Does your message bite?

Recently I was talking with a client about all the distractions prospective customers now face from a myriad of sources and the challenge to gain their attention. 

Certainly I'm not the first to post on this.

Family life in general moves very fast.  Add in a healthy dose of Internet and Social Media, that mobile device on your person and that bigger tablet on the table/desk/nightstand to normal advertising exposure from the various media we consume and the noise is becoming almost overwhelming.

When one then tries to get a point across in their messaging, even if face-to-face or on the phone, we're fighting on these distractions that the recipient's brain is trying to process.

Cognitive Overload

There is a science behind all of this which is well documented in Nicholas Carr's fascinating and Pulitzer nominated book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. Shallow is the key word here.

One of the salient points is for information to be retained and acted upon, humans must be able to transfer information from short term memory to long term memory and back again in an organized fashion.  Short term memory can only hold a very small amount of information.  When the load on the short term memory exceeds one's ability to store and process the information, it is not retained.

Carr goes on to reference experiments that "indicate that as we reach the limits of our (short term) memory, it becomes harder to distinguish relevant information from irrelevant information - signal from noise" 

In Torkel Klingberg's The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory , he says that when our brain are overtaxed, we find "distractions more distracting". Real and imagined Attention Deficit Disorder can be tied to overloaded short term memory in some studies.

So if your own experience and observation supports this premise of scattered attention,  as sellers, how are we going to deal with it?

Sound Bites

Having a media background, that's my answer.  

The media figured this out a long time ago.  From politicians to eyewitnesses to on-air teases, the nature of their news format requires them to be succinct.  And by being succinct, they get the point (story) across.  Look how John Stewart and Steven Colbert use sound bites to paint their nightly canvas.

Today 140 characters in a Tweet and the (expected) limitations of a text message are trying to keep the cognitive overload of each message in check.   Of course, the quantity of these short messages consumed has a detrimental impact.

There's a reason why Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and most recently Twitter are focusing on photos.  YouTube provides all lengths of videos, but think about how long you're willing to watch!

Best practices for traditional outdoor billboards are no more than 7 words

It's just easier to digest a short message or a picture and the odds of the message transferring to long term memory and lining up with other information stored there increases.

If you're going to have meaningful and memorable impact on a prospect, you've got to be succinct and speak in short sound bites.

The rule of 3

A couple of years ago I read The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience.  A master presenter and communicator, there is a whole book that analyzes how he did it.  There is an entire chapter citing the power of the rule of 3.  Study and after study shows that humans learn better, retain more and are able to process information when presented in threes.

Think about how many concepts are presented in three.  From the 3 Stooges to Gold/Silver/Bronze to "Ready/Set/Go" to the way US Marine Corp divides it's troops, the rule of 3 is a proven effective way to communicate. 

The author reminds us that when presented with disorganized non-familiar information, the listeners' brain is working overtime and while listening to you is also "conducting their own internal dialogue"

Think ahead about the conversation you're going to have with a prospect.  Borrowing from Steve Jobs' success, write down the 3 messages you want the prospect to come away with. When you've gotten those 3 points across, and depending where you are in the process, consider ending the conversation so the prospect can digest and contemplate your messages.

When I was responsible for franchise sales and development, I had a number of sound bites made sure I injected into each step of the sales process.  Some of my favorites that I thought could flow through from short term to long term memory included:

"We don't sell franchises, we award them"

"Go into business for yourself but not by yourself" 

"We're looking for 'Frantrapreneurs' - Independent individuals who can follow a process"

I also tried to use analogies to help explain more complex ideas and/or important points I wanted to get across, but always tried to end the analogy with a memorable sound bite I hoped the prospect would retain.

Takeaways

So here are the 3 things to take away from this post:

1.  Sound bite your key messages

2.  Test the messages on others to ensure they resonate and are memorable

3.  Plan ahead for each conversation and try to limit your key messaging to three.

There's a ton of noise out there.  The adult human brain can only process so much information at a time and only a fraction will be retained.   You've got to work harder than ever to make sure your signal punches through.

Here's my parting sound bite:

Be Succinct, Be Meaningful, Be Memorable

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My Top Ten Favorite Moments at the 2014 IFA Convention:

1. Sunday's Prayer Breakfast - @ChrisConlee "Sustained Focus = Sustained Success"...
2. ...and his 5 Questions to help figure it out:
   • What are you naturally good at?
   • Historically where have you excelled?
   • Where do you consistently excel at today?
   • What do you do easily that is hard for others?
   • What do you that gives you the most compliments?
3. Nancy Friedman, @TelephoneDoctor Session - If you are in almost any role in franchising, you need to know the "5 forbidden phrases" and all the rest of her nuggets.
4. Tweetup - Meeting new friends and catching up with my tweeps
5. Tech Summit - While being a part of the planning and admittedly #biased, the future is here and several of the leaders in the space spoke and/or lead roundtables.  
6. FranJam - These sponsoring companies deserve a lot of credit and thanks for funding such a fun event.
7. Leon Panetta - Exceeded my expectations. "It doesn't matter if you don't fight."  A potential VP candidate 2016??
8. Cheryl Bachelder/Popeyes  What a great communicator, breaking down the Zor/Zee - multi-stakeholder success model into very clear terms
9. The nice round of applause our Marketing and Technology Committee gave me Saturday morning as I stepped down from my Vice-Chairman's role with my retirement.
10. The Photo Booth in the Exhibit Hall.  What can I say?

And two moments I missed that I hear were great:

1. Mary Thompson's (mkennedythom) Keynote at Saturday's Leadership Conference
2. Google's Todd Rowe and his Tuesday morning keynote "The Digital Road Ahead". I noted the tweet from @franchising411 - "Google would have to grow 35 times to equal franchising's 2.1 trillion output"

Reflect on what were yours.  Keep to yourself to act on, or please comment here and/or post to FranSocial

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Top 5 Things About Retirement I've Learned So Far:

Wow!  It's been over 2 months since I retired.  After working, in some capacity, since I was fourteen and the past 28 years with Valpak and it's parent company, this is a very interesting change.  I've really enjoyed the opportunity to catch my breath, smell the proverbial roses and celebrate crossing the finish line.  

Here are the top 5 things I've learned so far:

1. Time seems to go even faster than at work.
2. Taking a step back and recharging will probably help me live longer.
3. Technology is your friend.
4. Sleep is good. 
5. The perspective from atop the forest is different than within the trees.

I haven't retired from life, so I am doing limited franchise sales/development consulting.  If I can provide some value to you and/or your organization, I'd enjoy the opportunity to chat.   See you in New Orleans!

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How Franchise Professionals Should Use LinkedIn

I had the opportunity to write another article for the November 2013 issue of the International Franchise Association's monthly magazine "Franchising World".   I hope you will take 5 minutes and read it and let me know what you think.

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Today's the Day

I retired today after working professionally in radio and direct mail since I was a junior in college.

Here's what I did over the past 37 years:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddleiser

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Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

My wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary last month in Charleston, SC attending the Southern Ground Music and Food Festival.  Now in it's 3rd year, this combines Grammy award-winning country music superstar Zac Brown's passion and appreciation of excellent musicians and great food.

The purpose of this post is not to recount our personal experience but to compliment the organizers and musicians and share just a little bit of the marketing magic that made me spend nearly $1000 for 2 two-day tickets.

If I were to write about this, it would likely be a ten-minute read, but luckily the organizers put my blog post in a 2 minute video.

Over 20 music acts, 2 stages, an up-close to the stage opportunity, a VIP Lounge with an open bar and dinner each night, air-conditioned clean bathrooms, phone-chargers and even a Ferris-wheel were just part of the experience.  As a marketer, I appreciated the sponsors they were able to incorporate.  Landshark Beer and Jack Daniels are two of Zac Brown Band's tour sponsors, but they also brought in Capital One and handful of other companies, some local to Charleston and Nashville (the other festival venue in September).

From the venue layout, the sponsor signage, the product activation, the merchandising, the pre-show patron communications, a mobile app, the stage theatrics/video wall, social media integration on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, plus the follow up videos and photos, it's inspiring to see an outstanding music artist surround himself with talented marketers!

While Zac and team are making a lot of money from this effort, they are giving back by building a camp for children with special needs.  Some of the proceeds from the event went to Camp Southern Ground

Good job!

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I have nothing to say...

I realized today that I haven't posted anything on this, my personal blog, is quite some time.  I hate seeing that my last post was mid-June.

Where did the summer go?

More importantly, how come I haven't had anything to post?

I did start a new blog for my role as Director of Franchise Sales at Valpak, and perhaps that's where my blogging focus has been.

I also wrote an article that will appear in the November issue of the International Franchise Association's "Franchising World" magazine.   I'll post it here too, once it's published.  It's on a topic I'm pretty passionate about and will likely write about again in the future - how we all are misusing our LinkedIn profiles.

So in the meantime, here's how I spent my summer (vacation):

NASCAR Race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Park

Picture I took in Chatham, Massachusetts

The Boston Bombing Memorial

Sonoma & Napa Valley 

9/11 Memorial New York City

It's also been fun watching the Tampa Bay Rays play "September" baseball ALL summer, helping old friends move out and new friends move in, making the annual trek to Washington DC to visit our Congressmen's offices discussing the franchising industry's key issues, and seeing our son continue to develop his personal and professional life.

I hope your summer was fruitful too.

I'll be back next when I DO have something to say.....

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My New Car gets 47 MPGs

In mid- April I took delivery of a 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid. It's advertised to get 47 Miles to the Gallon. 47 MPGs! Are you kidding me. There is no way!!

But that's what the 100% non-ethanol, flat test track, no air conditioning running, EPA-tested rating says that the Fusion Hybrid should get both city & highway.

I'm not getting 47 MPGs....

but despite that, I'm thrilled with the vehicle and would highly recommend it.....to most people.....but not everyone.

 Here's why I'm thrilled not be getting the 47 MPGs:

• I never expected to get 47 MPG. 
• I don't drive on a flat test track
• My gasoline has 5% ethanol in it 
• And I live in Florida! Air Conditioning is a way of life at least half the year. 

I am averaging over 40 MPG and for a car this size, I'm well ahead of the pack. I can drive 16 miles to work in the morning and use a seemingly thimble full of gas. The route I take averages 45 MPG. This morning I was able to get over 50 MPG.

But, you have to work it.   There are guages on the dashboard that help you manage the use of the 2 electric batteries on board, which recharge when you brake and from the gas engine.  You can't floor it or speed up to a stoplight and brake.  You have to essentially drive at or near the speed limit and manage your foot and the accelerator.

So now I drive more like my grandfather and see more tail lights passing me than I'm used to, but I so much am enjoying the drive, the car and the scenery.  To the best of my calculations I now arrive at my destination 5 or so minutes later than I used to.  And I'm enjoying a nice calm driving experience.

I have 2500 miles on it so far

Listen, driving a Ford Fusion Hybrid, with the Microsoft MyTouch dashboard command center and it's 8" video screen, the EV guages and the 12 speaker Sony sound system, is an amzing joy.  Having owned Lexus, Infinity & Mercedes, I must commend Ford for what they have created and if you are looking for a fuel efficient, amanzingly inexpensive, well built amazing new car, I can't recommend the Fusion Hybrid any more adamantly. 

You won't get 47 MPGs consistently, but you will love this ride!

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Does your technology work like magic?

Recently I had a technology-challenged weekend and I thought I'd share some thoughts about it.

At the same time, I heard some great comments related to technology from two of tech's top thought leaders:  Jack Dorsey (Twitter & Square) and Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media)  

First my technology challenges (have any of these happened to you?):

• My Fitbit went through the washing machine (currently residing in a bag of rice to dry out)
• While working outside in the yard, I seemlessly bluetooth-connected my iPhone to my Jawbone Jambox  and then to tried connect my iPhone to my iTunes library just inside the house through the "Sharing" function on the iPhone music app.  It wouldn't connect.
• I took some nice pictures with my iPhone at a street concert Friday night and wanted to edit them on the device using one of my various photo apps.  I like iPhoto, but it has so many capabilities it is actually confusing and I couldn't get the photo the way I wanted it (and the software claimed it could).
• I finally bought a wireless camera to be able to monitor the house while away.  The setup instructions and step through from the manufacturer were perfectly clear and simple.  Except, they forgot to include the one important step of connecting the camera to the computer one time.  Unbelievably, this was not included in the instructions and I had to spend 20 minutes researching on line.  Once this step was included, the camera worked perfectly and wirelessly. 

Meanwhile in an interview on CBS's 60 minutes on 3/17/13, Jack Dorsey talks about taking his staff out to the Golden Gate Bridge, which he describes as "the perfect intersection between art and engineering.  It has pure utility."  He goes on to say that his point to his colleagues "is that when people look at the bridge, they don't think about the commuters or how it functions.  They admire its simplicity and beauty and good software should work the same way".  He goes on to say (regarding software, technology, bridges) it should just work!

Tim O'Reilly,  in a recent presentation at Stanford, refers to Jack Dorsey's commerce Solution, Square, as working like magic because the app, the device and the technology leverages all the capabilities of the mobile device.   It's a great talk, primarily about mobile, exploiting the device's technology to create simplicity, and available here.

Having been involved in digital technology for most of the past 15 years and observing friends, family, and co-workers who aren't geeks, don't care to be geeks and won't invest the time into figuring out how something works, it has become clearly evident to me that the winners (today and in the future) will be the technology that "simply works" like magic.   Where one doesn't' have to think about it or invest time in it to make it works.

Here's the money quote:  (and this is true for all business, regardless of whether there is technology involved or not)   "It just has to work....every time".  

Think: 'light switch'.

So as I think about my iPhone again.  These are the apps that I don't have to think about and work "like magic" for me:

Brewster

Evernote

Flayvr

Flipboard

Stitcher

WatchESPN

Waze

What do you think?

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Social Media's Split Personality for Franchise Sales and Development

On February 17th I will be a panelist in a day-long Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) class at the International Franchise Association's 53rd Annual Convention in Las Vegas. To prepare, I have talked to a number of Franchise Development Execs and Third-Party Social Media/Marketing Professionals over the past month and the data I've collected tends to put Social Media strategy for Franchise Recruitment into 2 camps:

1. Using social media to engage 1 on 1 with prospective franchise candidates through social media channels primarily with group discussions on LinkedIn and advertising/messaging on LinkedIn and Facebook. I didn't hear much about direct success with Twitter, G+, and the others. This is a time-consuming "needle in a haystack" type of approach that requires dedicated resources but has proven to be able to deliver franchise awards.

2. Using social media platforms as drivers back to a franchise sales BLOG and/or franchise sales website. This sounded much more like a marketing play than a "traditional" use of social media as franchisees do on the consumer side, to provide that 1 on 1 "conversation" with customers. It's simply another channel, albeit important channel, to drive eyeballs to your brand's story that really resides on other website or blog platforms.

Throughout it all, however, the common theme is that franchise candidates will access your brand's social media channels as part of their due diligence and validation, so you better keep up with it and pay attention to the content.

If you are a Franchise Development professional or industry supplier, what do you think?

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Are Ya In or Ya Out? - Franchising World December 2012

I contributed an article on Social Media and Franchising for the International Franchise Association's "Franchising World" magazine.

Here's the digital version



......and the text version:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Are ya in or ya out?"  I remember an old newspaper salesperson who would make his rounds every week to local shop owners and ask them that question.  "Are ya in or ya out" was his way of asking if you were going to advertise that week....or not.  

There was no in-between. 

And the same is true for social media.  Either you're in or you're out.   There really is no in-between.  

If you want your brand to be relevant in for now and the future, you really must be IN.

See the sidebar for some compelling reasons why you should commit resources and effort to incorporate social media into your branding and marketing TODAY.  For both franchisor and franchisee, a well executed social media strategy can generate:

• Increased Sales
• Strengthened relationships with existing customers
• New Customers
• Enhanced Customer service
• A Consumer research tool
• Traffic to your website

Now, there are some challenges that go with this which could be show stoppers:

• What are the roles of the franchisor and the franchisee?
• How are you going to measure the results?
• What resources will be invested?
• Is the effort going to be fully supported from the very top of the organization & will it be funded properly.

This last point is the most critical.

The franchising world has the opportunity to take the lead in integrating social media into their branding & marketing strategy.  Franchising has the key components:  Brand names, local entrepreneurial operators at the point of transaction, marketing & social media strategists and other resources at the franchisor level, and most importantly, customers.  Lots of customers.  The conduit for social media success..... are the customers.

So, let's break it down.  Zors and Zees have common goals - how much money do they both keep at the end of the day.  Of course that creates tension sometimes, but healthy unit economics typically make for a good day.... for everyone.  And fundamentally, this is driven by sales.  So as dollars are considered for social media marketing investment, it's easy to say, it's being implemented to increase sales.  Done right, using social media as part of your brand & marketing strategy can increase customer count, frequency, average ticket......and all of the goals listed above.

A couple of franchisors who are leading the way are Tasti D-Lite and Moe's Southwest Grill.  Tasti D-Lite literally wrote the book on how to do this ("The Tasti D-Lite Way.  Social Media Marketing Lessons for Building Loyalty and a Brand Consumers Crave").  Both brands said their critical step was having buy-in from the very top.  Not just an okay and budget, but having leaders who engage in social media themselves and fully endorse the brand's efforts.  Additionally, specific social media campaigns should have specific goals, knowing that they all eventually roll up to the ultimate objective of increased sales.

Increasing your relationships with current customers online is no different than offline.  A happy customer will spend more, make recommendations and referrals, and likely increase their use of the product.  Simply being diligent about responding to customers' brand related digital activity begins to accomplish that.  Over time, this becomes part of the fabric of the brand and the brand becomes known as customer focused and responsive.  But, you must be passionate and unrelenting. 

As an example, Moe's social media monitor saw a tweet from a customer who, from a store location, said  "I didn't get my "Welcome to Moe's"  By monitoring in real time, seeing the tweeter's profile, they called the store, gave a description of the customer from her Twitter photo and the manager found the customer while she was still in the restaurant and he personally welcomed her to Moe's.   Think about all the benefits generated from that one spontaneous act.  The customer now has an enhanced impression of the brand, her loyalty logically has increased and she used social media to tell perhaps hundreds of others about Moe's. 

This is the social media customer conduit in action.  

Many brands are at least at this stage where they monitor mentions of their brand while they figure out what else to do, what the goals and strategies are, and try to find budget.  Brans must now figure out how to take it to the next stage of what will be perceived by the customer as a random act of your brand really caring about their experience.  Customers have different expectations for different products, services, and concepts.  You know your typical customer demographically.  Now you MUST figure out what their expectations are for social media interaction.  If you meet those expectations, the magic happens. 

Some will say it's easier for a food concept to engage customers.  There tends to be more passion for food than perhaps Home Inspections or Staffing.  That said, HouseMaster utilizes social media for customer satisfaction follow-up.  They also make use of their social media tools to monitor consumer satisfaction with their franchisees.   This is yet another output of a well-integrated social media strategy.  If there are opportunities to enhance that image through regular monitoring and then follow-up coaching sessions with the franchisee (if necessary), one could almost justify the investment on this benefit alone. 

So the answer to the question of whether you're in or you're out, has to not only be a resounding "yes" and it has to start at the top. Realistic goals based on your concept must be established with specific measurement agreed upon for each campaign and a realization that sometimes it may be more gray than black and white.  If the end result is simply a more personalized "human" impression of your brand from current customers, you still win the day.  A positive feeling can lead to increased loyalty and recommendations, "shares", tweets , likes and other social media jargon. This is what used to be known as "word of mouth". We all know that this ultimately leads to more sales, which drives stakeholder value, which is the foundation for every brand. 

So.....Are YOU in or ya out?

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Why don't brands follow their customers on Twitter?

I recently realized that I haven't posted since August.  Not that anyone is distraught with the lack of attention to this blog, but I should keep up with it, right?

I do have an excuse of a couple of weeks of personal vacation, some business travel and working on an article on “Using Social Media as Part of an Effective Brand/Marketing Strategy" for the December 2012 issue of the International Franchise Association's "Franchising World" Magazine.

Oh, and I do have my day job which fortunately has been extremely busy.

Anyway, in doing the research for the Franchising World  piece, and as an extension of my August post here, I thought it would be interesting to not only look at the top Franchise Brands' number of Twitter followers:

Concept	Twitter  Followers
Subway	753,749
McDonalds	717,350
Taco Bell	268,049
Chick-fil-A	198,263
Dunkin	177,346
Buffalo Wild Wings	171,343
Dominos	149,033
Pizza Hut	136,513
Wendys	126,148
KFC	108,176
Jimmy Johns	103,530
GNC	94,249
Arbys	70,557
Burger King	68,740
Chilis	66,272

as of October 14, 2012

But, also having just re-read the terrific "The Tasti D-Lite Way", I thought I'd see how many franchised brands reciprocate and follow their followers.   In the book, Jim Amos and BJ Emerson discuss "Social Anxiety", the need to have more fans or followers than the competition.  This "viral envy" puts focus on quantity vs. "quality of engagement, and reach and impact".  

Throughout the book, the authors reference their strategy to follow their followers (and it shows the list below).

Why not follow your followers as well?

There are probably many reasons:  I'd bet Number One is "not enough resources to actively separate the signal from the noise".   That can be a legitimate reason, but there are lots of tools available to help.

So here's the Top 15 franchised brands, now ranked by the ratio between how many accounts follow them and how many they follow:

Concept	Twitter Followers	Twitter    Following	Ratio
Tasti D-Lite	7,903	7,681	97.2%
Perkins	1,363	1,288	94.5%
Interim Health Care	2,370	2,227	94.0%
Arbys*	70,557	61,805	87.6%
Carl's Jr	28,642	20,485	71.5%
Bojangles	4,622	3,200	69.2%
Hertz	18,593	12,831	69.0%
Home Instead Senior Care	1,026	657	64.0%
Great Clips	5,001	3,117	62.3%
Hardees	15,052	8,312	55.2%
Applebees	37,082	19,870	53.6%
TGI Fridays	17,535	9,247	52.7%
Churchs	8,761	3,917	44.7%
KFC*	108,176	48,302	44.7%

as of October 14, 2012
* in top 15 of total Twitter followers


What do these franchised brands know that most other brands don't?

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The Most "Liked" Franchises on Facebook

Back in April at FranCamp 2012, I spent a fair amount of time beginning the conversation of the advantage Big Brands have over Small Brands on Facebook.

Over the summer,  I took some time to do a down and dirty analysis of Franchised Brands' relative rank in Facebook "Likes" compared to their overall size, based on world-wide sales.  I'm not a researcher so this nothing scientific and you could have done it if you wanted to invest the time.

So since I did invest the time, here are the results of simply looking at the top 100 Franchised Brands from the 2011 Franchise Times report and looking at the number of "likes" they have on Facebook.

Some quick observations that may not be very surprising:

1. Of the Franchise Times Top 100 Franchised Brands, 47 are Food concepts and they completely dominate the top "Liked" Franchised Brands.  
2. 43 of the Top 50 "liked" Franchised Brands on Facebook are all Food.
3. The Top "Liked" Non-Food brand is GNC with nearly 600,000 likes
4. The ONLY other Non-Food brands in the Top 50 "Likes" are Ace Hardware, am/pm, Snap On Tools, Curves and  UPS Stores

Now here's where it got interesting for me.  What's the delta between the brand's rank in the Top 100 (again, based on system-wide world-wide sales) vs. their rank in Facebook "Likes"? 

Note:  I did not include the Lodging and Real Estate Brands in this analysis because, quite frankly, they're a mess.  Most of them have so many different local properties and franchisees with pages that I couldn't come to a simple conclusion on their aggregated "likes" without a ton more time invested (wasted).


Here's my analysis

It's interesting to see the biggest deltas between the Sales rank and the Facebook rank.  These brands are the top ten overachievers:

• Krispy Kreme
• Jimmy Johns
• Five Guys
• Hooters
• Bojangles
• Buffalo Wild Wings
• Zaxby's
• Long John Silvers
• Baskin Robbins
• Steak N Shake 

Those restaurant brands that have opportunity to grow their "likes" based on their sales rank include:

• KFC
• Wendy's
• Burger King
• Tim Horton's

Since I started this blog post back in May and finished it in early August, I have another cut of the data that shows the growth of "Likes" for the top brands.   Generally, the growth per brand was between 5-8%.  Not bad for essentially 90 days.

What stood out was the growth that 5 brands enjoyed:

Chick-fil-A  -- Gained 1.1 million "likes" (+22.6%)

KFC  -- Gained 818,000 "likes" (+35.9%)
iHop --= Gained 581,826 "likes" (+33.3%)
Sonic -- Gained 496,962 "likes" (+33.4%)
Applebees -- Gained 592,000 "likes" (+23.7%)

and relatively small, but Red Robin added 164,985 new "likes", an increase of 44.1%

I wonder if the Chick-fil-A growth was due to its recent "Appreciation Day"?  But what about KFC??  Hasn't their marketing been more active recently?

Once again, here's my analysis including the growth.

All in all, this was an interesting project.  The leader of "Liked" Franchise Brands continues to be McDonald's with over 21 million "likes" followed by Subway with 15.6 million, Taco Bell (nearly 9 million), Buffalo Wild Wings (8.2 million) and Pizza Hut (8.1 million).

How's this compare to other brands?

The Top 5 product brands I was able to find are:

Coca-Cola - 46.5 million
Converse - 32.4 million
Starbucks - 31.2 million
Red Bull - 29.1 million
Oreo - 27.5 million

And to conclude, everyone pales in comparison to Lady Gaga who has over 53 million "likes".

If you would like a copy of the complete research, please email me at todd@toddleiser.com

And if you are working on your CFE (Certified Franchise Executive), we'll be sharing more about this at the ICFE Special Session on Social Media & Franchising, February 17, 2003 at the IFA's 53rd Annual Convention.

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The Intersection of Direct Mail and Social Media

Thanks Engage121 for the opportunity to guest blog today on The Intersection of Direct Mail and Social Media

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Everything I know about Social Media I learned from NASCAR

Everything I know about Social Media I learned from NASCAR

This weekend, NASCAR and Twitter kick off a formal partnership that you can read about at the Google News Round-up.  Having been a NASCAR fan since 1991 when I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina and was exposed to the sport, I have been watching how the NASCAR community has adopted social media, and Twitter especially, organically over the past year or two.  NASCAR fans have migrated to new technology at a faster rate than the American population at large, according to NASCAR consumer research (as published in Fast Company).

As a matter of fact, my wife, also a NASCAR fan, hasn't watched a race in nearly a year without being accompanied by her Twitter account streaming on her iPad.  Her use, some of my own and observation,  has helped me understand some Best Practices that can be transferred to any one or any brand.

While drivers don't tweet from their cars while they are racing at around 200 MPH, their spouses, non-racing staff and others within their team will provide either inside information from the pits, transcripts of their driver radio communication, or simple comments that add context to what's happening on the track.


NASCAR has always been more transparent than any other sport:

1. Fan access to the Garage and Pit Road on race days (for select fans) which is essentially like being in  on the sidelines during a pro football game.
2. Two-way radio communications between the Driver and crew is open for anyone at the race with a radio scanner or at home on the web, to hear inside conversation and strategy within the drivers' teams.  You can eavesdrop in between the driver (athlete) and their Crew Chief (head coach) and their "Spotters" (offensive/defensive coordinators up in the booth)  
3. Even the NASCAR officials make their two-way communication available to the fans in the same manner as the teams.  You can hear "race control" (the referees),  track personnel (the ground crew) and even security/safety personnel.

So it's a natural for the NASCAR professional community (team owners, drivers, crew members, NASCAR executives and officials, and even the NASCAR news media) to use social media, and especially Twitter.  It's simply an extension of their transparency that has been part of the sport for it's 60+ year history.

 Here's a great example I shared at FranCamp.  Brad Keselowski, driver of the Miller Lite Dodge, tweeted a photo from inside his car while in a "red-flag" stop (cars stopped on the track) during the Daytona 500 on February 28, 2012.   He started the day with 65,000 followers.  A simple behind-the-scenes photo tweeted, picked up by others in the NASCAR community (including national television reporters/announcers)


By and by the end of the night Brad had over 200,000 followers.

And here's another key component.  It's the two-way communication that social media is all about.  In the past, the NASCAR communication channel within this transparency has been one way.  Great for the fans to passively see and hear what's happening, but now, the fans get to speak to the professional community...... and they respond!  Think of a radio call-in show where a few lucky listeners get to get through on air and ask a question of the guest.   Twitter provides an open channel 24/7 to the EVERYONE within the NASCAR professional community that has a Twitter account.  It's amazing to see the amount of response they provide to fans.

Major League Baseball, noticing what NASCAR has been doing in social media, is now encouraging their players to tweet during the All-Star Game next month.

Besides the personalities of the real people within NASCAR, as with any community, there needs to be spice.  In ancient times it was the court jester.  In today's NASCAR community there are a number of inanimate objects that tweet.  Typically their tweets are humorous and sometimes down right mean, but it adds yet another ingredient to the mix.

@theorangecone - The traffic cone that sits at the entrance to pit road
@jacquesdebris - Usually appears when the caution flag flies ("for debris on the track')
@nascarcasm - The sarcastic NASCAR tweep
@Sir_NASCARNAGE - Self-proclaimed master of mayhem and menace to NASCAR

Of course these are real people anonymously tweeting.  Think @FakeSteveJobs

Now, how can we all learn from this:

1. Inside information and behind-the-scenes transparency.  It's human nature to want to see what's not apparent to the public at large.  I made a point of this at FranCamp as a key component to delight (and gain) followers.   Just look at how celebrities are followed by fans to get a glimpse of what they might be thinking or doing that the cameras and press don't capture.
2. Show personality.  Part of the intense interest in NASCAR among fans is what many call the "soap opera" of the sport.  There are so many personalities, some of which get painted with white hats and black hats, that there's another natural human emotion of wanting to root for or against and follow along.   Add in the personality behind the personality and you really have a "one plus one equals three" scenario for engagement and traction.
3. Be timely.   Be in the moment.  While a lot is said of the generic inside information that comes from the NASCAR community, there is nothing like getting that inside information as it occurs during the race or practice session or press conference.  Surely you can find something with your brand that is timely.  The formula is:  Inside Information+Timeliness+Personality = Engagement

NASCAR may have been the entity that first really captured the essence of "community".  Twitter (and social media) is just the enabling technology that takes it to a whole new level, which starting this weekend, will become more visible and the entire community will profit from it.

1. Fans will get more insight and transparency
2. NASCAR will get more exposure to new markets they are actively trying to expand into
3. Twitter will get more traffic from an audience that many wouldn't think would be big adopters, but have been on the forefront more than most realize.

With this, everyone is enriched.  Some via information.  Others via $$.

What are you doing to really enrich your followers?  Watch the NASCAR race this Sunday at 1pm:  "The Pocono 400 sponsored by Hashtag NASCAR" on TNT.  Watch it on TV and simultaneously on Twitter and see what how NASCAR is innovating and what you can learn!

Here's a link to my NASCAR Pinterest Board

Update:  Here's one of the several 15 second TV commercials created and aired during the race on Sunday, featuring  @Keselowski:

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