Why Facebook is One of Your Most Important Franchise Recruitment Tools

If you’re looking to sell a franchise, why not get social?

SPONSOREDUpdated 2:14PM • 07/07/16

Gone are the days when traditional media was the only resource franchisors had when it came to lead generation and recruitment. Social-savvy franchisors are finding success by tapping into the potential pool of social media-based leads. One question franchisors need to ask is, are you ready to log in and sell?

If the answer is yes, you may want to start utilizing Facebook to find your next franchise leads. Facebook offers franchisors the ability to target the right candidates, and communicate with them throughout the process. The social networking site is also beneficial to development teams by helping them narrow down their search of viable candidates.

Here are a few reasons why you should think about Facebook the next time you want to sell a franchise.

Target Practice

As of March 2016, Facebook has 1.09 billion daily active users. If that number doesn’t pique your interest, the social networking giant offers franchisors and advertisers a way to generate leads based on a variety of demographic information. That means it’s possible to wade through the sea of daily Facebook users to find potential franchisees.

For Adam Terranova, director of marketing for Philly Pretzel Factory, he has found success using Facebook’s targeting on both the retail and franchise development side.

“People don't realize how targeted you can get on Facebook,” said Terranova. “When you use a site like Facebook, you can dial in on the propsect you’re looking for. It allows you to be very targeted.”

Terranova also suggests that brands take a step back and look at the big picture when it comes to using Facebook for franchise recruitment.

“Start in a target market, remain consistent, and the leads will come over time,” said Terranova. “I feel like in social media and franchise recruitment you try to micro-analyze everything, and sometimes it's better to look at a macro-scale to see how it’s driving down the cost of a lead.“

Be Social

Don’t forget, Facebook is a social platform. That means, if you want it to work for you and your brand, you have to be social.

“Facebook is a very social and personal platform,” said Charles W. Smith, Jr., president of JAN-PRO of Southeast Louisiana. “People are on Facebook every day. Even if someone doesn’t necessarily know what they’re looking for, they can see an ad and it can stir an emotion and a call to action for them to inquire about it.”

The challenge to that, according to Smith is since the platform is based on being social, as a brand you have to be willing to engage with your fans.

“If you want to maximize success you can’t just put up a boosted advertisement,” said Smith. “You have to work at it and interact with people. You can’t just put an ad in the newspaper. Facebook advertising is fluid because of its social aspect. It gains momentum every time you touch it. You have to spend a few minutes or a half an hour every day in order to be responsive, answer questions and engage.”

Using that type of social engagement opens doors to more opportunities to connect with and solidify relationships during the recruitment process.

For Terranova and his team, they got social with a Discovery Day Facebook event.

After creating a lead list for the event, Terranova took the spreadsheet data from the registrants of the Discovery Day and created a target audience on Facebook to match the real leads they already had for the event. From there, Terranova set up an event and marketed it to the target audience he identified and instructed them to sign up for the event on the registration page.

“Initially, one out of seven people registered for the event,” said Terranova. “After someone would leave a comment on the event, we would contact them and send them a direct message asking them to register for the event. Overall the Discovery Day was very successful.”

People Come First

While using social media is a great way to generate leads, don’t forget that finding the perfect potential franchisee still requires face-time.

“Facebook is a great tool, but my conversations on the phone and getting people in the door is very relevant to our process at JAN-PRO of Louisiana,” said Smith. “It’s a conversation starter. Our success is through our integrity of the company. That’s what helps sell it.”

That same concept applies to Terranova and his team.

“The sales guys are the ones that are going through to find the right candidate,” said Terranova. “They are the ones who are digging deeper to see if the candidate is the right fit.”

Why Facebook is One of Your Most Important Franchise Recruitment Tools

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