advice Sales & Marketing

Everyone knows that social media can be an extremely effective marketing tool. Yet, for franchisors, how do you embrace the power of the social network, but at the same time protect your brand, especially if franchisees are socially active? Vesna Siljanovska investigates

The rise in sites such as Livingsocial and Groupon indicate that more people are looking for local services. This is great news for franchising as by its very nature, it relies on local business. "Local offers have been embraced by the general public - if you find a good provider for a local service, you're likely to get a long-term relationship," says 0800 Repair Group Managing Director, Kevin Brown.

Social media is the ideal forum for local-level marketing, especially as a Facebook page, tweet or even a YouTube video can be tailored for a specific territory. The lack of red tape within smaller organisations means this form of marketing can be embraced more quickly. David Clayton-Smith, partner at Andrum Consulting, explains: "While larger companies may be absorbed with the reputation management issues when it comes to Facebook and so forth, smaller companies do not face such angst. Indeed it plays to their strengths.

"The entry cost to social media is minimal, it's low risk and provides a real opportunity for nimble players to build their brands, create fan-bases, listen to and reach customers, find partners, distributors, recruit and rapidly target new markets both at home and abroad. Indeed seven per cent of businesses in our latest survey are predicting a 100 per cent or more growth in sales from social media!"

Many businesses set up a page on Facebook or Twitter and have a following or a fan-base. Domino's Pizza, for example, has a Facebook page with more than 261,000 fans and almost 11,000 UK followers on Twitter. This helps the company engage with its customers and inform them of the latest offers. Domino's Digital Media Executive Claire Nash says: "Many of our franchisees use social media as an opportunity to highlight their own deals and in-store offers. We recently ran a campaign with Facebook Deals that encouraged our customers to check into their local store to receive a free garlic pizza bread with an order of a Domino's stuffed crust pizza."

Similarly, social media has been a hugely successful avenue for Franchise Marketing Award winner for best online marketing campaign, 0800 Repair. As a service-based business, the franchise uses social media as a way of finding customers. Kevin explains: "More and more people are expressing themselves digitally these days. For example, if the cooker isn't working or a washing machine has broken, people would put a statement out there either on Twitter or Facebook, which means we can find them." In some cases, 0800 Repair has managed to bring together the customer and franchisee, and introduced the two parties.

However, as much as the rise of social media amongst SMEs presents an exciting new avenue for franchisors, it also presents a number of challenges. On the one hand, the freedom and minimal red tape is a good thing, but on the flip side comes the lack of control, which is of great concern, especially for a franchise. Kevin explains: "Consistency of voice, brand protection and language used is a big challenge and, for franchisees, just knowing how to write on social media forums can be difficult." Social media has no borders and can be a gateway to unrestricted and unapproved messaging. For example, one franchisor recently had to tell a franchisee to stop using his business's Facebook page to upload photos of himself taking part in ‘planking', an Internet craze that involves lying face down in an unusual situation!

Secondly, social media provides a permanent forum, therefore if someone makes a negative comment or complaint about a service on a site, it will be there for everyone to see and be very difficult to remove. Being so open online and having an environment where anyone can comment on your page or wall does open up businesses to the threat of negative PR that can harm the brand. However, this can be dealt with, as Kevin explains: "If someone complains about you via social media, you have the opportunity to listen, respond and remedy a reply." There is something to be said about a business that it is willing to be open and honest with its customers.
Thirdly, is the issue of maintenance. Whatever page, group or thread you may start, someone on your team will need to ensure it is updated on a regular basis. Claire reveals: "One of the key things to bear in mind with any social media is that once they are up and running, you have to respond and maintain the page regularly. Without a large team, it's not possible to monitor a Facebook page 24/7." Domino's recommends its franchisees explain clearly on their page how often it is monitored to help fans be aware of how quickly they will get a response.

However, to really maximise the strength of social media, franchisors should encourage franchisees to use it. Kevin says: "Having franchisees embrace social media is a whole new area that requires training." 0800 Repair, although currently carries out most of the activity from head office, is looking at ways to empower franchisees to use it as an effective marketing tool. It now recruits a consultant to train franchisees in making some online comments and becoming a user as a way to get them started.

With Domino's Pizza, franchisees control their own Facebook and Twitter pages. The franchise runs a social media conference for all its franchisees and offers tips and advice for the pages, sharing best practice. All franchisees must adhere to a social media policy, which has been designed by Domino's Pizza, "this clearly defines the boundaries on what is acceptable in terms of using social media. We work with our franchisees to ensure the policy is followed," explains Claire.

Franchisors must think about which forum is most suitable for them too - what works for some businesses may not work for others. "Look at it from a customer's point of view," says Kevin. The rise in smart phones, for example, means that many service-based businesses must be available on a mobile. "Last year we had one per cent of people access our site via a smart phone," explains Kevin. "Now it is in the region of six per cent and by the end of the year we are expecting it to be 10 per cent."

There is also much talk about Google+, a new social networking site whereby people and businesses will be able to create different circles, enabling users to tailor messages for each group. Some, like Kevin, believe this could even surpass Facebook as it helps businesses be even more targeted towards their customer base.

Ultimately, franchisors must research which method is best for them and their business, and train their franchisees in it appropriately. If you have the proper guidelines in place from the start, you can arm you franchisees with the ability to grow their business through innovative and modern marketing methods, helping them achieve a thriving business.

Social club – check list

• Start out from head office. Set up your own pages and test the water.     
  
• You may even wish to start a fan club. Ensure you have someone that can take on this responsibility
• Include social media in yourtraining – what language should franchisees use, what works and what purpose social media serves in their business
• Dos and don’ts: Produce a set of  guidelines and be clear about what a franchisee cannot do
• Set up a forum whereby you can communicate with franchisees about social media, reveal new techniques and technology, but be clear about its relevance to the business