You might be a social media pro. But do all of your franchise managers share your skills?
Get this list into the hands of your managers. Make sure the social media for franchises of your company is right on the money.
The importance of social media marketing is such that you can't afford not to:
Check Where You Stand
Knowledge of your own franchise seems like something you'd already possess without thinking or needing to gather data. But you need detailed information relating to:
- The current effectiveness of your social media strategy
- Your internal resources
This is vital data that you will need for planning your campaign and social media use (see Tip #2).The more data you gather at this stage, the more accurately you'll be able to plan what is achievable later on.
Very important when starting out with your franchise social media marketing are:
The current effectiveness of your social media strategy
There are numerous ways to check the effectiveness of your current digital marketing strategy:
Local Fame, for example, will provide you with a FREE report on the work you've already done without fee or obligation. This will save you a lot of time spent measuring results and delving into the nitty gritty of metrics before your campaign is even underway.
Your internal resources
These are the tools you have to achieve your goals. You need to know where you stand regarding:
- Your budget - specifically the proportion assigned to your current campaign or social media use
- Staff resources - your creative team, social media management team, etc.
- Staff expertise - in the use of different social media channels
- Network resources - business partners, influencers, bloggers, and others whom you already have a working relationship with which you can make use of
Plan Where You're Going
Having a clearly defined goal for your campaign is one of the most important tips for social media marketing. This goal should be:
- Numeric or quantifiable
- Measurable
- Achievable given your resources
Let's unpack these just a little:
Numeric or quantifiable
If your campaign doesn't have a set goal, how will you ever know if you've achieved it?
Even for campaigns where you're focusing on increasing your brand awareness you should have metrics decided on for measuring your success. Select metrics like search volume data or website traffic and have set figures in mind for what success will look like for your campaign.
Measurable
We'll get into this in Tip #4, but by having a campaign goal that's measurable, you make sure that you can track your progress.
Measurability should also include a clearly defined timeframe.
Achievable given your resources
This is sometimes difficult to come to terms with, but by successfully executing Tip #1 you'll have reached a good understanding of the resources you have available.
Then you need to be ruthless. Can this goal be achieved given what you know about your industry and how well that data shows it performs on social media? Do you have the creative team required to create the needed amount of content? Do you have the budget?
Setting a goal that cannot be achieved given your resources will make success very difficult indeed.
Strategise Your Content
Have a content strategy:
Which channels will you be using? Does your target audience use those channels?
When will you be releasing your content? Is that the best time of the day and day of the week given what you know about your target audience's browsing habits?
The best social media promotion tips always revolve around in-depth knowledge of your target audience and their habits. It's all about accurate targeting:
By knowing the times of day when they're most receptive to your message, the types of keywords and images that convert well with them, and other factors like the channels they prefer, you'll be able to boost your click-through rate and conversions.
To do this, a social media content calendar will be your most useful tool.
Each item listed on it should include the what, why, who, when, and how of your content:
- What is the content? Include a description, clear title, and a brief or plan
- Why are you writing it? What goal is this piece of content helping you work towards
- Who will write the content? List the writer
- When will the content be released? Add a deadline
- How will the content be distributed? List the channels you will promote it on
Track Everything
When most franchisors are planning how to do social media marketing for their franchisees, this is the one aspect that regularly gets overlooked - and yet it is arguably the most important activity:
Measure. Measure. Measure. Track everything.
All of your departments should know that they need to be tracking all the data they receive and transmitting it on to you. Specific social media channels should have different landing pages to help you track how well they're converting.
You should have clearly defined metrics which will allow you to track your progress towards your goals. Then within those goals, you should have smaller targets as waypoints along the path. These smaller targets help you make sure you're on track overall.
If not, you'll need to adjust your strategy.
Remarket
One and done? That's not a thought process that you should be entertaining. One of the best things about social media is that if at first you don't succeed, you can try, try - and sometimes try - again.
Amidst all the other franchise social media marketing tips and tricks you can find online, remarketing is perhaps the one that will give you the best results. What is remarketing?
Remarketing is a technique in online marketing which lets you specifically target visitors who've already interacted with your posts. Because these individuals have already shown interest in what you have to say, remarketing usually results in much higher click-through and conversion rates than standard campaigns.
It's a vital part of advertising through social media channels, because very few users indeed will see an ad, follow it, and then immediately buy a product the first time.
By giving them a second bite at the cherry using remarketing, you're getting even more mileage out of the work you've already put into creating high quality content...
Meaning your social media marketing strategy is all the more likely to succeed.
Make Social Media For Franchises Work For You.
Get more tips and hints for effective social media marketing - and your FREE report on your current tactics - by getting in touch with Local Fame today.
We'll be pleased to discuss your strategy with you, and see if there are any steps - small or large - that you can take to transform your social media presence into a powerful vehicle for your journey towards your very own local fame.
Or why not check to see if you're following all the best social media marketing tips for franchise managers? We've listed them in our FREE downloadable PDF.
