Successful Uses of Social Media in Franchise PR

Social media is all about being out there in the open. Being out there in front of people. So naturally, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and others are great for keeping your franchise public relations efforts in front of people. In addition to getting you noticed by the general public in an easy way, it is a great way to monitor the talk about your company and do any necessary damage control or crisis communications. 

So what are some ways that social media can really make an impact for your franchise PR efforts?

1. Monitor the chatter about your brand. People talk about companies on social media all the time; if you were to do a search for a company on twitter or FB, you would find they name coming up in tweets and posts and not just the ones coming from that particular company. You will be able to find their name and keywords there. So, you can see what people are saying about the brand, their thoughts, and who is a fan. 
2. Sharing the news. When you have something good happen or other news related about your company, social media is there for you to use as a vessel to let people know. Another great reason to spread the good news is for other companies (that you're friends with) and let people know you support other business. It looks really good for your company to show love to other companies. 
3. Post photos of interviews with exciting photos. When you have an interview with someone, take a picture of them with the interviewer and post it on your social media accounts, especially Instagram, as a way to promote the interview so people will watch it or read about it. 
4. Have special news exclusively for social media. Try to create a few special messages for social media when doing an interview or other events; include a sit for social media messaging. Write some tweets or FB posts about the information and just copy it onto your social media accounts. Why do this? It will help spread the news and doing so in an easy way. 
5. Let people know you're a resource. Journalists have resources to turn to for information that they need for stories; with your social media, you can establish yourself as a source for journalists. Check out their conversation about your industry and see what is happening. See when they turn to twitter for a request of information because you can be the first one to respond if you're fast enough. 
6. Keep watch for opportunities. Browse social media for journalist inquiries and insert yourself for your client and get them noticed. 

Social media is not just for fun and for the kiddos; it can be a real asset for a franchise PR agency and help them increase their results for getting clients noticed and their brands. 

Why Is Social Media Important?

Franchise PR has evolved over the years and become more digital and because of this, it has seen a lot of changes. One of the changes in the public relations has been the addition of social media. Social media is a powerful, powerful tool for companies to use because it enables companies to give news in real time and engage with consumers.

The ability to give news in real time and directly engage with consumers means giving companies a face, a personal image that people can see; it gives a whole new level to branding and public relations.

The reason being able to tell news in real time is because it reduces the likelihood of people making up their own stories in the time it takes between news breaking and for the story to be published. Since newspapers cannot rewind time and reprint that morning's paper, they have to run the story the next morning; while electronic newspapers have reduced this publication time, social media can still be and often is still faster. With the ability to type up a tweet, Facebook post, Instagram post all within a few seconds, no more 10 seconds, it is very easy to get news out there. Franchise Public Relations depends on quick response times and having accurate news. Perhaps the biggest principle in public relations is being quick to respond to news, good or bad, especially bad.

Social media has improved quick response times exponentially. For example, after an airline had a plane have a nose-landing at a runway at La Guardia airport, the airline immediately tweeted about the incident and let people know. Without social media, breaking the news of the plane's nose-landing would have taken longer.

Another reason social media has helped franchise public relations firms and companies in general is the ability to engage with consumers. With social media, consumers can voice themselves and let companies know about their complaints, praises, inquiries, etc and have them go directly to the company, who can then respond. Consumers can have conversations with companies. For public relations, the same idea applies; specifically, PR firms can have interaction with fellow PR firms and the media and get news out faster and accurately.

Public Relations and Social Media

Sometimes the world of public relations can become a world of stress when the outcome to a situation is not exactly what you planned for; or, when you have a situation handed to you, the PRP, and you have this massive job of getting it done and quickly. In history, there have been plenty of PR faux pas and they have costed companies business or worse, their reputation.

Social media has become a great tool for everybody. Companies use it for marketing, public relations , keeping up on current events, music, etc. If you have a message to get out there, even if it's for personal usage, then social media is most likely your best friend. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Youtube, Pinterest, etc have become assets for companies, especially marketing and Franchise PR Firms who want a free, easy way to do what they have been doing for decades.

When you have a mistake in PR, you have to be proactive and not wait to respond; waiting to respond or denying a response to a situation, it makes the situation look a whole lot worse, this is especially true when the PR faux pas happens on social media and/or the way to fix it is via social media. Every major PR firm knows that the best way to start a good response to a situation is to gather the facts, understand what is going on, and issue a response of integrity. Firms know that people who do not respond to a situation often have something to hide, or, they are irresponsible at conducting themselves, either way, it is not a good way to keep a good reputation. If the best way to keep your good reputation is to own your mistakes and the consequences, then that's what you have to do. Crisis Management teams know they have to be on top of their game and not slack off if they want to succeed, same applies for any other firm.

Social media is a great tool for PR firms since Twitter is designed for things like conversations about companies and especially for companies to interact with their followers/consumers. Unfortunately, companies have to be careful how they handle designed hashtag conversations on Twitter for PR purposes because they can go wrong quickly. When this happens, make sure to watch the conversation and where it is going before it goes wrong. If it does go wrong, then be proactive and try to correct the conversation.

A good idea for PR via social media is to organize things on a social media site, for example, if a company is releasing a new product, you can give exciting teasers for the new product via social media. With so many people on social media, they will definitely see it and react to it. If you are wondering if your publics will see the efforts, yes. The answer is yes. Every demographic is on social media of some kind and is on it at least a few times a week.

Whatever you do on social media for PR purposes, make sure you know what you're doing and that you have a game plan, and a back up for when things go wrong.