How to Use Social Media to Enhance Your Franchise – Podcast

Adam J. Siegelheim, member of Stark & Stark’s Franchise Group, attended the 2011 International Franchise Association’s Annual Convention February 13-16, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

In this podcast, Mr. Siegelheim meets with Paul Segreto of franchisEssentials. Mr. Siegelheim and Mr. Segreto discuss social media and how franchisors can utilize social networking applications, such as Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn and Twitter, to enhance their brand.

You can listen to the full podcast online here.

Social Media: Definition & Resources

The following is directly from Wikipedia, and represents the definition for Social Media. As the definition includes numerous links to various social media tools and technology, and resources, I thought it would benefit our loyal readers to include the entire section on this site. Certainly, reviewing the basics from time to time can’t hurt, right?

Social Media – As defined on Wikipedia

Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking. By applying a set of theories in the field of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes (self-presentation, self-disclosure) Kaplan and Haenlein created a classification scheme for different social media types in their Business Horizons article published in 2010. According to Kaplan and Haenlein there are six different types of social media: collaborative projects, blogs and microblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual communities. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms.

Communication

• Blogs: Blogger, ExpressionEngine, LiveJournal, Open Diary, TypePad, Vox, WordPress, Xanga
• Microblogging: FMyLife, Foursquare, Jaiku, Plurk, Posterous, Tumblr, Twitter, Qaiku, Yammer, Google Buzz
• Location-based social networks: Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook places, The Hotlist
• Social networking: ASmallWorld,Cyworld, Facebook, Hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut, Tagged, XING
• Events: Eventful, The Hotlist, Meetup.com, Upcoming
• Information Aggregators: Netvibes, Twine (website)
• Online Advocacy and Fundraising: Causes, Kickstarter

Collaboration/authority building

• Wikis: PBworks, Wetpaint, Wikia, Wikimedia
• Social bookmarking (or social tagging):^[16] CiteULike, Delicious, Diigo, Google Reader, StumbleUpon, folkd
• Social news: Digg, Mixx, NowPublic, Reddit, Newsvine, MyWeboo
• Social navigation: Trapster, Waze ^[17]
• Content Management Systems: WordPress
• Document Managing and Editing Tools: Google Docs, Syncplicity, Docs.com, Dropbox

Multimedia

• Photography and art sharing: deviantArt, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, SmugMug, Zooomr, BetweenCreation
• Video sharing: sevenload, Viddler, Vimeo, YouTube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Nico Nico Douga, Openfilm, TubeMogul
• Livecasting: Justin.tv, Livestream, OpenCU, Skype, Stickam, Ustream
• Music and audio sharing: ccMixter, Pandora Radio, Last.fm, MySpace Music, ReverbNation.com, ShareTheMusic, The Hype Machine
• Presentation sharing: scribd, SlideShare

Reviews and opinions

• Product reviews: epinions.com, MouthShut.com
• Business reviews: Customer Lobby, Yelp, Inc.
• Community Q&A: Askville, EHow, Stack Exchange, WikiAnswers, Yahoo! Answers

Entertainment

• Media and entertainment platforms: Cisco Eos
• Virtual worlds: Active Worlds, Forterra Systems, Second Life, The Sims Online
• Game sharing: Kongregate, Miniclip

Brand monitoring

• Social media measurement: Attensity, Statsit, Sysomos, Vocus

What Excites You About Working Within Franchising?

What an extraordinary time it is in franchising. Many of us are still riding high from the IFA Convention. Approximately 160 franchise professionals attended the Franchise Unconference last week in Utah. It is my understanding turnout at this week’s Franchise Finance Conference in Las Vegas was very good. And, in a few weeks many of us will be in Washington DC for the International Franchise Expo. That’s just a great deal of positive energy in a six-week period within franchising. Certainly, it’s exciting to be working in franchising as the economy continues to rebound.

Of course, it’s easy to be excited when there’s a load of positive energy at showcase events. Seeing long-time friends with similar interests and objectives adds to the excitement. It’s also relatively early in the year, and many are filled with New Year’s resolutions that have yet to be challenged. Optimism fuels excitement! But, let’s take a step back and look at the core of franchising. Let’s evaluate why we have decided to continue earning a living within franchising. Through the worst of economic times, with franchise sales bottoming out, why did we hang around instead of doing something else for a living? Sure, many will say there weren’t other jobs available. But, I truly believe there was more to it than that.

Approximately eight months ago, in the LinkedIn Franchise Executives group, I asked, What Excites You About Working Within Franchising? and received over 50 responses. Let’s take a look…

John Teza, President at Janus Brands, responded “Empowering an individual to change their lives. No matter the intended change, be it in terms of income, lifestyle, or equity building, for many individuals, opening a business is a life changing experience. Playing a small part in that transformation is very rewarding.”

Lyndsey Jardine Wolfsmith, Business Coach at The Entrepreneur Source, exclaimed “Love your question Paul! I think franchising is fascinating…there are so many facets from developing a successful franchise model to helping clients understand the sheer breadth of options. When you are surrounded by all that variety, how can you not be excited!”

Even The Franchise King, Joel Libava, chimed in “I really enjoy moving folks away from corporate employment, so that they can have their shot at the American Dream. (Only if it makes sense to do so on a whole bunch of levels) I also enjoy providing an independent perspective on the state of franchising in a very gentle way.”

Many of the responses spoke about the satisfaction of putting people in business, helping them achieve the American Dream. And, despite what franchise professionals went through at the low point of the economic downturn, some only needed to be reminded of the passion behind franchising to get moving back in the right direction as evident by the following response…

Kevin Joiner, former, President at Crye-Leike Franchises, stated “Wow! Reading all of these positive comments re-energize me dramatically. I agree with many of the comments. I am the FORMER president of a Real Estate franchising company that operated primarily in the Southeastern U.S. Unfortunately, I was required to layoff my complete staff effective March 1, 2010 (as a cost-cutting, cost-savings measure) and turn over franchise system oversight to the founder and owner of the parent company. Having grown the organization from virtually nothing, into a $500 million dollar sales enterprise with approximately 50+ franchisees in six years, it was hard to take. However, I am expecting to hopefully regain momentum and move forward with another organization soon.”

Many ask how I would answer my own question…

“I’m excited to work within franchising because I get many chances to help franchise organizations succeed at all levels. I know that’s a lofty proposition, but it’s true. It’s what I’ve dedicated myself to as I have recovered from a near-catastrophic experience ten or so years ago as a once-successful multi-unit franchisee that took his eye off the ball and subsequently failed. Certainly, it would be easy to reflect upon what that experience did to me. But there are other things to consider as such experiences can effect entire franchise organizations. There could be collateral damage, and at times, a ripple affect.

Of course, I do what I do to earn a living and provide for my family. But I could do that in a host of different industries or business environments. Instead, I chose to put the bad experience aside and focus on how I can help others within franchising. Not only to avoid the mistakes I’ve made, but to focus on best practices that lend towards franchise success at levels.

With extensive experience and success in franchise marketing and development, and in training franchisees and franchise staff alike, gained in the various positions I have held for franchisors, I have focused my attention on making a difference in franchise organizations in these key areas. Sure, many know me from my almost incessant social media activity, but I’m just embracing what I believe to be a tremendous technology and communications tool that when utilized effectively and coupled with best practices, will contribute to franchise success at all levels.”

In case you haven’t noticed, it is also the same response when I’m asked, What is it that I do?

Social Media Basics – An Overview

As a result of the many conversations about social media I had with franchise professionals at the recent IFA Convention, I posted on this site, Social Media – Before Diving In, Know How to Swim. It seems many within franchising, and most likely throughout small business, continue to put off entering the world of social media. On the surface, the old and by now, tired, excuse of “it’s a fad” appears to be just a smoke screen. The real, true reason is more in line with “I just don’t know how to get started” and/or “If I start, I want to do so correctly.”

Sure, many, including me, have said this before as people expressed fear of social media, “just jump in!” But, I feel it’s necessary to clarify. I do believe one should jump right in, but at least have some fundamentals in place to ensure your experience is both enjoyable and successful. I clarified the same with the franchise professionals I met in Vegas and expanded upon it with Social Media – Before Diving In, Know How to Swim.

As is often the case, one post spurs additional questions and requests, which led to my 4-part series on Social Media Basics. Several years into the social media movement and what appears to be very fundamental, is actually monumental to individuals and organizations still sitting on the sidelines wondering how to get into the game. Hopefully, the 4-part series will help them take that first step on the field.

The series started with Who, What, When, Where, Why & How of Social Media Within a Franchise Organization. Basically, it was an outline of some very basic instruction as it related to each of the 5 “W” questions, and of course, the “How” question.

Next, we needed to introduce the most widely utilized social media, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, along with basic instruction points for each. This segment, Starting Your Social Media Program with the “Big Three” accomplished this objective.

The third segment, An Hour a Day With the Big Three Social Networks continued to build the program as it addressed the time issue of social media. Many newcomers have heard that social media can be a major time commitment. As such, they have been reluctant in starting their social media experience because they don’t have hours per day to commit.

Obviously, it’s important to gauge efforts against results, and to throw in a measure of expectations as well. The last segment of the series focused on social media analytics from a very basic perspective. Social Media Metrics: Not Yet a Science! touched upon the key issues of social media metrics including attention, participation, authority, influence and sentiment. It also touched on some of the obvious goals franchise executives would like to achieve in their social media efforts along with the not-so-obvious benefits that can be achieved as well.

So, there you have it – a 4-part series on Social Media Basics, precluded by an overview of what to do before getting started, that combined, will provide a basic foundation for social media success. Keep in mind, this is the equivalent of driver’s education. But it is the first step to enjoying your life behind the wheel… in social media.

Happy Networking!

A Tribute to Franchise Professional Fred Harms (1949-2011)

The following is a guest post from Joe Caruso.

Farewell to a Friend and Colleague – Fred Harms

I spoke with Fred on Friday, he was on top of his game and the world. He was having great success in his new role as vice president of L’Oreal’s SalonCentric division and had just picked up his children after missing them while on-the-road the past two weeks.

Fred was fully invested in his work, but his family was his most precious endeavor. He worked tirelessly, loved franchising and franchise people, but there was no question that first and foremost Cole, Caroline and Christopher were the center of his universe.

Fred was exciting to be around, easy to like, quirky and witty, kind and thoughtful. He was an honest man worthy of your trust. And on Monday it was over, with no forewarning, no indication or telltale sign that a life well lived was to end without realizing its full measure. Debbie, Fred’s cherished fiancée, tearfully called me to let me know he was gone, and that I’d never get another Friday afternoon call.

I trusted Fred, he was my friend and I will miss him greatly.

Obituary listed at Millard Family Chapels