Market your franchise; the power of social media!

Article by Sarah Carlile

Coconut Creatives

The power of social media for business must not be underestimated. Social media is transforming the way businesses sell their products and services. A recent study by the Internet Advising Bureau revealed that nearly 80% of consumers would be more inclined to buy more often in the future because of a brand’s presence on social media.

With these statistics in mind, if you’re not using social media to promote your franchise in your local area, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities to get your message out there. Whilst it’s vital that your business has a presence on the most relevant networks for you, it’s more vital you’re not wasting time and money on activities that don’t contribute to getting the right message to the right person at the right time.

Here’s a quick checklist to guide you through the use of social media for business:

• Identify where your target audience is
• Set goals of what you want to achieve
• Choose social media channels accordingly
• Share, listen and reply in a non-salesy manner
• Appoint a ‘Social Media Keeper’
• Integrate it into your marketing plan
• Measure your results

By following this process and making social media an official part of your marketing plan, you can measure its effectiveness through leads generated.

Focusing your efforts

In order to get the most out of your social media channels, you must think about your target audience before launching any campaign. Here are out top factors to consider when marketing your business on social media:

• Who are your customers?
• What do you know about your customers?
• Where do your customers live?
• What interests do they have?

Answering these questions will help you to decide which social networks would be best for your business and how you can utilise them for success. Thinking about where your customers go when they are online is a key factor in using social media for sales.

How does social media work?

Although social media may not generate direct sales for your business, you need to consider how these leads will translate into sales for your business - this is KEY! Will your social media channels drive traffic to your website, fill seats at your next event or drive footfall into your store? Every time you post on social media you should have the end goal in mind to generate the best results.

Social media acts as a great channel to engage your customers and provides a free method for letting people know who you are and what you do.

There’s really no excuses not to be using it!

Be a motor mouth!

You have two ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion! Motor mouth and huge Social Media exponent Gary Vaynerchuk has coined a great phrase to explain how to best use Social Media for business. His ‘jab, jab, jab, right hook’ boxing metaphor explains how we need to provide valuable information (jab) out to our market before going for the sale (right hook). You need to listen to what your audience is talking about and asking about, then adapt your messaging accordingly.

To find out more about Coconut Creatives can help you with social media for your business click here