9 Ways to Up Your Business Social Media Game

When you are running a business, it is pertinent that you are on social media. It is a great franchise PR tool that is pretty easy to do and can help you gain some popularity. Now, your social media may not bring in a lot of sales, if any; however, social media can help with your customer service and build brand loyalty because you can instantly converse with people in minutes.

So, you have your business listed on the major social media platforms… now what? Merely posting at random times, posting random things, doing random everything will not garner the followers you deserve nor get you anywhere good. Be intentional on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, etc. Have a strategy.

Here are 9 tips for creating a good social media plan:

1. Have a voice and personality on social media that people want to be around. It's better for people to see that the brand is human and that your brand social media is not run by an automated robot. It is much more authentic and people love connecting with brands. If people can enjoy seeing your brand's social media posts and want to share them with others, that's awesome. 
2. Make your team visible. You probably don't have anyone in your company named "admin" or "Rep" so why list them as that on social media? Part of making your brand human on social media is to feature the humans behind the brand! It's good to occasionally post photos that are "behind the scenes" and say the names of your team (maybe just do first names). As a franchise PR agency, we often share photos of the team on our Facebook page and will mention the name(s) of those in the photo. 
3. Know your customers/followers. Know what makes them tick, what interests them, etc. You want to post content that they find interesting. If your followers are mostly stay-at-home moms, then posting content about plumbing or how to write a perfect expense report will probably not interest them too much. 
4. Listen. Invest in learning and listening about industry and what your followers have to say. Do that a lot. 
5. Avoid constantly promoting yourself like a press release. While promoting your business on social media is great, constantly doing so will get tiresome with your followers. Instead, try to post things that are meaningful and will tell a story, people love connecting with stories. Give information that people can use, like tips. Oh, look what we're doing! 
6. Be conversational. You don't sit down with another human and just say things randomly and don't actually engage in conversation, do you? Like sit in Starbucks and randomly say, "We're having a sale! Then they reply, "A sale for what?" *silence* 5 minutes later, "Don't forget to come to the sale!" "A sale for what???" *silence*…. No, you converse, so do that on social media too. Don't spam either. 
7. Give credit. If you find something awesome online that you know your followers will like and want to share it, awesome. Just remember to mention who created that work. 
8. Be careful with the hashtags. This is a biggie since so many social media platforms allow hashtags now. You don't want #every #single #word #to #be #hashtagged. That was annoying, right? Well, the optimal hashtag per post is 2 or 3 so don't do more than that. 
9. Look at the real metrics. You might have a lot of followers and likes but if you don't get engagement, follow-up, or lead generation, is your social media actually working? You might need to change strategy. 

Social media can be difficult if you don't know what you're doing. If you need help with that, then contact All Points PR, we are a Chicago PR agency. 

The Greatest Reason Every Company Needs Public Relations

Public relations features many aspects and we can talk about all of them; we can say how your company needs franchise public relations because you need to build up a presence in an area, create a great brand, or protect your business when it has a crisis.

However, there is one, huge, reason why your company really needs PR and that's because if no one is talking about your company, then no one is thinking about your company… that's bad.

You want people talking
Public relations is all about keeping your company in the minds of people and in a positivecrisis communications, you are still fixing the issue so people think about your company and in a positive way. Some believe that this is the reason the phrase "there is no such thing as bad publicity" came about. You are trying to get out there and get your product or service to be purchased; this means talking to people and getting them to talk about you.
way. Everything about it is aimed to promote your business and keep your business at the forefront of peoples' minds; even when you using PR for

As far as the notion that all publicity is good publicity and that there is no such thing as bad publicity; that is simply not true. If a company has a big enough crisis, then that will definitely taint the image of that company in the minds of the public. Look at Tiger Woods, people still make comments about his affairs and how it all came out. His image has not been the same since then.

Make a plan & execute it
When you hear about successful franchise PR stories, it was because the company or person had a plan and they executed it. There is rarely success from throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. You definitely need to have a plan and stick to it when you are dealing with a crisis. If something goes wrong and your plan to fix this issue is to wing it, then you will not like how the situation is resolved. The resolution will likely be losing the positive image, maybe some clients/customers, or worst of all, closing your doors for good.

You will also need to have a plan for any action you want to take. A new product coming to the market? Create a plan for a product launch or grand opening.