Join us to hear David Murray discuss “De-Mystifying Social Media and How to Make Social Media work for Your Business.”
Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Time: 7:30 AM — 9:00 AM
Ravinia Club
2 Ravinia Club Drive
Suite #100
Atlanta, GA 30346
David Murray (@DaveMurr) is the Social Web Communications Director for re:group (www.regroup.us), a fully integrated marketing and communications firm in Ann Arbor, MI and member of SEFF.
David has created fully integrated digital and social media campaigns in the health care, franchise, nonprofit, and both B2B and B2C sectors. David is a national speaker on digital communications and social media best practices. He is a published author on the subject.
Come, learn, and share your ideas with the group.
Bring your questions, too!
Advanced Reservations Are Required***
Deadline for Reservations is Friday, August 5th at 3 PM. Non-Members of SEFF and Guests Pay $15 per Breakfast Meeting.
We’ve stated this before many times, and it something we firmly believe. Social Media is not about media. It is about communication. How are you as a business or organization going to communicate to your audience? Notice we didn’t say market?
This is what social media is all about. QR codes are great. Facebook will eventually rule the planet, but we will always need to communicate, and communicate well with those we want to pay attention.
This is a reason my title is Director of Social Web Communications. We want to emphasize that we help and teach our clients to communicate in the digital landscape. And as a communications firm we are discovering that many industries are still tripping over the social media road bump. They still don’t understand what social media is and how social works.
The reality is that many organizations have to learn, or re-learn how to be social. This can’t be taught by simply setting up Twitter account or a blog for the client, and then walking away. Education is key.
Franchise owners are, by definition, local business people. They pride themselves on having a local presence, on being locally owned and operated. But when it comes to appearing to be local, well, that’s a different story.
Even though we know that local marketing, local listings and social media play a huge role in bringing in franchisee business, corporate marketing departments are often slow to adopt social media programs. There seem to be so many barriers for them, like who will run it, who will “approve” the content, do we have enough staff to take this on, what guidelines need to be put in place in terms of content, what about legal issues, and so on. And so on.
There has long been an argument about who owns the brand and who is responsible for social and digital communications. Is it the franchisor or the franchisee? Should franchisors have full autonomy over messaging? Or should individual franchises be in charge of their communication as it relates to the communities they serve? This is a heated ongoing discussion, and it appears there isn’t a clear cut answer. One thing is for sure, though. When corporate marketing stops caring about what their franchisees have to say about their local markets, franchisees stop caring about compliance.
One way to keep both happy is to communicate a central brand message through multiple digital media, while allowing individual franchisees the latitude to build their own social networks. Through templates for local websites, facebook pages, blogs, twitter and other vehicles, zees can engage their customers on a local level, and truly appear local instead of corporate.
Of course, both corporate and system want these outlets to appear professional – that’s why it’s good to invest in some upfront training. Seminars or webinars on how best to use social media, what works best in the digitial marketplace and how to keep a handle on it. If done well, these training sessions provide a great way to increase visibility and connect with customers.
We are always listening and learning at re:group. Here is an update on where some of us will be this Fall and information on how you might participate.
September 28, 2010 Social Media Club of Detroit presents Scott Stratten’s #UnBook Tour
6 – 8PM at the Detroit Public Library. Scott Stratten is the President of Un-Marketing.com. He is an expert in Viral, Social and Authentic marketing, which he refers to as un-marketing. Over 60,000 people follow him on Twitter. David Murray, our Director of Social Web founded this club. If you are interested please let us know, we would be glad to have you join us as our guest. For more details click here.Read more »
Last week, on the suggestion of good friend and business associate, Rob Falls of Falls Communications, I drove to Cleveland to meet with a couple interested in expanding their franchise business. So I did some homework on the company, put together a basic introductory deck on our capabilities and point of view on branding, hopped in the car and headed for Cleveland not knowing really what to expect.
On arrival at the first store of this small but growing franchise, the founder and his wife shared their story and their treated me to a sampling of their product (which was great). We then did a brief reconnaissance of several other franchise locations and settled in to talk about their situation.
They are at a critical point in their development where they have a solid, differentiated concept, they have successful stores open and people interested in buying their franchises. Now they are considering what is truly required for exponential growth. Does it require additional people? Capital? If they seek outside investment does it mean loss of control?
It was pretty clear they could use some help. But not help developing marketing materials or even marketing strategy. They needed help determining what their options were and what they personally wanted to do. My advice to them was to join the International Franchise Association or at least attend the IFA conference in February. I offered to introduce them to successful people in their category and my friends at Focus Brands, Dwyer Group, Service Brands and Service Master who have built successful multi-franchise systems. They understood immediately that it would be a good thing to talk to others who have been where they are and have done what they are trying to do, and were grateful for the advice.
Driving home I felt really good about the trip. I was profoundly grateful that 30+ years of serving franchise companies and 25 years of IFA membership have created this incredible network of franchise professionals I can reach out to and help others connect with. No, the day will probably not directly result in any immediate revenue for re:group, but I hopefully made two new friends in the industry and look forward to helping them determining how best to grow their business. As my friend Scott puts it, it was a deposit in the Karma bank that ultimately will be repaid in kind.
Here are some worthwhile events to consider. We’ll be there – either speaking or attending.
May 12th: “Telling Your Story” at Ann Arbor Spark. For details and to register go here. Rhonda Huie, re:group’s creative director is a panelist.
May 12th: ‘Salute to Women’s Leadership” Noon Luncheon at Washtenaw Community College, Morris Lawrence Building. Susan Martin, president of Eastern Michigan university is the featured guest speaker. The event honors, Lisa Hesse, Ann Mattson and Ellie Serras. For more information contact carey.jernigan@regroup.us.
May 21st: Atlanta Franchise Alliance. Networking with about 75-100 like-minded franchise types, at the PaperMill Grill, Atlanta, Georgia, from 5-7PM. re:group is your host. No. charge. For more information contact carey.jernigan@regroup.us.
June 2nd: Southeast Michigan Women’s Franchise Network, topic:“Innovation”. Sponsored by re:group and featuring panels Linda Girard, Pure Visibilty; Kevin Ward, uRefer; and Linda Daichendt, Strategic Growth Concepts.
So, a bunch of us re:group folks just spent about 45 minutes waiting in line in the rain and sleet to get free ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day. Jan got Cherry Garcia, Kendra chose Strawberry Cheesecake, Katie picked low fat Chocolate Fudge Brownie frozen yogurt (like she needs low fat? geez…!), Ashley and Sharon got Half Baked and I selected the Mint Chocolate Chunk.
The re:group team lines up for Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's
Sure, we’re suckers for anything free, especially when it’s as amazing as Ben & Jerry’s. But, for us marketing folks, it’s the idea behind the event that really makes this special.
For those of you who don’t know, Free Cone Day started 30 years ago when Ben & Jerry (the guys) decided to thank their customers for being loyal fans of their ice cream. Every since that tasty event, Scoop Shops spend one day each year passing out free cones to anyone willing to stand in line for it.
Aside from being a great way to get people to sample their product, it’s also a highly visible demonstration of what’s at the core of their brand. Ben & Jerry’s has a three part mission statement, giving equal value to social, economic and product initiatives. At the heart of the mission is the idea that all three parts must thrive equally in a way that creates deep respect for individuals both inside and outside of the company, and that they must support the communities of which they are a part. Everything that Ben & Jerry’s does is held to these standards and evaluated in relation to this mission.
So why does Free Cone Day make so much sense? Because there’s nothing contrived, conjured or concocted in Ben & Jerry’s display of gratitude to their customers. If you’ve been to a Free Cone Day you’ve probably witnessed how excited the staff is to be scooping non-stop all day and how much fun they’re having making people happy.
Sure, it’s an opportunity to make a big PR splash and to get folks to try the products. But, it’s much, much more than that. It continues to be a way for local franchise owners, staff and corporate operations to live their brand, to demonstrate that Ben & Jerry’s cares about their community and to bring a little euphoria to people’s lives.
Franchise owners are, by definition, local business people. They pride themselves on having a local presence, on being locally owned and operated. But when it comes to appearing to be local, well, that’s a different story.