The article below is an excerpt from AIS Media’s Thomas Harpointner and FON’s W.C. Garth Snider’s white paper, “8 Critical Steps to Leveraging the Power of Social Media to Drive Franchise Sales”. To download the full white paper in PDF format, please click here.

A frequently updated blog with relevant articles can significantly increase a website’s search engine rankings.

More importantly, it can be a very effective marketing medium in which to set your franchise offering apart.

Integrating social media sharing features are a simple and time efficient way to help increase readership, engage audiences, and boost brand awareness.

• Design a blog that accurately reflects the brand image.
• Consider having a blog that is solely dedicated to franchise development. This blog can be post franchisee success stories, financing options available to the prospective franchisee, newest franchise unit opening, etc.
• Optimize your blog content with key words relevant to your industry and opportunity.
• Add social media sharing and Facebook “Like” buttons to each blog post.
• Encourage readers to share articles with their friends and peers.
• Invite readers to comment and be prepared to reply.