Social media has become one of the most important aspects of digital marketing. Many opportunities lie within the bounds of social media that you can utilize to attract franchisees, connect with other relevant accounts and gain brand awareness.

As you set out to leverage social media to attract potential franchisees, keep the following best practices, in mind:

Know your Audience

Before you construct your first post, share your first photo or create any digital strategy, it’s extremely important to know your audience. Being familiar with your intended audience will allow you to construct posts, campaigns and communicate in a more direct sense. In this business setting, our ideal audience would consist of potential franchisees. The term, potential franchisee, isn’t a very specific visual of who we want to reach out to. But, simply knowing that one umbrella term can drive your content down a narrowed and more focused road.

After identifying that our content should be driven toward those who have an interest in owning their own storefront, you can think about some possible target personas that will get you headed in the right direction, content-wise. For example, one target persona could consist of “Fitness Phil” who has been interested in health and wellness for some time, but just hadn’t known where to start. Phil is in the right place, financially, to begin his journey as a franchisee and you can utilize your newly acquired social media skills to seal the deal.

Keeping your goals in mind, it will become exponentially easier to broadcast your message to potential franchisees, like “fitness Phil”.

Engage with others in your Industry

When it comes to simply gaining awareness and getting your word out, connecting with others that are involved or interested in your business can help tremendously. Identifying what others have been doing on their social media and finding what works and what doesn’t work can serve as a visual template for your brand. In addition, it never hurts to make friends along the way. By growing your network through channels that provide such immediacy and efficiency, you could potentially be finding clients, employees, franchisees and other people in a position to help you grow your brand.

Gaining followers, friends and connections will allow you to increase overall traffic, grow brand awareness and receive recognition through likes, comments and shares.

Create, share and maintain your message

Keeping in mind your goals and your target audience of potential franchisees, you can begin to create your content. Put yourself in the potential franchisee’s shoes and think about what you would like to see through social channels.

Catchy, action-oriented statements like “Be your own boss!” and “Begin your journey with The Lash Lounge today!” can encourage people, like “Fitness Phil” to take that next step and discover franchising opportunities.

Be authentic, timely and consistent

Once you have established a social strategy to reach your media-related goals, it’s important to keep an authentic presence. Maintaining transparent and consistent communication with your followers will ensure their loyalty to your brand and increase your overall online interactions.

In addition, responding in a timely manner is essential to an effective digital presence. Once potential franchisees take that step to reach out, contact and inquire, they will be relying on you to answer questions clearly and respond punctually.

Consistency is imperative to your brand. Creating content that is all geared toward one common goal will give your followers and friends a clear depiction of your message. On nearly any and all social platforms, your content should flow. Photos and captions that compliment each other work together to attract people to your page.

Add some flair!

Social media is unique with how much freedom you are given to attach photos, videos and links to embellish and give your posts an extra aesthetic element. The more often you utilize attachments of photos, videos and links, the more interactions and reach you can obtain through that post.