Social Media Alone Does Not Sell A Franchise

Our Chicago PR firm knows that companies are looking for franchise public relations experts.  For years now, many franchises have become experts at utilizing social media to increase sales while many others are steering clear for the fear of the unknown of social media.  Many companies think that social media is just a trend and that it is too late to invest in, but this is not true.

Part of our public relations services is to have our social media consultants advise your franchise on the best options to generate business and talk of your franchise.  Although we will admit social media WILL NOT sell your franchise, it will definitely do more help than harm with some guidance in franchise PR from All Points Public Relations. 

As professionals in the PR industry, our PR agency will tell you that utilizing social media for your franchise is just as important as all the other variables in the marketing mix.  It is highly suggested that your franchise maintains a budget and runs a well-planned social strategy t appeal to larger publics.  When using social media for franchises, it should be used as a call-to-action marketing took that will promote your brand and position your franchise amongst other franchises.  By doing these things, you will not only create brand loyalty, but you will enhance the loyalty of franchise. 

There is absolutely no reason why you should not utilize social media for franchises unless you are not in touch with someone who can properly manage it or you do not have a budget to manage a campaign.  Social media is a catalyst for sharing good news about your franchise or the community.  For example, news stories that are secured via public relations efforts can live longer lives by leveraging and utilizing different social media pages.  Not only that, but our social media consultants are experts in using social media for franchises to offset any bad or negative consumer experiences. 

There is no doubt that social media can help sell your franchise, but it will in no way be what sells your franchise. Social media is an important part of enhancing franchise recruitment efforts but in no way will be the secret weapon to building the brand alone.

If your brand is seeking franchise social media experts and looking to improve sales processes, contact All Points Public Relations today.  All Points Public Relations, a Chicago-based PR firm focused on working with franchise companies, is experienced in planning, executing and driving powerful results with strategic social media tactics.

How to Make Your Franchise Compelling For Facebook Users

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Our franchise public relations agency knows Facebook is one of the most used and most popular social media platforms that exist today.  People have phased out from platforms like MySpace and start using Facebook for a number of reasons.  Even with new competition like Instagram, Pinterest, and many others, Facebook is still number one because this platform, unlike any others, found a way to make Facebook a multi-use platform where people can instantly share their Instagram photos and Pinterest pins onto Facebook through posts. 

However, even with the popularity of Facebook throughout the world, our Franchise Public Relations Company knows that many users have grown fatigued of Facebook.  There are a number of reasons people have discontinued use both permanently or temporarily.  With such a work-centric society, many people just do not have the time to keep up with Facebook, or any other social media platform.  Our PR Agency also knows that some people have given up Facebook use because it has become a large distraction and has turned into a waste of time, and for some others, they plainly lost interest in Facebook because there was nothing appealing being shared.

With that said, our social media consultants would like to provide some tips as to how Facebook users can keep their content compelling and create and keep a large, interested following in franchise industry PR.

Promotional Offers:

When using social media for franchises one of the most important things you can do is give customers incentive to choose your franchise above the rest.  It is important to post promotional offers and coupons that are exclusive to Facebook users or new people to like the Franchise Facebook page.  Our Chicago public relations agency also wants you to post offers regularly.  By offering promotions regularly, you are increasing your chance of establishing a dedicated fan base and regular customers.  An example of this is ING Direct’s Café on Chestnut near the Water Tower in downtown Chicago.  They offer free coffee to any customers that come in and share a secret word or phrase that was exclusively shared via Facebook on Wednesdays.  This promotion alone brings in business and opens up the potential for customers to come in and buy more while coming in for free coffee.

Be Personable:

As Chicago Public Relations Franchise experts, we know that your franchise needs to set itself apart from the rest.  One of the best ways to do that is to add a little flare and character to your company.  A great way to do this is to post about the happenings near your franchise.  If you make your posts relatable, it will encourage interaction with your post via likes and comments.  Not only that, but our PR firm wants to make sure that your franchise has a distinctly friendly reputation.

Be Funny:

Our franchise PR experts want you to be fun and funny.  It is important to be careful when posting what your franchise may think is “funny”.  It is always nice to see employees in action or being silly, but still being professional.  Maybe your franchise manager spilled a container of sauce and he/she ended up looking like they showered in it, take a picture and have some fun with it by posting it.  People know accidents happen everywhere.  Embrace them and make it fun. 

As one of our public relations services, we would love to work with your franchise and have our social media consultants give you pointers to boost your Facebook following and keep your customers compelled and coming back for more information.  

Feel free to comment if your have any other advise to compel a larger Facebook following or contact us if you are interested in our services!

Tips For a Successful PR Career

As a Chicago PR Firm, we know it took us a lot to get us where we are today at All Points Public Relations.  Now that the spring semester has ended for most colleges and there are lots of graduates seeking professional careers in public relations, we have some tips for you.  Although we wish we had received some of these tips years ago at the start of our careers, a lot of the advice we have to give is learned through experience.

Know Current News:

One of the most important aspects of being a strong public relations specialist or agent is to stay current on news whether your read it online or through the newspaper.  When it comes to crisis communications, it is crucial you stay on top of the news to be a better advocate for a cause.  It’s best to stay on top of happenings in your industry because it will help you do business better.  Curiosity and knowledge is what makes for a strong PR agency.

Write Well:

The importance of learning how to write, and write well is more critical than you realize.  Believe it or not, short messages, paragraphs, etc. help to better convey a point than to be long winded.  Our social media consultants are experts in writing messages for social media sites to spark interest in our following.  You need to learn to catch a reader’s attention in the first sentence, if you don’t, you’ve lost their interest and they’ve already scrolled on.  Not to mention, you need to learn how to write grammatically and publicly correct to preserve a good reputation.  

Provide Solutions:

Our Chicago public relations franchise handles clients with dilemmas who need them solved frequently.  It is important to stay open-minded and learn how to change behavior and perception of others towards or about your client.  If you can be a person who can come up with solutions to a problem you will be well respected and a go-to agent.

Define Strategies, Objectives, and Tactics:

Part of our public relations services include clearly defining a plan for our client.  This means we define objectives, strategies, and tactics for a public relations campaign.  An objective for your PR campaign is to establish what needs to be accomplished, which should typically relate to your business goals.  Strategies are how you plan to accomplish the objective.  Lastly, tactics are the actions you actually take to complete the objective/goal. 

Learn From Mistakes and Own Up To Them:

We know that you don’t know everything, because we don’t know everything either.  However, you need to know your depth and expand in certain horizons.  Typically, we learn we need to know more when we make a mistake.  The best thing you can do is learn from your mistakes and learn what to do to make it better the next time around.  Always figure out ways to improve your PR strategies.

It’s All About Details:

There seems to be nothing that seems to irk an audience more than someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about or shares inaccurate information.Take your time if you need it, don’t be sloppy.  Re-read your work, double check your points and numbers, and make sure you know the answers to the questions of people playing devil’s advocate.

 

We hope the advice from our Chicago Public Relations Franchise will come in handy to any career-seeking graduates.  If you have any questions about our tips or have any advice as to what tips we should include in the future, please comment or visit our website!

How to Create Shareable Social Media Content

As a Chicago Public Relations Company, we know how important it is for our clients to create social media content that is interesting and shareable.  In today’s society, there is an abundance of information being spit out for people to read, but it’s important that our clients figure out their niche to stand out.  It’s not so much the quantity of the content that is being share as much as the quality.  However, a good combination of both is strongly advised by our social media consultants.

Here are our tips on ways to make your content shareable with social media for franchises. 

Be Heartfelt:

When it comes to what content is shared most on social media platforms, our PR firm strongly suggests you post content that hits the heart.  We think you should make your posts personable so that your fans and followers know that you care about them and what may be going on in the world.   Some of the largest trends on Facebook involve sharing a photo where an individual is holding a sign asking for one million like or shares for a specific cause like raising money for a non-profit or children holding a sign asking for “likes” to convince their parents they should get a new family pet. 

Act and React Quickly:

When something tragic happens or a dramatic event has occurred, it is crucial to take action and react to the event.  For instance, when the bombing in Boston happened, the public wants to know the all the details.  Being the first company or person to create truthful and informative content can go viral fast.  

Teach Your Audience What They Need:

Our Chicago PR firm knows not everyone is attracted to all new products that come out.  It’s important that you teach your fans in social media posts why they need your product or service.  In order to do this, you really need to tap into the personality and wants of your customers.  Once you know who they are and what they want, teach them why they need your product above the competition.

Think Like Your Audience:

We know that our clients think an idea, product, or post may be great, but as an experienced public relations firm, we know not everything is what it’s chalked up to be.  Walk a mile in their shoes, create emotional content worth connecting with. 

Be Funny:

People remember funny facts or funny moments.  Our PR agency knows that not all topics are humorous, but if there is something funny or relate-able worth sharing, chances are people will share your content. 

Stay Professional:

Our Chicago Crisis Communication Agency encourages our clients to remain professional and reminds them that they are socially responsible for the things they post.  It is important to remember that you cannot always post what you believe is funny or heartfelt because oftentimes, those things can be equally offensive.  Remember, when you post content on Facebook, everyone is watching.  Don’t find yourself in an embarrassing situation or in a crisis in need of our social media consultants.

These six tips should help your create social media content that is shareable and appropriate.  But don’t forget, it’s equally important to produce quantities of content as it is to produce content of great quality.

If you have any questions about creating great social media content, please feel free to contact us or comment!

How to Best Handle Crisis Communication

As a public relations professionals that specialize as a Chicago crisis communication agency, we understand that there are many different definition on how to handle crisis.  Regardless, our public relations services make sure that we can mitigate damage to your company’s reputation.  Typically, our Chicago PR Firm is trying to gain attention for your brand, however, not all stories are positive stories or have happy endings, and we are experts that can help you figure out how to communicate in those situations. 

We more or less are just trying to calm the storm that was created and manage any negative media.  A great example of how public relations firms manage crisis is similar to how Shift Communications describes putting out a fire.

Shift Communications writes, “In a crisis communications situation, something has gone wrong and your brand is on fire. There’s the something you did or something you’re responsible for – the fuel. There’s the tide of public opinion – the heat, the energy. There’s your speed of reaction to it – the catalyst. As with real fires, if you deny the fire any one of these sources, you break the chain reaction that causes fire and it burns itself out.”  Managing these situations takes a lot of strategy and experience.  If you make one wrong more or make one wrong statement, your reputation can collapse like dominoes. 

Our PR strategies and PR tactics include three key ideas to battle the storm.  Those three factors are ownership, information, and haste. 

Ownership: This is an important factor our Chicago crisis communications agency makes sure our clients are accountable for.  We know that there are times when a problem arises that we do not want to own up to, but it’s not right to just run away from the storm.  The more you take ownership, the more people will start to listen.  The more people try to place blame elsewhere, the more commotion stirs up.

Information:  A good Chicago PR firm knows how important it is that the public and the client remains as informed as possible of any discussion, rumors, etc.  If you let one false statement get by, a rumor can spread like wildfire.  If we inform the public as much as possible of the situation, our fact and the who, what, where, when, why, the better we can mediate or pacify the issue.

Haste: In the franchise PR industry, it is vital that all actions are made as quickly and accurately as possible.  The quicker we react, the less time there is for the public to speculate and potentially create rumors. 

Our Chicago public relations franchise recommends that all PR firms use the three key words above in any crisis situation their client is in the middle of.  We know that if you take ownership of the situation, inform the public of the truth and facts, and do the first two things quickly, there is a much better chance of a positive reaction from the public.  The longer the public waits to hear information, the more the wheels turn in their head to make them wonder what is really going on. 

Tips For Posting on Social Media Accounts

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As a Chicago Public Relations Company know the dos and don’ts of social media use.  We are social media consultants who know how fast word can spread online.  Social media allows information like tweets, Facebook posts, etc. to be shared through online word of mouth like rapid-fire.  It is important that you share and post about specific topics for your social media campaign to influence a lot of conversation and influence. 

Here are some tips on what you should share via Social Media:

Infographics- Our public relations firm thinks that Infographics are great because they are fun!  Infographics are an excellent way to share information in a way that is not so black and white.  Following a graphic chart that will show a map of progression is very appealing.

Newsletters- Our Chicago PR Firm knows that not everyone wants to subscribe to a newsletter to receive special offers or exclusive information.  When a newsletter is attached to a tweet, it allows the individual to read it while they are on the go.  If they like the newsletter, they can retweet it, and your newsletter can gain new followers instantly. 

YouTube Videos- Many people are visual people.  By including a video, you are stimulating a part of someone’s brain that does not require them to watch, but they can still listen.  This is especially important because many YouTube videos are clips providing information on how someone can build, cook, or create something on their own (DIY). 

Photos- People want to see what you are up to, where you are, who you are with and what you know.  A picture can say a thousand words and strike up a variety of conversations.  Including an image in your post makes is makes it simple for individuals to know what is going on in their social media feed without having to read.

Press Releases- Our PR Agency encourages our clients to share a press release about their brand wherever possible.  Sharing a press release about your company through your social media accounts will provide your audience with new exciting news. 

Lastly, our social media consultants advise that you remain personable through your social media use.  Share your humor, your music (as long as it’s socially appropriate and not controversial) and share any new or exciting things your learned about, read about, etc.  Make sure that you leverage your posts because if you post too much of the same content, it because white noise in news feeds and your information will just be scrolled over and scrolled by.