Acceler8Success Cafe

Social Networking and Business Growth: A Winning Combination

April 27, 2009April 27, 2009 · 6 Comments ·

Social Networking is the perfect answer to growing your business, economic downturn or not.

Over time, personal interaction within a social networking environment creates trust. In turn, it develops relationships, shares information, provides two-way communications, and provides points of reference for follow up. It creates a multi-tiered platform of information that benefits both business development and customer generation efforts alike. Often, simultaneously.

How are you using social networking (and Web 2.0 tools) to grow your business? Are you using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to full benefit? Need some questions answered? Post them below and we’ll be sure to answer them. If we don’t have the answers you need, we’ll get them for you as soon as possible.

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95% Will Maintain or Increase Social Media Spending

April 26, 2009April 26, 2009 · 2 Comments ·

The following article about Social Media spending was originally posted on the Forrester Research website. We’re sharing this article because we feel it’s an excellent follow up to our last article about social media marketing. All trends are pointing towards significant increases in social media spending.

Recession resistant: 95% of social media marketers will maintain or increase social media spending
originally posted by Josh Bernoff

Last year, we surveyed interactive marketers and found a strong desire to continue investing in social applications, even with a recession looming. Now the recession is here. What are they saying now?

Based on a more recent survey from December of 2008, they still will maintain or increase their social media investments. The full statistics are in a new report by my colleague Jeremiah Owyang called “Social Media Playtime Is Over.” Remember, in late ’08 the recession was nearly as gloomy as how it looks now. And yet:

1. More than half of interactive marketers plan increases in their social technology spending. (These stats are from 114 marketers currently using social media, out of the 145 interactive marketers we surveyed.) Only 5% plan decreases. Go ahead, name another marketing investment that’s anywhere near this strong in recessionary times.

2. The most rapidly growing categories are social networking, blogging, and user-generated content.

3. Remember that the base of this growth is small. While the marketers in this sample all come from companies with at least 250 people, three quarters of them are still spending $100,000 or less on these social technology projects. This is a drop in the bucket compared to other marketing expenditures.

This has reinforced what I’m hearing out there anecdotally, which is an awful lot of marketers asking for (and paying for) advice on this topic.

What’s driving this? As the executive summary of the report says:

These inexpensive tools can quickly get marketing messages out through interactive discussion and rapid word of mouth, and properly managed, can deliver measurable results.

The report includes recommendations for marketers. Here are some for my blog readers:

•If you are a marketer interested in social media, use these stats to get a realistic budget, then concentrate on measuring the results of your efforts to prove they work. Don’t dabble; dabblers will see their budgets cut. Social media playtime is over.

•If you are a consultant or recently laid off person, yes, this is a growth area. But it is one in which there are already an awful lot of experts. To become successful, concentrate on developing expertise in implementation, management, moderation, or measurement of social media efforts; that’s where the need appears to be, from the companies I speak with. In other words, social media playtime is over.

•If you are a technology vendor, case studies with proof of value will be far more effective than features, functions, and technology claims. If you can offer a consultative sale and handholding service, you’ll be a lot more likely to win clients and thrive in this space. Say it with me, now. Social media playtime is over.

Got it? What do you think? Is the recession halting social media efforts at your company, or encouraging them?

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Huge Growth Projected for Social Media, Mobile and Email Marketing!

April 24, 2009April 24, 2009 · 3 Comments ·

As the following article and graph points out, it is projected that social media marketing, mobile marketing and email marketing will experience huge growth through the year 2014. franchisEssentials has projected the same, and has geared up to provide clients comprehensive, technologically advanced marketing services and strategies. Complementing its own expertise and increasing success in social media marketing, franchisEssentials has recently aligned itself with several leading marketing and support organizations. To address email marketing and mobile marketing, it has entered into Strategic Partnerships with iVideo Makers (aka Franchise Video Makers) and Strategic Growth Concepts.

iVideo Makers bring an exciting combination of video and audio products that take email marketing to new levels of message delivery and professionalism. Quite frankly, nothing compares. It’s newest product, iVidMail is state-of-the-art and is used to create video email campaigns with extensive audio and video capabilities, complemented by an expansive tracking and reporting system.

Strategic Growth Concepts utilizes years of experience and expertise in mobile marketing and cellular technology to create successful mobile marketing campaigns for franchise organizations and independent small businesses alike. Utilizing more strategy than a particular product, and capitalizing on the increasing popularity of the iPhone and Blackberry, Strategic Growth Concepts keeps itself on the leading edge of the rapidly expanding mobile marketing market.

franchisEssentials has also entered into Strategic Partnerships with Arment Dietrich PR, Open Box, SmartFinds Marketing and AssociAD. These highly successful organizations are focused on public relations, custom software development and tech support, internet marketing and direct mail marketing, respectively. franchisEssentials is excited by its ability to offer clients extensive and comprehensive marketing and emarketing services, as a one-stop marketing and development company, for years to come.

Forrester Predicts Huge Growth for Social Media Marketing [and Mobile Marketing and Email Marketing]
as posted on Marketing Pilgrim Friday, April 24th, 2009 by Andy Beal

Forrester Research is holding its own conference (Forrester’s Marketing Forum 2009) down in Orlando and has just revealed its predictions for the growth of online advertising. The bottom line is that social media and mobile will be the hottest, but just about everything will see an upward trend.

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Changing Sign From Franchise to Independent and the “After-Effect”

April 23, 2009April 23, 2009 ·

“What is the effect on a business if you take down the brand name sign and put up an unknown brand?”, was a recent question for discussion in a couple of the LinkedIn franchise groups. The question turned into a good discussion as there were over fifteen responses but I was surprised there was minimal reference to legal obligations and potential ramifications under the franchise agreement. Below, please find a few of the comments submitted, including my own. As we have done in the past, the names of the responders will only be identified as their LinkedIn description and their names will not be included in this forum. Upon reading the comments please free to include your own at the end of this article.

Award Winning Franchise Sales Specialist and Business Consultant said: That is a very good question. This is purely antedotal experience but what I have noticed in two industries;

Hotels- Drop-off is immediate. However, only about 10% of the revenue typically comes from the sign itself. It is the lack of a global reservation system that has the greatest effect.

Real Estate Companies- Slower but I typically saw a decline of revenues of up to 50% over a much longer period. ie. 5-7 years. Was this because of the sign or lack of tools and systems that the brand provided.

As a zee and a zor I would never sell nor buy a brand merely on the benefits of the sign. It’s the tools, systems, and experience that the brand provides that is of most vaule to small business owners.

CEO/Founder & Managing Partner of a franchise consulting firm chimed in: The question is too broad to to have a strong singular answer.

A McDonald’s owner (just using an analogy for comparative purposes) with a six of seven figure marketing budget and with an organization that has a 55+ year history, deeply embedded in the American culture would be committing commerce suicide.

However, I have been a part of a franchise where a number of the franchisee’s left the system in a service business; having established their capability, customer service commitment and frankly a strong book of business. Still they lost sleep, hair and either gained or lost weight before having made the decision.

How much of who you are is about you, your service, your relationships, your ongoing knowledge and the trust you have developed compared to the value brought by the company branding?

Secondly, taking the sign down only one part of the thought process. You may or may not value the marketing or positioning that the franchise has established but are you gong to be able to replicate it? Are you also going to have the time and the competency to evaluate both the future of the service, its technology and it’s market while continuing as it’s operator? Do you have the professionalism, time and organization to replace the things that the franchise should be providing?

Things that make you go hmmm…or, if they don’t, they should.

Founder, Owner and President of a franchise consulting firm added: I think the best example I can provide has to do with a brand that has been with my family for 4 generations now, Dairy Queen. Most of us have seen the iconic mansard red roofs of Dairy Queen and the image box out front. Some have seen these businesses close down and become all kinds of businesses. In fact just within a few hours drive of my house these former DQ’s once serving those glorious soft serve treats are now Taco stands, Cuban sandwich shops, nail salons, and I even saw one that was a puppy store.

Not good for the brand indeed.

As a DQ franchisee, I can tell you that when this type of thing occurrs it definately DOES impact the neighboring franchisees who remain in the brand. Without question it forces consumer to question the concept. They question everything from the strength of the brand, the tastiness of the food (in this example), and even the cleanliness of the other stores.

In my opinion it is ESSENTIAL for brands to completely demark so that every traceable sign of the former brand is extinguished. Franchisors who get lazy about this hurt their concept.

Of course, I participated in the discussion and added my views accordingly: Let’s not forget the resale value as a franchised brand as opposed to selling the business as an independent and all that goes along with it including attracting more potential buyers, proven business sytem, training, support for the new franchisee, advertising commitments, etc.

All go a long way especially if having to carry some paper is the only way to make the deal happen. Which might very well be the case in today’s economic environment.

Certainly the seller would feel more comfortable financing part of the deal if the business was still a franchise as he knows there are systems to follow and reporting to home office that will somewhat keep the business in line. As an independent, there’s no telling what direction the new owner would take and for how long. What condition would the business then be in if the business needed to be repossessed and operated again by the previous seller?

…It’s just flat out suicide!

I also added the following statement: Personally, the chance of total failure would be far greater as an independent. If the decision is made to take down the franchise sign, then why not solicit franchisor’s assistance to sell the business and then use the proceeds to open as an indpendent. If necessary, negotiate with the franchisor to waive non-compete, etc.

Quite frankly, I believe no one would take this route because they probably feel it’s just easier to operate the current business as an independent because the business is already up and running. In the end, most decisions to de-identify is a matter of not wanting to pay royalties. So, I say, live up to the franchise agreement and if so desired, exit with dignity and your reputation in tact.

An interesting note: The large majority of responses were submitted by franchise consultants. Although most of the consultants were former franchise company executives or franchisees. Only a couple of responses, and brief ones at that, were from current franchise company executives. As stated above, it’s another one of those things that make you go hmmm…or, if they don’t, they should.

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Media Can Make or Break a Franchise

April 22, 2009April 22, 2009 · 1 Comment ·

The following is an informative article submitted by Guest Author, Gini Dietrich, Chief Executive Officer at Arment Dietrich PR. The article focuses on building relationships with the media and provides tips for communicating and interviewing with reporters. Gini fully understands franchisors’ public relations and communications needs and will be speaking at the upcoming Franchise Finance and Development Conference in Las Vegas. Recently, while participating in the International Franchise Association Convention in San Diego, Gini was interviewed on The Franchise Show, where she discussed communication tactics using social media to develop new business and networks for company growth. Arment Dietrich PR is among the country’s fastest growing boutique public relations agencies. Their motivation is a relentless drive to find new and better ways to help clients boost their businesses and bottom-line results.

Media Can Make or Break a Franchise

I have people say to me all the time, “any ink is good ink, right?”

Wrong! Please see AIG, Merrill Lynch, any of the automakers…pretty much any Wall Street company in the past year. Any ink is NOT good ink. You must think strategically through which media outlets make most sense for your franchise, build relationships with those reporters, and provide them with content, interviews, and access to executives they couldn’t otherwise get on their own.

Media can make or break your franchise and it’s VERY important you treat every reporter you come in contact with as if they are your most important VIP, regardless of how you feel about their past or current reporting.

Paul asked me to think about some tips for helping you with your communication needs. These are some of the tips we give to our clients when we train them on how to work with, talk to, and respond to reporters.

• If a reporter calls, wanting to interview you for a story, ask them what they’d like to discuss and what their deadline is; then promise to get back to them in less than 24 hours or in enough time to meet their deadline.
• Call your PR firm for a quick key message refresher. If you don’t have a PR firm, think about what you want the story to say about your franchise after it’s told and write down two or three things you don’t want to forget to tell the reporter.
• If the reporter submitted questions (we always ask for questions in advance), write down your answers. I do this and I have years and years of experience, working with reporters every day. Don’t ever go into an interview blind.

A few interview tips that can help in any situation:

• Be honest—A lie to the media can be very damaging. If you don’t know, say so.
• Be believable—Credibility is vital to getting your message across.
• Be personal. Use the interviewer’s name once or twice in the course of the interview and look at him/her.
• Anecdotes play well, but only if you have a story that makes a good point for your side.
• Be concise—Remember that a 10-minute interview may wind up being 20 seconds on the air or three lines in a newspaper. It is essential to crystallize your thoughts in a few hard-hitting sentences.
• Eliminate extraneous words and phrases. Do not be verbose. If a reporter is silent, do not keep talking. They likely are trying to write down what you just said. Let them do that before they ask the next question.
• Do not answer hypothetical questions.

And, above all, NEVER, EVER SAY NO COMMENT! If I hear from Paul that you were quoted as saying “no comment” or that you were “unavailable to comment,” I will come to your office and yell at you myself.

What media interview tips do you have that can help readers here?

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New Laws Threaten Multi-Unit Owner Growth and Expansion

April 21, 2009April 21, 2009 · 1 Comment ·

The following article was recently published in the International Franchise Association publication, Franchising World. The article addresses future franchise growth as potentially being affected by several bills expected to be considered by Congress. If the bills become law, the negative effects could be dramatic.

New Laws Threaten Multi-Unit Growth and Expansion
“Perfect storm” of organized-labor legislative proposals is aimed squarely at multi-unit owners.
By Matthew Shay
as published in Franchising World April 2009

Multi-unit franchise ownership continues to increase in popularity as a growth strategy for franchising. Data show that since 2004, multi-unit operators control almost half of franchised units and about 20 percent of franchisees are multi-unit operators. Industry-research firm FRANdata expects the growth to continue as more franchisors embrace multi-unit operators, and the established field of professionally-managed and sizable franchisee-owned companies gains popularity.

This growth, however, could be threatened by a “perfect storm” of three separate organized-labor-related bills expected to be considered by Congress. If enacted into law, these measures could derail the franchising industry’s ability to provide jobs and boost economic output to their local communities. The eye of this coming storm is aimed squarely at multi-unit restaurant owners.

The Employee Free Choice Act, known as “Card Check;” the Healthy Families Act; and the Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradesworkers Act, called “RESPECT” by its proponents, all sound harmless enough. However, despite the use of words like “choice,” “healthy” and “respect,” these bills, if passed, could result in the largest expansion of government interference into the free enterprise system since the New Deal.

Card Check would eliminate secret-ballot elections and require only signatures on cards to organize any segment of workers in a business, even in just one store. This means that you could walk into one of your stores on a Monday morning to find that a simple majority of your clerks had signed union cards over the weekend. Congratulations! You are now bound to a union such as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and you only have a few weeks to negotiate a contract before a government bureaucrat imposes one.

The Healthy Families Act would require employers with as few as 15 employees to provide seven days of leave—with pay—annually to all full-time employees and a pro-rated amount of leave to part-time employees. Employees could take the leave in increments as small as six minutes with no notice and no documentation, and workers would be entitled to the leave almost immediately. Employees would be allowed to report to work an hour late in 56 different instances or be 15 minutes late for 224 days. In many cases, employees could do so without any notice, and the employer could not discipline the employee or require documentation. If this is enacted, you would either have to hire additional employees to be sure your shifts are always covered or not be able to service your customers’ needs adequately.

The RESPECT Act would change the statutory definition of “supervisor,” effectively making your managers and staff, who you rely on to manage your daily operations, members of a union. Your managers or supervisors would become part of a bargaining unit potentially making staffing decisions based on union membership rather than merit, ability or your established staffing policies.

IFA certainly supports an employee’s right to unionize and to be treated fairly and equitably, but these laws would jeopardize the basic tenets of franchising—being able to establish uniform processes and operations throughout systems. And if you own multiple units, you could very easily be affected differently from unit-to-unit, wreaking havoc on your company.

The likelihood of these laws being passed is high. To defeat their passage or make them less onerous, the franchising industry—franchisors and franchisees together—must work harder than ever to ensure that lawmakers in Congress understand the severe consequences on small businesses.

We are actively developing educational programs and other member services to better meet the needs of multi-unit operator-members of IFA in all franchising sectors. And our new Franchise Congress will be designed to step up our grassroots efforts by providing the tools and information needed to get all members more engaged politically.

It is more important than ever to have single and multi-unit franchisees involved in IFA to help defeat laws that restrict the virtues of the franchise model. As the old adage says, “there is strength in numbers.” That’s the key to success for all in franchising.

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Social Media and Franchise Lead Generation

April 20, 2009 ·

Mark Siebert, Chief Executive Officer of the iFranchise Group, one of the leading franchise consulting companies, recently wrote an excellent article about Social Media Marketing, and how it can be used to generate franchise leads. Mark explores the world of Social Media Marketing while defining it as the fourth part of effective franchise lead generation strategies. I believe Mark is spot on in his thoughts and views of Social Media Marketing. For the benefit of all that may not have read the article as of yet, I have listed the article below.

Enter the Fourth Horseman
Social media is the next lead generation site
By Mark Siebert
As published in: Franchise Times – April 2009

By virtually all accounts, the Internet represents the single biggest lead source for most franchisors. Yet despite its dominance of the franchise lead generation market, a significant number of franchisors simply do not use it effectively.

It is little wonder. The traditional troika of Internet lead generation – organic search, Pay-Per-Click, and portals – are all designed to keep us off balance. Organic search engine optimization techniques change almost weekly, as the major search engines try to improve their search algorithms and SEO companies strive to catch up. Pay-Per-Click advertising, by the very nature of the competitive bid process which serves ads, can require frequent strategy changes in an effort to stay a step ahead of the competition. And franchise portals, which now number more than 100, represent the primary focus for most franchisors’ Internet marketing strategy.

Read more…

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Franchise Fined $300k AND Criminally Charged!

April 20, 2009April 20, 2009 · 1 Comment ·

Here’s an interesting article about a franchise being fined $300k for dumping oil down a drain. In addition to the fine, the franchisee was criminally charged. Although the liability may not extend to the franchisor, this sought of thing could escalate into a public relations nightmare.

Oil Down Drain Draws $300K Fine
as posted in The Lube Report (Industry News from Lubes-n-Greases), April 15, 2009

Heartland Automotive Services Inc., the largest U.S. Jiffy Lube franchisee, issued a public apology and will pay $300,000 in fines after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor charges of discharging oil into the Austin, Texas, sewer system, the Travis County district attorney announced Thursday.

The conviction on three counts of violating the Texas Water Code followed an investigation of a Heartland Jiffy Lube store on Burnet Road in Austin, Texas. In September 2007, members of the Texas Environmental Task Force executed a search warrant at the store. A subsequent investigation revealed employees routinely discharged oil and wastewater into the city’s sewer system with the knowledge of regional and district managers. The $300,000 fine is believed to be the largest for a Texas Water Code violation in Travis County, and possibly in the state, according to the district attorney’s office.

“We’ve closed that [Burnet Road] location, not because of this situation, but it was part of our rationalization of our store base as part of our bankruptcy last year,” Ralph Tschantz, Heartland Automotive marketing vice president, told Lube Report. Heartland emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy early this year. Tschantz said it is “highly doubtful” Heartland would ever reopen the Burnet Road store. “We have another store maybe half a mile down the road,” he added.

Heartland Automotive has an EPA expert on staff who has been through the Austin area market about three times, according to Tschantz. “As a result of the settlement, we’re going to go through those stores one more time and make sure they’re absolutely bulletproof,” he stated. “We have 31 stores in the greater Austin area. Our learning from this is to be much more attentive and go forward.”

Sgt. Jonathan Gray, lead investigator with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Environment Crimes Unit, stated that the “pit” at the Burnet Road Jiffy Lube location would flood every time there was a major rain. “It was a nasty mixture that was discharged into the City of Austin sewer system, and oil has a great potential to damage the environment,” Gray said. “Here, we caught it early enough to avoid a more serious problem.”

“What they had set up was piping and a pump that pumped [oil and rainwater] from the pit to a sink upstairs,” Travis County assistant district attorney Patty Robertson told Lube Report.

As part of an agreement, the district attorney’s office also ordered Omaha, Nebraska-based Heartland Automotive to issue a public apology that appeared in the April 9 Austin American-Statesman newspaper. In the apology, Heartland stated that the offenses relate to disposal of a mixture of oily water in 2006 and 2007. All the incidents occurred prior to Heartland’s entry into bankruptcy in January 2008.

“In addition to the $300,000 fine agreed to as part of the settlement, Heartland has invested in remediation efforts and training in its Austin operations to ensure any similar situations do not occur,” the company continued.

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Franchise Sales & Space Mountain: An Odd Comparison?

April 13, 2009April 13, 2009 · 1 Comment ·

The great thing about social networking, that has been missing from online franchise lead generation, is the “meeting place.” It’s a place where a candidate gets to know the people in the know as well as on the fringe; the concept’s customers. So, let’s define the “meeting place.”

The “meeting place” is anywhere online where cyber identities gather. Ok, it’s where people network on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, just to name a few of the most popular sites. I just wanted to be geeky cute so forgive me for the humor.

Anyway, in these social networks, individuals meet with others, share information and learn new things. In this process, if they’re looking for a franchise or business opportunity, they’ll seek out information that may assist them in the process. Through referrals and discussion groups they may be exposed to “experts” in their particular field of interest. Experts that may have the answer to what they’re looking for.

But, would they trust a direct push right to a website full of information? The answer is no because they’re only “hearing” it from one source. They need to have full understanding which the website may help provide. But before that, they need to “see” and “hear” what others have to say. Others that know what’s going on. Others that have experienced the service or product as the end user. Others that are the “operational” people. Where does the candidate find that online? Is there a place online that is not intimidating and so one-sided that it creates a level of discomfort as opposed to excitement to proceed?

Yes, there is such a place. For one, a Facebook fan site of the concept, could be just the right place. A landing zone so to speak before being launched to the company website. This non-intimidating site may have a cross platform of many different individuals “talking” about their views, positions and experiences with the company as a candidate, a franchisee, a corporate executive or a customer. It’s in this zone that the franchise candidate learns about the practical side of the concept, the pros and cons as they are conveyed from different individuals, and they get to “see” the experience of the concept itself through the “eyes” (comments) of others.

It’s kind of like standing on a line for a ride at Disney World where the time up until the ride takes off is the Facebook site and the ride itself is the concept a franchise candidate is considering. On the long line for the ride, you kind of know what to expect and the anticipation builds as you move along. But, you just don’t jump on the ride, right? You first go through the info stage. You read the general signs at the entrance. You hear directions and watch videos along the way. Sounds a lot like Social Media, doesn’t it?

Further along, you see the caution signs. You interact with other guests on line. You share what you have heard about the ride with others and them with you. You interact with the ride personnel as they usher you to the ride itself. There, you interact with the people who just finished the ride and you see the excitement and joy on their faces. Now you’re ready for the experience yourself. Hold on tight because as the ride leaves the station, YOU”RE COMMITTED!

Of course, franchise sales are not quite as easy or simple as anyone who has ever presented a franchise sales opportunity can attest. But when you consider the building and infrastructure of the ride and the time spent developing the ride concept, the design of the structure, the projected ride experience and the large financial investment, it’s easy to see how both a franchise opportunity and a ride evolve the same and ultimately have similar objectives; to encourage participation, create a positive experience, instill a desire to do it again without remorse and to share their unique experience with others.

The one key thing that Disney has that may be lacking in many franchise organizations is “attention to detail.” It’s the little things along the way that create the desire, justify the value and establish trust that the Disney name brings to the experience. Is it ironic that key components of a sale are need/desire, value and trust? Are you ready for the Disney-ish way of selling franchises? If you are, then you’re ready to sell franchises through social networking, social media and all the other goodies that make up Web2.0!

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