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Social

Franchise Social Media Best Practices You Need to Know

Being in business “for yourself, but not by yourself” is the classic allure of franchise ownership. Buying a franchise means buying into proven systems and processes, with a team that’s there for you every step of the way. From your marketing to your operations, you have a plan for starting and growing your business right from the get-go. 

What’s not always immediately evident within those systems and processes are the franchise social media best practices. When we start working with clients, one of the first things we’ll take a look at is whether they have any kind of guidelines in place. Then we either add to them or help develop guidelines that work within the framework of our Rallio technology and services. 

What we find time and time again is that those organizations that have a system in place from the start are successful at growing their online presence. Those that don’t … aren’t.

With guidelines, it’s clear what franchisees can and cannot do on social media. If you need to develop guidelines of your own for your franchise, we recommend implementing the following franchise social media best practices. 

Be Grammatically Correct

What not to do: Fill your content with typos. Use “there” when you mean “their.” Throw in extra apostrophes where they don’t belong. Make your followers die a slow death while trying to read sentences that make no sense. Throw caution to the wind by ignoring every basic rule of grammar you’ve ever heard.

What to do instead: Triple, heck, quadruple check your content before you send it out. Get a second pair of eyes on it to make sure it’s error-free, makes sense and isn’t potentially offensive. If you happen to post something with an error in it, edit it or republish it if you have to. That’s the beauty of digital publishing — you can fix mistakes.

Through Rallio, brands have added controls in place. The franchisor can review and approve their franchisees’ content before it’s able to be published. We see many brands do this for new franchisees for the first 90 days or so.

Take Videos in Good Lighting

What not to do: Film yourself with no lights on. Stand in the sun and squint. Step into the shadows like Darth Vader. Might as well put on the mask and breathe heavily while you’re at it.

What to do instead: Get yourself some good lighting, y’all. Natural light is great — and free. Position yourself and your camera near a window, with you mostly facing the light source. Play around with the angle and time of day to find your ideal filming conditions. If the sun is too harsh, it may create unflattering shadows.

If you’re looking to step up your video game even more, you can opt for special lighting like a ring light or a softbox. Adorama has a good roundup of various lighting options here. 

Honestly, though, if you had time for all that fancy schmancy equipment, you’d probably be an influencer or you’d be writing this playbook, right? So just get yo’self some natural light, brush your hair, throw on a smile and press “Record.” Upload it, write a cute caption and call it a day. 

Make Sure We Can Hear You

What not to do: Post videos that make you sound like you have a pillow over your face. 

What to do instead: Even the greatest lighting isn’t going to fix muffled, hard-to-hear videos. And the last thing you want is to get to the end of your recording, only to realize no one can hear you. Test out your sound quality before you record your full video. Make sure all systems are a-go-go, and then get to filming. You can also add subtitles to be safe, as we did in the video below.

https://www.facebook.com/rallio/videos/528509271386367/

Don’t Use Music You Don’t Own

What not to do: Throw on any ol’ tunes you like in your videos. Have a great Spotify playlist? Well, shouldn’t everyone hear it?

What to do instead: Use royalty-free music. If you use audio or music you don’t own, it may be taken down by the social media platform where you posted it. With royalty-free music, you can have some nice background audio without worrying your content will be removed. 

A few options for finding royalty-free music include:

Be aware, though, that rules vary from site to site (and are subject to change) as far as using music for commercial use, as well as whether attribution is required. Check with each site to be sure you’re following the rules before posting.

Keep It Friendly

What not to do: Get in your customers’ faces when they write a bad review or say something negative to you. Point out all their shortcomings. Tell them they probably ate paste in kindergarten. Be the cyber-bully you’ve always wanted to be.

What to do instead: Be friendly even in the face of criticism. Offer to rectify situations where you were at fault (it happens). You can’t make everyone happy, nor should you try. When customers complain or write a negative review, use it as an opportunity to a) educate the customer, or b) improve your business. 

There’s no need to argue — doing so will only make you look defensive. Attempt to take challenging conversations offline so you can handle matters privately. 

Respond to positive feedback, too! Your customers appreciate when you take the time to acknowledge their kind words.

https://www.facebook.com/heidi.meyer.144/posts/10222052446008335

Think Quality, Not Quantity

What not to do: Post 43 times a day about literally nothing. Snap low-quality photos and post them without captions. Better yet, use strictly stock photos. Promote yourself shamelessly.

What to do instead: Post highly engaging, hyper-local content. Engaging content features real people and places, like the owner/operator, employees, customers and the work you’ve done. Listen and converse more than you sell. Showcase the great work you’re doing and awesome people at your company, and let that content speak for itself.

Boost Your Content

What not to do: With all that low-quality content above, just keep pushing it out there and hope someone sees it. Your followers are bound to come across it sometime. Don’t spend any money on social media — it’s free, right?

What to do instead: Boost your content. No one will see it — not your followers, not their friends and not any prospects — if you don’t pay to play. Start with a reasonable budget and ramp it up as you go. Target the audiences you want to reach, smartly and strategically; then it will be money well-spent. Popular posts like the one below are exactly the kind of content you want your audience to see.

https://www.facebook.com/1690430347907071/posts/2625624484387648/?substory_index=0

Get Brand-Specific With Franchise Social Media Best Practices

These best practices are just a taste of recommendations we make for our franchise clients. The “best practices” can vary slightly based on your goals and the type of involvement you want to have in your social media — whether totally hands-free or fully involved with the process. 

If you’re looking for an even more in-depth look at best practices specific to your brand, schedule a no-obligation demo. We’ll take information about your business and customize a complete playbook tailored to your organization’s needs.

Categories
Social

What Makes for a Happy Franchisee? Marketing Support Is a Top Factor

With all the different “top franchise” lists available, it’s easier than ever for franchise candidates to research their options for a franchise investment. Franchise Business Review’s Top Franchise Opportunities is one such list, with the distinct advantage being its focus on franchisee satisfaction and performance.

For the most recent ranking, FBR surveyed over 27,500 franchisees from 307 leading franchise brands to identify the best franchises of 2020, based solely on franchisee satisfaction. 

Among the various benchmark questions, a series of questions related to Systems & Operations helped to determine which franchises are operationally sound. Those with proven systems and established operating procedures allow a franchise system to run smoothly, maintain a competitive advantage and achieve greater success over time, says FBR — while contributing to greater overall franchisee satisfaction.

This ranking is of interest to us here at Rallio, where we help franchises like Pet Supplies Plus — which made FBR’s list — manage their social media and online reputation at both the corporate and franchisee level. When we talk to the franchisees we serve via local content, reputation management services and social media advertising, we can say with certainty that great corporate support goes a long way toward boosting franchisee satisfaction.

With that in mind, we spoke with Michelle Rowan, President and COO of FBR, to learn more about the marketing- and technology-related factors that contribute to franchisee happiness. As FBR’s first employee who joined the company 15 years ago, Rowan has worked closely with franchisors over the years to help them interpret the data gathered through FBR’s evaluations and use it to improve their operations.

What kind of marketing support seems to be important to franchisees?

According to Rowan, it comes down to franchisees wanting marketing programs that effectively drive consumers into their locations. Simple, easy-to-execute programs and consumer-friendly websites that drive local business, provide KPIs and offer a return on their franchise investment get a thumbs-up from franchisees, says Rowan.

“Franchisees are also looking to see that the franchisor takes their input,” adds Rowan. Having a task force or a committee that evaluates the effectiveness of their marketing helps to ensure franchisees’ voices are heard and programs are kept up-to-date.

How do the systems and operations considered in the most recent ranking compare to the 2019 rankings?

When we last spoke with FBR, CEO Eric Stites noted that certain areas tend to score lower in terms of franchisee satisfaction. “In all the years we’ve been doing this” — surveying franchise organizations and publishing their findings — “marketing, technology and innovation always score the lowest,” Stites explained. 

And although that’s still true, says Rowan, in looking at the 10-year trend from 2010 to 2020, there’s been a notable increase (6 percent) in franchisee satisfaction in two areas: 

  • Local market competitiveness (i.e., how a brand compares with similar businesses in their local market area)
  • Marketing and promotional programs

Going forward, factors that will continue to be important to franchisees include mobile, social and reputation management support. “People are driven by how they search and find information before they even engage with your brand,” Rowan explains.

To be successful at marketing their businesses, franchisees should add community involvement to their to-do lists, advises Rowan. Getting to know their local communities will help to build brand loyalty and increase retention. 

In this way, franchisees aren’t relying solely on the franchisor to market their businesses. In fact, entering into the franchisor-franchisee partnership should be undertaken with the understanding that franchisee participation is critical to their success. “It all starts with the expectation being set by the franchisor as they pitch candidates,” says Rowan. “They may say how easy it is, but it helps if they set it up as, ‘We don’t do everything for you,’ and help them understand what that partnership looks like.”

How can franchisees gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace?

Anytime there’s an election and subsequent talk of a potential economic downturn, businesses tend to slash marketing budgets first. “That’s the biggest mistake they can make,” warns Rowan. In actuality, businesses that keep allocating money toward marketing will be better positioned to set themselves apart in any type of economy.

“Spending those marketing dollars and creating that community online and in local markets — that’s your competitive advantage,” says Rowan. “You’re getting a lot of exposure, and it puts your business in a position of strength. It says, ‘Hey, we’re still here and here’s the reason to come to our store rather than theirs.’ ”

For some franchisees, being involved with marketing isn’t something they have the time or desire to do. In that case, outsourcing their marketing can be an ideal way to promote their business while devoting time and effort to the things they enjoy. “If [marketing] is not your skill set, look for an outside partner that does these things well so you can focus on what you’re good at,” advises Rowan.

If a franchisor’s marketing plan is well-planned and well-executed — perhaps with the support of an outside partner like Rallio that has marketing expertise — then it can provide exactly the kind of stability and predictable success that franchisees sign up for when they join a franchise organization. 

Some franchisees may think they can do better and go rogue right off the bat, says Rowan, trying to execute a different marketing plan than what the franchisor has provided. That’s a recipe for failure that Rowan recommends avoiding. 

Instead, simply follow the proven plan the franchisor provides and the dollars they have allocated toward marketing. “Don’t assume you know better,” says Rowan. “It should be a proven model if you bought into the right brand.”

Categories
Social

Top Ranked Social Media Company for Business

For a second year running, Rallio has been named a top ranked social media company for business and franchises in 2019 by Entrepreneur magazine.

Overall, Rallio landed as #6 in the Marketing category among other companies that provide all types of marketing support.

Of those companies that provide social media services specifically, Rallio is ranked as the best social media marketing company focused on management tools for small businesses and franchises.

The annual franchise supplier ranking identifies companies in 10 different categories that provide behind-the-scenes support for franchisors and their franchisees. 

“The franchise industry is really much bigger than just franchisors and franchisees,” Entrepreneur explains.

“There are a multitude of companies — commonly known in the industry as suppliers — that provide services that help those franchisors and franchisees to run their businesses successfully. And our annual ranking of the Top Franchise Suppliers seeks to recognize those that do it best.”

To identify the top suppliers, including the best social media management tools for small businesses and franchises, Entrepreneur surveyed more than 500 franchisors.

They asked them to name which service providers they and their franchisees use, and to rate their satisfaction with the quality, cost and value of those services. Suppliers were then scored based on the results of the survey, and the top-scoring suppliers made it into the ranking.

“The Rallio team is honored to be recognized as the world’s topmost trusted social media marketing company for franchise organizations,” says Ryan Hicks, Certified Franchise Executive and Vice President of Business Development at Rallio.

“Our clients have seen month-over-month growth in followers, in-store and website traffic, and engagement within their local communities. Our combination of powerful social media technology and agency services makes us the preferred provider for franchise brands.”

Rallio Technology Allows Scalability

Rallio technology allows franchisors to promote brand awareness at scale — with user-friendly tools that enable system-wide content syndication across hundreds or even thousands of locations.

For those franchisors that need support with content creation, Rallio’s in-house experts create custom corporate content aligned with brand guidelines.

Meanwhile, the Rallio Local division supports local operators with hyper-local content, page growth strategies and review responses.

Each franchisee is paired with a Rallio Local Strategist who works closely with locations to drive local business and engage with the communities in which they operate.

“Our team has a tremendous passion for and understanding of the franchise business model,” Hicks adds. “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.”

Rallio Technology for Business and Franchises

Franchise-Focused Social Media

Rallio is both a social platform and a social media marketing company. With a focus on providing the best social media management tools for small businesses and franchises, Rallio has both the technology and the team to help brands manage their entire social media presence.

  • One central dashboard allows all locations to manage social media posts, followers, engagement, online reviews and online directory listings.
  • Mobile technology provides a simple way for franchisees to engage, and the advocacy system turns employees and customers into social advocates to dramatically amplify the overall local impact.
  • Rallio Local agency, using additional local technology, works directly with franchisees to develop a highly engaging local presence. Rallio Local can either support franchisees or completely do it for them.

From corporate-wide social media and reputation management to location-specific support services, Rallio technology offers a smarter, simpler way for franchises and small businesses to maximize social media marketing efforts.

“As the Internet continues to evolve into a highly local and personal experience for consumers, Rallio will continue to provide ways to heighten local engagement,” says Chuck Goetschel, Rallio’s CEO.

“It’s about connecting local businesses and consumers in a way that is meaningful and effective. Our deep understanding of this is why we are the top ranked social media company for business and franchises”

Facebook for Business

Getting Hyper-Local

As technology has evolved, consumers have continued to gravitate to mobile as a means of discovering local businesses and checking out their social pages.

Google results have moved toward providing hyper-local search results, and social platforms such as Facebook, Google and Yelp allow customers to generate local business pages.

Consumers now make buying decisions at the local level based on local engagement and local reviews.

Meanwhile, today it’s harder than ever for brands and businesses to connect with consumers with the right message at the right time.

Time and again, generic content tends to be outperformed by real-life imagery that gives consumers an authentic glimpse of the business, along with the people, processes, products and services that give life to a brand.

Instagram for Business and Franchises

A Complete Social Media Package

Over time and with feedback from franchisors, franchisees and manufacturers, Rallio evolved into a technology that provides a complete social media marketing ecosystem — so that manufacturers, corporate brands and their locations, employees and even customers can share social media content to build meaningful local community, share experiences and drive local business.

Today, Rallio is the only social media marketing company that engages all parties from manufacturers to customers and even employees in order to generate the most engaging, most visible and most impactful social presence possible for brands and businesses.

Rallio has further expanded with its Rallio Local division to provide agency-style support and strategic services to help locations manage their online reviews, advertise on social platforms, and grow both their social media following and overall local engagement.

Meanwhile, our in-house team supports corporate marketing efforts with custom content each month.

Rallio, located in Irvine, California, has been previously recognized by Entrepreneur and other entities, including:

Interested in scheduling a Rallio demo? Reach out to support@www.rallio.com

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Branding Social

Common Red Flags in a Franchise Marketing Plan

Buying a franchise is a significant investment — and it goes without saying that franchisees want to be successful in business to make that investment worth their while. Having a clear marketing plan for them will help them come out of the gate strongly and continue to grow. 

If you’re a franchise candidate looking into any particular franchise, it’s important to know what kind of support and strategy you’ll be given when you get started. And if you’re a franchisor, you’ve got to give them their money’s worth. So if any of the following red flags are showing up in a franchise marketing strategy, it’s time to reassess things (or walk away before you invest).

Inconsistent Content

Buying a franchise means buying into a brand — and franchisees have the benefit of name recognition rather than starting from scratch with an unknown entity. That’s why it’s especially disconcerting to see a company’s logo, imagery and messaging get mangled due to a lack of consistent brand guidelines that specify what franchisees can and cannot do in terms of marketing.

If franchisees are given free rein to do whatever they want with their marketing, and especially with their social media, then the corporate brand is bound to get watered down and jeopardized in the process. They may end up using outdated logos and imagery, expired promotions and inaccurate product or service descriptions. 

Worse yet, franchisees could end up posting offensive or off-brand content — not intentionally perhaps, but without an approval process in place, nobody’s going to be making sure that franchisees haven’t gone rogue.

When there are clear rules and guidelines, however, then it makes it easy for franchisees to understand how they can market themselves. Furthermore, supplying them with approved, branded corporate images and messaging will ensure everyone’s on the same page.

One-Size-Fits-All Corporate Marketing

Even as corporate supplies franchisees with branded content, it’s important that owners build a local presence as well. They need to be posting real local images and videos of their location, employees and customers — as well as local happenings and promotions. If they’re not doing this, they’re missing out on opportunities to attract and build a local customer base.

In other words, there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to franchisee marketing. Therefore, the franchise marketing plan should explain that local operators have the option — and are encouraged — to add in a local flair. 

Growth Hack #1 in our article “9 Social Media Growth Hacks Your Business Needs in 2019” is the following: 

“Your franchise location absolutely needs to be posting local photos and videos if you want to grow. Photos of behind-the-scenes activities and events, office parties, employee spotlights, customer testimonials, and product or service highlights or how-tos are all examples of local content. 

This type of content out-performs corporate content and will help you gain more engagements and followers. As your following grows, expand your reach even more by boosting content to get it in front of more eyes. Even a modest budget will help you reach more of your target audience, driving traffic and sales to your location.”

Our Rallio client Pet Supplies Plus blends in hyper-local content with the help of the Rallio Local team.

Lack of Ad Support

Speaking of boosted content, a franchise marketing plan should indicate what kind of ad support is provided. For example, some of our Rallio clients choose to pay for their franchisees’ boosted ads and allot a monthly spend toward this advertising.

The reason to boost content is simple: to make sure people see it. Facebook doesn’t automatically serve up content in front of all a business’s followers. It picks and chooses what to show based on a user’s preferences. 

The franchisee operators with whom we work do quite well boosting their local content. So, for instance, if one of their local posts does exceptionally well in terms of organic likes and shares, they might boost it and extend the reach even further.

They’re able to target these ads to reach only their desired local customers, using geography, interests, demographics and other factors to predict the people most likely to engage with their content. Supporting franchisees with local ad spend ensures they can drive local business online and offline.

Facebook Business notes that Facebook Lookalike Audiences help you connect to people on Facebook who are similar to your customers: “Use the insights you’ve gained from marketing on Facebook to increase your chances of reaching people who will be interested in your business.”

Too Many Agencies, Too Many Platforms

Sometimes a franchisor will outsource some or all marketing to a third party — or more than one. Although outsourcing to an expert that’s well-versed in digital marketing can be a smart strategy, problems can arise when you have too many people or platforms doing too many different things, including:

  • A lack of clear insight on how a page is doing, because analytics are being pulled in from different technologies that might not be tracking the same things in the same way
  • A lack of cohesiveness, organization and agreement on how to approach a company’s marketing — i.e., the “too many cooks in the kitchen” syndrome 
  • Difficulty managing permissions if many different people have login access to a page 
  • Inconsistent or off-brand messaging and visuals 

Read more: Franchising Social Media Best Practices: a Roundup of Our 12 Best Tips

A Few Caveats and Final Thoughts

Note that it’s not necessary to find a “one stop shop” for all franchise marketing and public relations — in fact, you may need different partners for different needs. For example, perhaps you have one supplier that specializes in digital ads, but they also provide PR services. That doesn’t mean you should hire them for both, no matter what kind of “deal” they may be offering.

Instead, maybe you hire the best supplier for digital marketing with paid ads included — and a different supplier that provides the best PR. You use your scale to negotiate the best deal, but don’t give your business to a group that can’t execute properly on everything. 

In other words, most suppliers have one or two things they’re exceptionally good at, but it’s unlikely they can do all of it well. To sum up:

  • You need a digital team, either in-house or outsourced, that is an expert in paid conversion ads for lead generation.
  • You also need an internal or external team to support organic, local-level content, page management and review responses. 

If you leave either of the above items for franchisees to handle, you risk it not getting done properly or not getting done at all. And that’s not fair to the franchisees that are doing it right — after all, one weak link hurts the entire brand.

Just as you wouldn’t pay your electrician to do your plumbing, you need functional experts in different areas of marketing and control over brand standards. In the electrician/plumber example, both may provide home services, but each has a specialty. 

So therefore, if you want to multiply your organic reach and maintain digital brand standards, it’s essential that you work with the right partners that specialize in each. Your standard digital agency/marketing agency will likely not be able to provide franchisee-level support for hyper-local page management strategies at scale — but Rallio can.

It’s never too late to revise a franchise marketing plan to ensure both corporate and local operators find success with their social media strategy. Reach out to us at support@www.rallio.com for more ideas on how to bring corporate and franchisee plans into alignment. 

This article was written with input from Ryan Hicks, Rallio’s Vice President of Business Development. Ryan talks to franchisors every day about their biggest pain points and works to find solutions from the Rallio team. Feel free to contact him at ryanh@www.rallio.com.


Categories
Social

Top 3 Summertime Social Media Tips for Franchises

Ah, summer. While the rest of the world is busy enjoying ice cream, swim parties and vacations, you still have a business to run — but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your summer, too. Summer is the perfect time to have some fun with your social media. If you implement a few best practices, you’ll have enough time to go enjoy an ice cream, too.

Tip #1: Get In Step With Your Audience

Depending on the type of business you have, your sales either ramp up or slow down in the summer, or maybe they stay fairly consistent. Make sure you understand the pace at which your audience operates in summertime so you can adjust your social media accordingly.

For example, let’s say your audience is mainly moms who stay home with their kids during the summer. In this case, their social media usage habits might shift as they adopt a different routine. Consider the following:

  • Maybe they’re not posting to or checking Facebook or Instagram quite as frequently during the day. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Check your analytics to understand when they are most active.
  • If they’re out and about during the day, maybe they’re looking for a business like yours, using their mobile devices to search. The “near me” searches they’re conducting are opportunities to drive online and offline traffic to your business. Make sure you have a Google My Business page created for your business and optimized for local search. Check and respond to your online reviews so that as you’re discovered in search, customers see positive reviews and a responsive business owner. Read this post for more information on setting up your Google My Business listing.
  • Look for ways to draw business into your location with summertime sales, offers and events that you promote on social media. Tie it in with summer holidays such as 4th of July, or in conjunction with upcoming events, like back-to-school. Boost your content and don’t forget to include hashtags to make your content searchable.

Tip #2: Warm Up Your Social Content

If you haven’t updated your content since wintertime, it’s time to freshen things up for summer. A few ideas:

Cover Photos and Highlights

Update your cover photos with a summery image related to your business. Your cover photo is often the first thing people see when they land on your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn page.

On Instagram, you can update the Highlight cover photos with a summer theme. Highlight covers are the small icons beneath your bio where you’ve highlighted your Stories.

There are many different free apps that will let you create fun, summery covers for your best Story highlights. On that note, be sure to update your Stories regularly with local content that keeps your audience up-to-date on all your summertime events, sales, specials and behind-the-scenes happenings!

Localized Content

Focus on posting local content with a summertime flair! Make your content specific to your location to build local community, and boost any posts that get great engagement. The more hyperlocal your content is — whether in summer or anytime of year — the better your chances of earning local business.

For example, snap outdoor photos and videos with your team. Feature your team members enjoying a day at the park, the beach or the pool. Give a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes.

You can also post photos and videos of your product or service being used outdoors or in a way that evokes feelings of summer. Ask your users to post their own content showing how they enjoy your products or services during the summertime — or ask for permission to snap photos of your customers.

This post from our client Pet Supplies Plus in Adrian, Michigan, featured a customer with his St. Bernard puppy. It got great engagement and included hashtags to make the content more discoverable:

Tip #3: Invite User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is one of the easiest ways to generate engagement and excitement around your brand without you having to do much. Invite your audience to post their own selfies and other photos showing how they’re enjoying your product or service in the summertime.

Further the engagement by asking them to like, share, tag a friend and tag your brand as they post. Add your own branded hashtag, and perhaps incentivize your campaign with some kind of reward. Be sure to thank your followers publicly for participating!

Another idea is to recruit employees and influencers who can help tell your brand’s story. They’ll post to their own social profiles for their followers and expose your brand to a wider audience. According to research conducted by earned content platform Olapic, 76 percent of survey respondents said they are more likely to trust content shared by fellow consumers over content shared by brands.

A fun summertime influencer campaign might include a “Story takeover” where your influencer posts a “day in the life” to your Stories.

Here’s a great example from swimwear and undergarment retailer Aerie. The post features blogger and influencer @AliciaTenise wearing Aerie swimwear and promoting her Story takeover, where she’d be wearing all her Aerie faves. The post also invites UGC by asking users to post their own favorites using the hashtag #MyAerie.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByTRbbqBdBE/
Story takeovers and branded hashtags are a great way to encourage engagement and employee or influencer advocacy on your social pages.

Bonus Tip #4: Have Fun and Be Authentic

Hopefully, you’re not spending all of your time working this summer. As you’re out enjoying your life, share glimpses of it with your followers. Keep your content fun, light and uplifting. If it entertains, it’s post-worthy.

Categories
Social

9 Social Media Growth Hacks Your Business Needs in 2019

We’re almost halfway through 2019, and if you haven’t already taken a good look at your social media strategy, now is definitely the time. And never fear if you’re feeling behind — or if you’re lacking a strategy altogether. Today’s post is filled with social media growth hacks to help propel your franchise to the next level for the remainder of the year.

Growth Hack #1: Post and Boost Local Content

This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about posting local content. Your franchise location absolutely needs to be posting local photos and videos if you want to grow. Photos of behind-the-scenes activities and events, office parties, employee spotlights, customer testimonials, and product or service highlights or how-tos are all examples of local content.

This type of content out-performs corporate content and will help you gain more engagements and followers. As your following grows, expand your reach even more by boosting content to get it in front of more eyes. Even a modest budget will help you reach more of your target audience, driving traffic and sales to your location.

Growth Hack #2: Empower Your Employees

Employee advocacy is a huge part of social media today, as more and more employees take to social to post photos about their employers. It’s the kind of user-generated content that gives your brand social proof and builds trust with your audience. It also creates the kind of local content you need to boost engagements and follows.

To help encourage employee advocacy, for example, our Rallio mobile app allows users to give employees limited access to their social pages. They can simply upload photos, and then caption them and post to their social pages. We include a release form that travels with each photo so that any featured subject can sign off on the use of the photo.

Growth Hack #3: Study Your Analytics

You have to know what’s working and what’s not in order to create more of the kind of content your audience wants to see. Taking a microscope to your analytics pulled in from your social platforms and those displayed on your Rallio dashboard will help you continue to fine-tune your content as well as the audience you’re reaching through boosted ads.

Sometimes, something as simple as changing your call to action in a caption and in your boosted ads is enough to change your results for the better. Or maybe you play around with the time of day your posts go out so you can schedule them at more optimal times and days, when your audience is most likely to be online.

Get familiar with your social analytics so you can use them to your advantage.

Growth Hack #4: Go Live

Even the most mundane events can become exciting when you go live with them on Facebook or Instagram. Are you unboxing a new product? Have a big announcement to make? Going live gives you a platform to tell your audience all about it. Invite questions and comments, and get interactive with your customers. You can also simply post videos, which many people prefer over text content, either via native videos or by uploading to YouTube and then sharing those assets to your social pages.

If you’re feeling camera-shy, recruit an outgoing employee to go live for you! As mentioned in #2, empowering employees to be brand advocates is a great way to build trust, and many employees will love the opportunity to be in the spotlight. Just make sure that employee is knowledgeable and prepared before going live!

Growth Hack #5: Make It About Them, Not You

The majority of the time, your social media should be just that: social. Avoid being overly promotional, and instead make your posts about your audience. If it informs and/or entertains, you’re in good shape! If it sells, you’re probably going to drive customers away.

There are a few exceptions — say, if you’re running a contest or a giveaway, or if you have a great promotion that will benefit your audience. In that case, keep the social aspect of your content by inviting users to like, share and comment on your posts. For example, for a BOGO, offer, you could say, “Tag a friend who would love to get a free burger with you.” Always look for creative ways to present your offers that allow them to still feel social and personable rather than salesy.

Honest-1 Auto Care South Elgin boosted engagement by featuring a new employee.

Growth Hack #6: Respond to Your Online Reviews and Engagements

Have you ever left a review about a brand and not gotten a response? Kinda makes you not want to buy from them anymore, right? Whether a review is positive or negative, it’s imperative that you respond to all of them. It demonstrates good customer service and accountability, and it makes your customers feel like you value them. The same is true if a customer comments on a post or asks a question.

If you don’t already have a system in place to respond to your customers online, make it a priority.

Growth Hack #7: Employ Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger has come a long way in recent years. It’s no longer simply an inbox/outbox for conversations; brands are now using them to promote special offers, pre-screen job candidates, answer questions via customized bots, and handle a lot of the heavy social lifting for them.

Growth Hack #8: Snoop on Your Competitors

Check out your competitors’ social pages to see what they’re doing, what’s working and the type of audience they’re engaging with. This strategy works well on Instagram and Twitter, where you can easily click on their Followers tab to see who’s following.

Growth Hack #9: Always Evolve

There’s a danger in stagnation. Don’t get so comfortable with your current strategy that you fail to see what might need tweaking or anything you can do more of. Give yourself a solid month or two to get comfortable with implementing the strategies above, but then re-examine your strategy to identify opportunities to improve.

What are some other social media growth hacks you’ve tried and recommend? Let us know in the comments. As always, we’re available here at Rallio for all your franchise social media needs.

Categories
Content Marketing Social

21 Days of Engaging Content Ideas for Your Local Franchise

We’ve all been there — staring at your social media page and wondering what to post, posting something only sporadically, or simply avoiding the situation altogether. Don’t feel badly about it. When you’re busy running your franchise, sometimes creating social media content is the farthest thing from your mind.

There’s no need to spend hours trying to come up with ideas. We’ve done the heavy lifting below to give you plenty of ammo for the next month!

You can easily switch up or repeat these ideas, depending on how frequently you post, so you should never run out of ideas. Once you get into the swing of things, you’ll be able to watch your following and engagement grow week after week and month after month.

#1 Spotlight an Employee

Employee spotlights are a great way to tell your customers about your employees while also boosting employee morale. These spotlights don’t have to be formal, “employee of the month” types of posts. Sometimes, simply featuring an employee with a nice photo and caption is enough to attract great engagement.

You can talk about their work, their hobbies, fun facts, anything that makes them unique and shows how they positively contribute to your location. Maybe it’s the employee who goes about her job, day in and day out, with a smile on her face. Or the one who consistently delivers outstanding service while also juggling a hectic life outside work. Your customers will love to see this “other” side of employees they might interact with regularly but know little about.

#2 Feature a Customer Testimonial

Did you get a great customer review? Feature it as a post! Even better than that is if you post a photo of the customer (with permission!) using your product or service. Note: The Rallio mobile app has a built-in model release form so you can easily obtain permission from your photo subjects.

#3 Hashtag It

Hashtags make you more discoverable to your target audience and help put your brand in the mix around relevant conversations. They work particularly well on Instagram, where you can include them not only in captions, but also in your bio and stories.

You can (and should) build an entire strategy around hashtags. Depending on your goals, you can use your hashtags to attract new followers, increase industry exposure, riff off a day of the week (e.g., #WednesdayWisdom or #caturday), run contests, and even build brand awareness with a branded hashtag (more on that next).

Do your research to see what kinds of topics are trending around any particular hashtag before you use it — here’s a quick roundup of tools you can use in your research. Proofread ad nauseum, and look for any possible embarrassing misspellings that could ensue. And change the hashtag if there’s even a remote possibility of it getting morphed into something different and unintended.

Branded hashtags give your brand a personality, but be sure to incorporate other hashtags specific to your individual location.

Our client Pet Supplies Plus uses the branded hashtag #minusthehassle to make it clear how easy and hassle-free it is to shop at their stores. As we discuss in this post, branded hashtags can be used to promote your brand’s personality, special offers and other information specific to your brand. Read this post for more on choosing a branded hashtag.  

However, be aware that if your franchise brand overall is using a particular hashtag, you’ll need to incorporate other hashtags in your posts that call attention to your individual location. For example, some of our Pet Supplies Plus locations also use something unique to their city, such as #PSP(city name).

#4 Share Someone Else’s Content

Not all your content has to be created from scratch. Share content from a brand that complements yours, and you can build relationships while positioning yourself as a helpful resource for your audience.

#5 Highlight a Product or Service

Do you have a certain product or service you offer that customers don’t know much about? Use a social post to highlight it! Videos are an especially great way to explain how your product or service works, why it’s beneficial and how customers can use it.

#6 Play Off a Holiday

Create posts not only for calendar holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, but also those that celebrate a certain “day” like Teacher Appreciation Day, International Women’s Day, Pi Day or National Puppy Day. You can take just about any “holiday” and relate it to your business, especially those that specifically speak to your customers.

Have some fun with it and get your customers involved, too. Ask them to post their favorite photos of XYZ — whether it’s their pet, their favorite pizza or their best Halloween costume. As your customers comment, like and share, it boosts engagement and reach.

#7 Run a Contest or Giveaway

Contests and giveaways are a great way to build your following quickly. One strategy is to partner with one or more complementary brands and offer a giveaway product or service. As part of the giveaway rules, ask people to make sure they’re following both brands and to tag X number of friends in the comments.

Be sure to add the post to your Story on Instagram to create even more traction. You can also go Live on Instagram and Facebook to promote the giveaway. You’ll be surprised at how many new followers you get. Then again, maybe it’s not that surprising — everyone loves free stuff!

#8 Post a Viral Photo or Video

Don’t overdo this one, because you don’t want to seem like you’re desperate for attention. But posting a viral photo or video is one of the quickest and easiest ways to gain engagement on your page. Maybe it’s a cute photo of a puppy or a baby, or any kind of media that has the “awww” factor built right into it. You can further your engagement even more by asking your audience to post their photos and tag you, too.

#9 Ask a Question

People love giving their opinions, so ask for them! You can either include a thought-provoking question in the caption of your post, or create an Instagram story with a poll sticker attached. Ask people to vote on two different options — for an outfit, for example. Then you can create a post featuring the results and take your engagement even farther.

Create a poll to invite engagement from your audience.

#10 Invite Them to Ask Questions

Instagram Stories give you another sticker option where your audience can ask you questions, too. Once you have a large enough following, people will love the opportunity to ask you more about your background, your preferences and your favorite things. You can then feature your answers as part of your Story.

Question stickers are a great way to interact with and build your local community.

#11 Make It Local

What are your local sports teams, hot spots, special events and things only people in your town would understand? What famous people grew up in your town? Who’s the resident historian or barista? This type of hyper-local subject matter is perfect fodder for your social pages. These posts are not only share-worthy, but they’re also great conversation starters that will boost your engagement.

#12 Create and Promote an Event

Did you know your Facebook business page has an Events tab? Go there and create an event for your location, and then boost the post to increase exposure. It could be a grand opening, a popup boutique, a food or drink tasting — anything that will draw a crowd. Boosting the post will get it in front of more eyes and encourage new customers to visit your store. When people RSVP, they’ll receive push notifications that the event is approaching.

#13 Post an Offer

Likewise, you can click on the Offers tab to create a discount or deal right from your page. Just click on the Create Offer button to be taken to a popup window, where you select the cover photo, discount type, the expiration date, the promo code if you have one, and the action you want customers to take — i.e., Shop Now, Call Now, Save, etc. People will get a notification when the discount is about to expire. You can also boost these offers for more exposure.

#14 Post a Job

Are you seeing the pattern? Your Facebook page has a Jobs tab, too. Go there and post your job openings. Boost them. Get more applicants directly through Facebook! You can even include your salary range and add your own application questions to prequalify applicants. Many of our Rallio clients use this strategy with great success, getting more applicants and generating buzz about their company.

Go to the Jobs tab to post job opportunities at your location.

#15 Post a Relevant News Item

Read your local newspaper and find something fun, lighthearted or thought-provoking. Create your own post about it and invite comments from your audience. A word of caution, however: Avoid anything overly political or religious unless there’s a strong business reason to do so.

Also, be sensitive to world events or anything happening locally. The last thing you want to do is offend someone by, say, making a joke about fires on the same day firefighters are battling a blaze in town.

#16 Talk About the Weather

Talking about the weather is generally reserved for meteorologists, first dates and elevator conversations, right? Well, there’s a place for it on social media if the weather is newsworthy and if you do it right. For example, let’s say it’s so hot outside that you’re offering a buy one, get one free offer on your ice cream or lemonade. Think of a way to relate the weather to your business, and you can get patrons in the door via social media.

#17 Gossip … Just a Little

Everyone loves feeling like they’re getting inside scoop. Maybe you post a photo with your significant other, or talk about your life before starting your business. Imagine sitting down with a friend and sharing a little-known part of yourself. There’s no need to go overboard, but even just a hint into the “other” you will go a long way!

#18 Play Off a Popular Social Trend

Remember the 10-Year Transformation? Or “the dress” (blue and black versus white and gold)? Create your own post to chime in on the fun. If you’re not already familiar with the current trending topics, you can check the Explore section of Instagram or Trends for You on Twitter.

#19 Caption This

Snap a photo of something weird, funny, unexpected or silly. Post it with a simple “Caption this!” and watch the funny comments roll in!

#20 Be in the Moment

If you look at pictures of kids, oftentimes the best photos are candids — not the staged photos of them in pristine clothes sitting perfectly on top of a tree branch, gazing off into the distance. The same principle applies to your social media photos. Candid, authentic, real photos will always be better than anything staged — and definitely better than any stock photo out there.

Try playing photographer for a day (or let an employee do it), and just wander around snapping photos that capture a feeling — maybe it’s your workers enjoying being in their element. Add a playful caption, and voila! There’s your post for the day.

#21 Recommend a Product or Service

Sometimes, shining the spotlight on someone else is a great way to make yourself look great, too. Think about some of the products or services you use that are complementary to your business, and create a review-style post to highlight why you love it.

You can tag the brand in your post — maybe even reach out to them to inquire if they’d be willing to do the same. For example, if you have a cleaning business and use a certain brand of cleaner, you can show before-and-after photos demonstrating how great it works. The brand could then share those photos on their own pages, increasing your exposure even more.

Caption Tips

Writing a great caption is a blog-worthy topic of its own (perhaps to be covered in a future post). For now, here are a few quick tips to help you write a caption:

  • Know your audience so your references and context won’t go over their heads, offend them or drive them away
  • Keep your brand voice and tone consistent
  • Infuse personality into every word (never be boring); emojis work well for this
  • Either keep it brief or have a reason for long-form content (check out @natgeo for examples of longer captions that work well for National Geographic)
  • Use hashtags related to your caption and brand; you can post them as a separate comment if you want to avoid cluttering up your caption
  • Be sure to tag any relevant people or brands in the caption to increase engagement
  • Use calls to action to invite people to comment, tag friends or answer a question

So there you have it — everything you need to begin posting great content today. If you work with a team, you can also divvy up tasks — for instance, maybe one person is great at capturing candid photos, and another is skilled at writing captions.

You can also outsource your social media to the Rallio Local team and we’ll handle all the posting for you if you provide the pictures. We can empower your team with limited mobile logins so your employees can become advocates for your brand.


Categories
Social

4 Steps to Measure Social Media Success

This much we know: Social media is no longer simply a “nice to have” in your business marketing plan. Your audience is already online, checking out your social profiles and online reviews, as well as conducting mobile searches for nearby businesses. You either ramp up your social presence or get left behind by your competition.

You get it. Other marketers get it. According to one survey of CMOs, marketers said they are spending 12% of their marketing budgets on social — a number that’s expected to rise 20% in the next five years.

What’s not so clear is how to justify the spend on social media marketing. The survey also notes that 44% of those same CMOs say they haven’t been able to measure the impact of social on their business. Although it’s simple enough to track followers, likes, shares and engagement, it’s not quite as easy to equate those numbers with sales or other metrics of success.

Before you throw your hands in the air and think social media isn’t working for you — or, on the flipside, that it is working just because you have a large number of followers — take a deep breath. Know that there are ways to measure your social media success, and you can start today — even if you’re among the 44% of marketers feeling cloudy about the kind of impact you’re having on social media. Read on for four steps to measure the effectiveness of your social campaigns.

Step 1: Define ROI

To measure your social media marketing success, you’ll need to do two things:

  1. Define your goals and tie them to outcomes. Your returns are the various outcomes that you determine are necessary for your brand.
  2. Identify what exactly your investment is, aka your budget you wish to spend overall and for each initiative. You dedicate time, resources and dollars toward social media — that’s your investment.

Together, your investment and the resulting returns (or outcomes) are your ROI. Some possible goals with desired outcomes and investment options include:

Your goals can vary based on any particular campaign, its platform and its associated budget. Some outcomes can be clearly measured in terms of money, such as an ad campaign that ties directly to an offer (more on this in Step 3). Others, like brand awareness, are more difficult to quantify but are still important to your overall marketing plan. The value of outcomes will need to be defined according to your unique business, leading us to Step 2.

Step 2: Assign a Value to These Goals

Let’s look at a hypothetical example to estimate the value of your outcomes. Imagine one customer is worth $100 monthly (you can insert whatever numbers are meaningful to you here, such as the lifetime value of a customer, or the average value of a purchase as a result of seeing an ad). Then you’ll compare that value against the social media marketing costs associated with lead generation through social.

Use the following formula to calculate ROI: return minus investment, divided by investment, expressed as a percentage. In the example above, let’s say you spend $100 on social media marketing in a month, including the time, resources and ad spend needed, and then you get 10 customers who made a purchase, totaling $1,000 in value.

$1,000 – $100 = $900

$900 / $100 = 9

9 x 100% = 900%

In this case, your return is 900%, which is a great return. You would probably want to repeat the same efforts, maybe even increase your spend, but again you have to look at how all your efforts are working overall and consider all angles. For example, what is your average close ratio when you talk to prospects non-digitally? Establish a “social close ratio.” How many engagements do you need to earn every day that equate to one engaged follower? How many engaged followers do you need to impact your bottom line?

Step 3: Continually Monitor Your Analytics

Your Facebook or Instagram promotion insights and Rallio dashboard give you a detailed view of post reach, post engagements, page followers and more, including both organic and paid efforts. While it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the many types of metrics available to track, you have to pick and choose which ones are meaningful based on your goals. For instance, if your goal is brand awareness, you might look at an increase in followers and engagement as an indication of growth. Other campaigns can be more easily attached to sales, such as boosted special offers that include unique tracking codes or those that incorporate Facebook Messenger as a sales tool.

For example, recently I saw an ad on Facebook for a buy one, get one free pizza at a local pizza place. I clicked the button to get the offer, and I received the offer as an auto-respond in my Messenger. The message invited me to opt in to email by replying back to the message. It also included details about any exclusions, participating locations and the expiration date. Best of all, when I use this offer, the server is supposed to click the “redeem” button in my Messenger app. How’s that for tracking ROI?

Not only did I request the special offer, but I agreed to ongoing communications from the restaurant by opting in to email. Before I have even set foot in the door, they’ve got my email address and have given me a reason to visit: free pizza!

This Facebook Messenger campaign from The Pizza Press opts me in for email offers and also gets me in the door with a BOGO offer.

As a side note, in this article, I discuss Messenger as being a major tech trend for franchise locations to utilize this year. With the hyper-local targeting you can implement with boosted ads, you can send out special offers that get seen by people in your community and contribute directly to your ROI.

Step 4: Adjust as Needed

What works on one platform or for one goal isn’t always going to be the same. It’s important to continually check your ROI so you know what’s working and what isn’t — and then adjust your strategy accordingly. Understand, too, that certain goals take longer than others. It could take several weeks to grow your following, while an ad campaign might last just a few days and can be easily measured afterward.

Your goals should be working together all the time to produce the outcomes you want. Understand, too, that you can’t always see the direct path from prospect to conversion — for instance, a new follower or a comment can’t necessarily be tied to a sale. However, the only way to start converting prospects to customers is by getting in front of them every chance you get — through social media, through building a local community, through paid boosting of your content, and through creating confidence and loyalty in your brand.

Over time, you’ll learn which campaigns work best and which areas deserve the most investment. The key is to have a robust online presence, combining both organic and paid efforts, that shows people you are a trusted brand. This way,  when they do come across your page, they’ll want to buy from you — whether now or after the 10th or 100th time they see you. Keep tracking your efforts and investing, and you’ll see the returns in time.






Categories
Social

GaryVee’s Top Tips on Franchise Social Media Marketing

When Gary Vaynerchuk speaks about social media marketing, it’s best to sit up and listen, especially if you feel like your brand could use some help maximizing its online reach. The CEO of VaynerMedia was among the featured guests on a recent episode of MODRN Business Podcast, hosted by Rallio’s own Ryan Hicks, Vice President of Business Development.

In the episode, which was recorded before his keynote at the 2019 International Franchise Association Annual Convention in Las Vegas, GaryVee offers several tips to help franchisors and their franchisees get started in social media marketing. Read on for a look at a few of his top tips that any franchise system can undertake to make an immediate impact on social media.

Give More Than You Take

“People are often self-serving on social media,” says Gary, and that approach doesn’t do anything to win over your target audience. “Your content needs to bring value to the audience at no cost so they can go and do something with it.”

The most successful social media accounts serve up content that either informs and educates or entertains rather than going for the sale, says Gary. He adds, “There are no accounts doing well on social media that don’t do one of those two things.

Pro tip: Don’t over-promote. Promotional posts have their place, such as when you’re paying to boost a post or you have an exciting offer to share with users. You can’t post them every day, however. Keep the focus on them, not you, with the majority of your posts, and they’ll be more receptive when you share a special sale or promotion. If you need more ideas for daily content, see our post, 31 Days of Social Media Ideas.

Read more: Why Your Franchise Location Needs Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/532340386932497/photos/a.655440264622508/1130776187088911/?type=3&theater
Rather than pushing a sale, this post from Pet Supplies Plus in Naperville, Illinois, puts the focus on community engagement through highlighting Hugo the dog.

Make Local Content

Franchisees need to be producing local, engaging content like the post you see above. Why? “Because they want their business to grow,” quips Gary. “If you’re not making contextual content, you’ve lost.”

By contextual, he means that simply pushing out the same corporate content across all locations isn’t effective in terms of broadening your local reach. If you want to do business with people who actually live in your area and are likely to frequent your establishment, then you need to speak to them directly.

The “Hugo” post above from Pet Supplies Plus in Naperville, Illinois, does double duty by pushing out a locally focused post featuring a “neighbor’s” canine companion. By also asking its audience to post pet photos of their own, the post invites engagement and, because Facebook’s algorithm favors this type of content over generic posts, is more likely to be seen in newsfeeds.

Pro tip: Find your unique voice. Specifically, find a voice that exudes casual friendliness. Social media is not the place for business speak, stodgy words and sales pitches. The very term “social media” gives you a clue as to what kind of voice you need to have. You’re just a bunch of friends chatting it up.

Read more: 5 Tips for Improving Your Writing on Social Media

“That whole concept of vanilla from corporate doesn’t work,” Gary continues. That’s a tough lesson to learn for many new franchisees, who often join a franchise system because of the perceived structure. They may think that corporate will handle everything for them, including their local marketing, when in reality that’s a task they must undertake just as an independent entrepreneur would.

Adds Gary, “The reason so many people lose in the franchise world is that people think they’re in the turnkey business and they’re not.”

When corporate content doesn’t generate any engagement, leads or sales for them, they may think social media simply doesn’t work for them as a marketing medium. However, the solution is not to abandon social media, but rather embrace local, location-specific content. That is, original content that’s contextual to your five-mile radius is always going to disproportionately outperform generic content that isn’t meaningful to your local audience. “Like, you know the pothole on your street — that’s the joke you should be making,” says Gary. “The hot new yoga studio [in town], the principal in town who just celebrated her 50th anniversary — that needs to be your post.”

Pro tip: Don’t be a social media hater. The conversations are happening with or without you. Additionally, on social media, you have an opportunity to let your personality shine, inspire confidence in customers, entertain and educate your audience, and build customer loyalty. Lastly, you can better serve customers. Nowadays, when people have a complaint about a company, they take to social media to vent. The more engaged you are in the conversations happening about your brand, the more responsive you can be to their needs.

Read more: Why Your Franchise Location Needs Social Media

The key takeaway? Customers want to see that there are real humans behind the local social profile. Again, ask yourself if a post either informs or entertains. If it fails that litmus test, then it’s not providing value — and it’s probably not going to get any online engagement.

Furthermore, pay attention to what happens after you post. If people are asking questions, commenting, liking, sharing and leaving online reviews, you need to be involved in that conversation. When they engage with you, they expect to hear back — and quickly — especially if they’re voicing a complaint. Be polite, be engaging and be present so your customers know you’re listening.

By responding promptly to this positive Facebook recommendation, Honest-1 Auto Care South Elgin showed they are listening and care about customer feedback.

Pro tip: Respond to both positive and negative online reviews. In either case, it’s important that a customer feels heard. With positive reviews, thank them for taking the time to leave a review and mention something specific about the customer if you can, such as, “It was great seeing you as always, Jessica, and we look forward to your next visit.” With negative reviews, be sure to acknowledge the concern, address it without getting defensive, and take it offline if necessary. An owner’s response to a review has the ability to either generate trust in a brand or demonstrate lack of concern.

Read more: Not Responding to Your Online Reviews? You Need to Read This

Pick Your Platform

With so many different platforms, from Instagram to LinkedIn, how do you know which one will give you the best return on your marketing investment? While you don’t need to limit yourself to one platform, you can take a look at your demographics to see where they are spending their time the most, but don’t ignore other opportunities to branch out into other platforms. “LinkedIn has helped me quite a bit because it’s broadened my reach,” says Gary.

Pro Tip: It’s called “social” media, so be social. Your audience doesn’t want to see stock photos. They’ll scroll right past them! Instead, include snapshots (with permission) of your employees, customers, office environment and other real-life photos. 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.

Read more: Franchise Social Media Best Practices: a Roundup of Our Best Tips

Bonus Tip: Get Your Employees Involved

A common barrier for franchisees is they lack the time and/or desire to post to social media, engage with their audience and respond to their online reviews. One solution is to let someone else do the work.

That might mean employing an agency such as the Rallio Local division to handle posting custom, local content and responding to comments and reviews. Not only does our team bring life to local pages, but they also help boost locations’ online reputation by ensuring timely responses to their online engagements.

You can also empower your employees to be brand advocates. Did you know that most employees are already posting comments, images and videos about their employers? Rallio technology allows you to give employees limited access to your mobile social profiles so they can do some of the legwork to snap great local photos and upload them to our platform.

Does your franchise use social media marketing to make a local impact? Why or why not? Drop your comments below.

Marketing experts and executives interested in being featured on the MODRN Business Podcast may reach out to Hicks at ryanh@www.rallio.com. To be featured or for guest blogging opportunities on the Rallio blog, contact karen@www.rallio.com. Additionally, for product or service inquiries, contact ryanh@www.rallio.com or support@www.rallio.com.

About Rallio: Rallio is a powerful combination of social technology and local agency. The Rallio team empowers local operators to ignite their social presence, with easy-to-use mobile technology that turns employees into brand advocates. Rollup analytics provide brands with complete control over their local social media and reputation presence and clarity into which locations and operators are performing the best.

Categories
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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