Franchisors during the International Franchise Association(IFA) annual conference February 2010  found that social media continues to be a huge topic of interest to the franchising industry.  Not a surprise!  It seems like anyone in small business and big business alike are trying to find the social media formula that fits their business awareness plans.

Social media has been a growing subject interest over the past four IFA annual meetings.  I have been in all the sessions.... learning.... contributing to the conversation. In the beginning it appeared that most franchise systems were afraid of social media.  The lack of control that business owners had over it.  No matter how you sliced it, social media was something that was not going to be controlled.  In business you have to get comfortable with the ability to get involved in the conversation and learn how to engage with your consumer and build a network of people interested in what your business has to say.  Simple enough?  

Follow up:

Yes, it is when you have a plan and a strategy on how to get the conversation going and how to keep it moving while building your on line reputation.  Building the brand and executing the plan is easier when you have the support of a company behind it and one that will teach you the in's and out's of building your on line reputation!  Creative Tutors is proud to be a leader in providing just the training franchisees need in social media.

Think about it this way, you wouldn't launch any type of marketing effort without a plan and without taking the time to develop, test and implement it.  It takes careful planning and time to understand the plan so that the company will connect to the target market.   Social media needs that same planning and attention that traditional marketing and public relations plans require!

As a stratgic business owner it is vital that you only launch your social media marketing effort with a plan and a goal in mind.  Creative Tutors provides you with the training to do just that!  Once you understand the plan and your goals all you need to understand is how you are to measure the results.  Without measurement you are not marketing your business but only playing in social media.  In business you are in it to win it and if you want to win you need to know the game plan and how to operate it.

Creative Tutors has many areas of training and one area that should make you feel comfortable with your future business is the depth of social media training we provide you.   Some areas we teach you about are:

* Brand sentiment, * Press mentions, * Links, * Page views, * Blog subscribers, * Blog comments, * Social engagement, *Social Media Policy, *Rules of Engagement, *
* Conversions (!) in network such as twitter and facebook....and so much more....

Creative Tutors will help you get started so that you understand the details of a coordinated effort.  We recommend that you start off with only a few networks.  Quality effort is better than a shallow effort in social media.  Creative Tutors will help you with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, to name a few social media networks. Making it easy for you to share content with people.  With the correct set up your networks will help you promote your content that they will share with their networks allowing your name and face to be in front of a much larger audience.

Get busy and enjoy the on line conversations!  Engagement in social meda is fun!  It is fun because as a Creative Tutors franchise owner you are trained and prepared for the process!  You are tracking the activity and contributing to content and building relationships.  You are a part of the converstation!