Social media for dealers/franchises is more than setting up a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn account for every location. These are the tools, the applications. As head office, you need to take the lead on developing your communications and social media strategy. If you don't, someone else will.

1. Harnessing the Power
of Social Media within
a Dealer / Franchise
Network

2. 1
Harnessing the Power of Social Media
within a Dealer / Franchise Network
Does this sound familiar?
Your customers’ online activity is growing at what seems like the speed of light. They’re researching,
reading reviews, and finding the information and recommendations they need before ever heading into
a retail location.
Your corporate social media presence is taking shape and a number of motivated dealers/franchisees are
actively cultivating their own following.
But, if you’re like most dealer/franchise or network brands, chances are you’re still struggling to wrap
your arms around the question of social media when it comes to corporate versus local involvement.
The trouble is that tweets, posts, comments, and reviews are cropping up at an ever-increasing pace (and
there may be no one currently managing the messages, channels, or frequency of these conversations).
The result?
An inconsistent brand experience for customers – a common issue for dealer/franchise networks. And this
inconsistency manifests itself in many forms including:
• Regulatory compliance issues because of unfiltered real-time conversations
• Damaging or inflammatory content posted that affects brand equity without any planned response
• Customer service requests which are not being followed up on
• Disgruntled customer or employee complaints that are being shared across networks
• Confidential company information being posted by employees
How can you manage the chaos
and deliver your brand across
all customer touch points?
Step 1 – Define your social media presence.
Step 2 – Decide who owns content
generation and community management.
Step 3 – Develop your social media program.
THE ANSWER
THE QUESTION
THE ANSWER
THE QUESTION

3. 2
Social media offers an ideal way to build relationships in a dealer/franchise system both corporately and
locally. The challenge is deciding on how you structure your social media presence. This can take three
basic forms: corporate only, local only, or shared corporate and local.
Option 1. Corporate Only: A single corporate social presence.
CORPORATION
CORPORATION
NETWORK CUSTOMER
NETWORK CUSTOMER
CUSTOMER
• Example: Knowledge First Financial, a new
player in social media, is a financial services
organization focusing on educational savings
programs targeting parents. Because of
regulatory compliance requirements they
are starting with a corporate Facebook page
only, without any supporting local pages.
Step 1 – Define Your Social Media Presence
Marketing in a dealer/franchise network is unique. The corporation is the brand steward – the
brand is given life locally through the dealer/franchise locations. Your customers build an affinity with
a corporate brand, while developing the relationship and trust with your organization as a whole through
the dealer/franchisee.
Option 2. Local Only: No corporate social outreach presence.
All communications done through local social networks.
• Example: Jack Astor’s, a restaurant
franchise with locations across
Canada, has Facebook presence
for each of its locations with no
corporate page. CORPORNETWORK CUSTOMER

4. 3
TIP
For companies just getting into social media, choose the channel most popular
with your customers and focus on doing it right, not doing it everywhere.
• Example: Harley-Davidson Canada
has both a corporate Facebook
presence as well as individual
retailer pages.
Option 3. Shared Corporate Local: Corporate social presence complemented
by individual dealer/franchisee presence.
JAN Kelley’s Recommended Approach: Shared
Consistent with our views on marketing within dealer/franchise networks, we believe the ideal social
presence for dealer/franchise network brands is one that is shared. The corporate brand communicates
directly with customers and also to and through its dealer/franchise social networks establishing brand
consistency and messaging while enabling local engagement. Many organizations are at different phases
of their social media adoption and will start with a corporate presence and move toward a shared model
over time as they work out the kinks.
CORPORATION
CORPORATION
NETWORK CUSTOMER
NETWORK CUSTOMER
CUSTOMER

5. 4
Step 2 – Decide Ownership of Content Generation and Community Management
Within each of these overall basic structures, the way communications and customer engagement is
managed can also differ. It is important to determine who will develop content, make the posts, respond
to feedback and provide reporting. For simplicity, we’ve narrowed it down to three main communications
management models: centralized, dispersed, and collaborative.
1. Centralized – Corporate head office has full control over communications through their social
channels. No posts made directly by dealers/franchisees. Dealers/franchisees can submit content
to Corporate for posting.
2. Dispersed – Dealers/franchisees manage all communications with no direct corporate control.
Corporate can influence and support dealers/franchisees by providing approved content, training,
policies, etc.
3. Collaborative – Both the corporation and the network manage communications together.
The corporation focuses on overall brand messaging while dealers/franchisees deliver local content.
The communications management model you select, works in conjunction with the social media presence
you decide upon, and each has their own strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, the best fit between
social media presence and the communications management model needs to be determined through
discussion and alignment between Corporate and the local network.
Centralized
OWNERSHIPMANAGEMENT
CORPORATE ONLY LOCAL ONLY
PRESENCE
SHARED
Dispersed
Collaborative
Strong brand consistency,
minimal local content.
Highest level of corporate
control.
Strong brand consistency,
limited unique local content
unless input received from
dealer/franchisees. Lacks
opportunity for corporate
brand messaging.
Strong local content, limited
brand consistency.
Strong brand consistency
and local content. Lacks
corporate brand messaging.
Strong brand consistency,
limited unique local content
unless input received from
dealers/franchisees.
Strong brand consistency
and local content. Strong
relationship of trust between
Corporate and network.
Strong local content, potential
for disconnect between
corporate and local messaging
(“every man for himself”).

6. 5
JAN Kelley’s Recommended Approach: Collaborative
Brand stewards at the corporate level must engage the dealer/franchise channel to bring the brand to life.
So, not only is a shared presence most closely related to the ideal dealer/franchise network framework,
so is the collaborative management model for content development and deployment.
The corporation has the responsibility to support the dealer/franchisees with the tools they need to
effectively communicate the overall company brand message to their customers through local channels.
Local content and customer engagement is paramount and creates the closeness and trust customers
look for from their neighbourhood dealer/franchise location. Corporate can also then communicate
directly with customers at a broader strategic level and utilize the social channels for customer service,
brand communications, public relations or other corporate objectives which then supports and augments
local messaging. As a result, this structure can provide an overarching, clearly identified brand presence
in the market, while allowing for strong customized local content and personalized customer interaction.
Step 3 – Getting Started – Developing Your Social Media Program
You’ve chosen your presence and management models. You can now focus on developing your social
media program. Corporate must lead the charge to provide the guidance and support necessary for
successful customer engagement through social media marketing.
To build your social media plan, consider the following:
1) developing your communications strategy,
2) creating the processes for enabling brand engagement, and
3) supporting the effort with systems and tools to encourage collaboration and support.
Communications
Strategy
OVERVIEWELEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
Processes
Develop and share the overall
communications strategy and
implementation guidelines for
the network
Design the network management
structure to be used at the
corporate and local level
• Set the tone and personality for the brand
• Create the overall brand promise
• Provide brand and content guidelines (from logo use to
tone and content development)
• Determine the core social channels and define the set-up
requirements (profile pictures, “about us” content, etc.)
• Develop the editorial calendar annually with ongoing
updates shared with all stakeholders
• Determine the internal structure for social media community
management (e.g. separate department, part of Marketing,
Sales, IT or Public Relations)
• Select the social media management system to support the
network (e.g. HootSuite [Pro or Enterprise],TweetDeck,
SocialWare, etc.)
• Define the roles and responsibilities of the corporation versus
the dealer/franchisee in managing the social network
The table below outlines key steps and critical considerations:

7. 6
OVERVIEWELEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
Processes
(continued)
Systems Tools
Create the social media policies for
use across the entire organization
Develop the communications
structure to ensure all stakeholders
are kept in the loop on content,
issues, and campaigns
Implement a “listening” and
reporting structure
Provide training and support
programs for social media marketing
• Social media management and guidelines within the
dealer/franchise contract
• Employee and customer posting guidelines
• Content management guidelines (post frequency, response
frequency, etc.)
• Crisis management
• Use existing dealer/franchisee communications channels
already in place
• Develop a central repository of content and updates that
can be easily accessed by local community managers
(e.g. Sharepoint, marketing resource centres)
• Set up dealer/franchisee advisory committees to support
content development and campaign implementation
• Develop and publish objectives and success measures for
social outreach
• Provide reporting templates for franchisees to provide
engagement statistics
• Set up monitoring protocols and train employees on use
of monitoring tools (e.g. Meltwater Buzz, Radian 6,
Facebook Insights, etc.)
• Optimize how the corporate and local retail social
media presence will complement each other from both
a relationship and content strategy perspective
• Encourage dealers/franchisees who currently do not have
a social media presence to understand how to develop a
local strategy and engage customers online
• Train selected dealer/franchisee personnel on effective use
of social media applications and the adopted social media
management system
Providing the dealer/franchise network with the strategies, processes, and support tools for managing
social networks locally ensures that a consistent brand experience can be provided to the customer.
Setting the expectations upfront also ensures greater trust is established between the corporation and
dealers/franchisees as all parties are clear on their roles and responsibilities within the overall company
social network.
Regardless of which model you choose, make sure you have the time and
resources to successfully implement a program. This includes the right:
• Skillset (trained personnel)
• Toolset (policies, guidelines, applications)
• Mindset (recognition of the value of social media)
TIP

8. 7
How can we help?
Social media is a communications channel that lets businesses directly interact with their customers and
other stakeholders. JAN Kelley Marketing can help you work through all the considerations necessary
to develop a social media solution that fits with your organization’s unique dynamics. Based on a long
history of working with dealer and franchise networks, we can assist in developing your social media:
• Administrative and management structure including selection of a social media
management system
• Communications and content strategy aligning both corporate and local requirements
• Reporting structure including competitive analysis and social “listening”
• Policies and guidelines
• Training and franchisee support
• Community management programs
• Promotional campaigns
We work directly with both corporate and dealers/franchisees to ensure the best solution is implemented
for your organization.
Looking to get more social? Contact us at 1.800.461.7304 to get started.