallioHQ”]

What are some of the biggest mistakes brands make on social media?

Not boosting posts is one of them. Also, not responding and interacting with potential and current customers. Finally, not posting local content that’s specific to each location’s needs. You can’t expect to sell the same lawn and garden products to a city dweller as you would to a farmer, for example. You have to tailor your content and offers to each geographic location.

What are some of the unique features of Rallio technology?

One of the coolest things about our technology is that manufacturers can syndicate content down to the corporate level, and corporate can dish it out to all end user locations. For example, we work with Samsung and Verizon. Before, Verizon had individual store owners Googling Samsung products and posting whatever content they wanted about them. Samsung wanted more control over what was being said about their brand, and Verizon wanted more control over what their retailers were pushing out. With Rallio, everyone can work together to stay on brand for both the manufacturers and the retailers. And retailers like it because they’re getting more engagement and customers.

Here’s an example:

What about independent business owners? How can they use the Rallio platform to their advantage? 

Rallio has a great offering for small business. Those that use our technology have all their social and review platforms located in one place, saving them time, which is important for a busy small-business owner. They’re utilizing a powerful system that billion-dollar businesses are using, at a fraction of the cost. Plus, they get the expertise of an awesome support team and strategy team.

What is one key takeaway for businesses you’d like to mention?

Social media is not a trend. It’s not going anywhere, and it’s only going to get more important and more local. Rallio is the solution to the ever-changing market.

To learn more about Rallio or to request a demo, go to www.www.rallio.com.

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