The social media brand battle heats up


Who should ‘own’ your brand in the social media space?

By Craig Rodney

Managing your brand in the online and social media space is a daunting enough task, but when you add in the complexities of the franchisee and franchisor relationship, you soon find that there does not appear to be a ‘right’ answer to the question “Who should ‘own’ your brand in the social media space?”

In very basic terms, should a brand have a single presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, or should each franchisee be allowed to create their own profiles to represent the brand?

Unfortunately, the answer is not that simple because a brand, in the online social space, is the furthest thing from a corporate logo. Your brand is the collective of everything people say about you – their feelings towards you, their collective experiences and, importantly, their engagements with your online personality. Whether you like it or not, conversations about you and your products are happening all the time and they are not always pleasant. You have to be present and participate – not engaging is brand suicide.

With such a big responsibility and the reputation of your brand at stake, we have to tackle the question head on – is it the franchisee or franchisor who should control the brand in social media? Sorry, but again there is no clear answer. What I can do is highlight the aspects to consider when making the decision.

Centralised Control

Consistency is critical. Your brand should have a pre-defined personality, character traits and quirks. It normally takes a while for a brand to settle into a personality that works well, so start small and build up to it, but remember to always be consistent.

You want to be true to yourself and appeal to your target market. Keeping the correct tone and sticking to your message is vital in promoting a centralised control approach to social media. This means that the franchisor should control the brand’s social media presence. This does not however mean that the franchisee does not have a role to play, and we will discuss the role of the franchisee later on.

Consistency of Service

Providing services to existing and prospective customers is a primary concern for brands with an online presence. People will ask questions and advice, compliment you and berate you. Consistently responding within a reasonable time with high quality answers is vital to your online success.

When franchisees are allowed to create their own profiles, a company may end up with hundreds of profiles, most of which are not kept up to date. This may result in customers posting a question online and then not receiving an answer because the franchisee is no longer maintaining the profile - not an ideal situation.

Local vs National

A strong argument for allowing each franchisee to establish and manage their own social profiles is that it enables franchisees to create local relevance for their customers. They can attract a loyal following and share specials, events and locally relevant news. Having this type of contact with customers is powerful.

A single brand profile representing an entire country is unable to provide the same level of granularity and relevance. It can only really deal with national issues that speak to the customer base as a whole. This may cause franchisees to feel disempowered and left out in the cold.

When tackling this question, regardless of which way you decide, a decision must be made. Non-decisions create a situation where franchisees are creating all manner of online brand profiles with no strategy and no care for looking after it. This leaves franchisors frantically trying to pull everything together to give customers a consistent social media experience.

Tips for doing it right

Regardless of the direction you decide, the following is vital in ensuring the success of your social media adventures.  

1. Put it in the contract
Once you are decide on your path, put it in writing. Define the responsibilities of each party and make it binding. When push comes to shove, you need to take control of your brand, shut down rogue social profiles and ensure that franchisees are sticking to the plan.

2. It’s all in the strategy
Develop the strategy in partnership with all the relevant parties so that all parties’ interests are represented fairly. If the strategy only favours the franchisor you can be sure the franchisees will actively work against it. This will deliver consistency and ensures that everyone is working towards the same goals.

3. Education is key
There truly is no limit to the amount of training you can do. When you are building your social presence in partnership, is it necessary to educate everyone involved around the opportunities in social media and the ‘rules’ for achieving your objectives.

4. Single access vault
That’s just a fancy way of saying that no matter which profiles exist, the franchisor should always control the usernames and passwords. This protects the brand from a situation where a franchise has gone out of business, their Facebook page is still running and attracting complaints, but the franchisor is unable to access it either to respond or shut it down.

Personally, I am nearly always in favour of a single brand presence, created and controlled by the franchisor. It’s markedly easier to develop a personality, ensure high quality content, manage the queries with speed and consistency and market a single point of contact. It’s both cheaper and more effective. This does not mean it is always the correct way. In certain situations, ceding control to the franchisee is more effective at achieving the defined objectives, but it does make it harder to deliver an amazing social experience for everyone who comes in contact with your brand.


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