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ARTICLE | September 9, 2010

Building Franchisee Trust

Greg Nathan of the Franchise Relationships Institute has provided a set of 20 tips to help franchise leaders gain more trust from their franchisees. These are just a sample of the many tips he talks about in his webinars and Franchise Relations Boot Camps. Here at FBR, we believe that by following some, if not all, of these tips, the relationship between franchisor and franchisee can be a good one, possibly even a great one.
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NEWS | July 19, 2010

Interstate All Battery Franchisees Lend A Hand

Iowa Interstate All Battery franchisees, Matt and Nancy Breen, helped Al Roker of the Today Show deliver much needed batteries to a youth center facility in Des Moines, Iowa. This contribution was Interstate All Battery Center's part in providing products to selected charities for the "Today's Lend a Hand" tour.
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ASK FBR | June 15, 2010

What are some of the best cleaning franchises?

There are plenty of franchise opportunities in the cleaning services and maintenance sector. They vary by many aspects including investment level, commercial vs. residential services, the amount of support the franchisor supplies and several other factors...
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SECTOR REPORT | March 31, 2010

Top Franchises Guide for 2010

Take a look at our annual Top Franchises Guide for 2010! We are proud to announce 133 franchise companies - out of over 500 brands surveyed this year - that are doing things right and putting their franchisees first.
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Home > Blogs

Technology at the IFA Conference

by Michelle Rowan

I am always amazed at the amount I learn when I attend the IFA conventions. This year was no different, but it came primarily in the sessions focused on Technology. It seems to be a hit or miss topic at the convention- either the information is so basic there isn't much "action" to take away and implement, or there is SO much thrown at the crowd, who is behind the curve and decide where to start...

Scott Klososky (@sklososky on Twitter) was by far my favorite speaker in San Antonio. His first (and parting) words to the franchisors in the crowd- "do not sit here and get all this great information, then go home and do nothing. It would be a travisty!" I agree!!! He pushed people that think social technology is a fad to believe it is here to stay and it's THE new way to do business. So here is what I pulled from the 4 days of sessions of what I am going to DO:

    - Read "Groundswell" and "Trust Agents"

    - Websites to check out and learn more about:
             - addict-o-matic: i can find out the latest buzz about me, or FBR, or my clients from lots of sites/sources all on one page

             - muckrack.com: find out what journalists are talking about- hopefully find journalists who want to talk about us & our clients! 

             - bit.ly & su.pr (stumbleupon): used to shorten urls, which i do. but i can see WHO is clicking the links I create- which I don't do now

             - ad.ly: evaluates twitter accounts

    - Use our FBR Group on LinkedIn to ENGAGE our clients more, find out what we should change or revamp on the next release of our survey

    - Find ways to incorporate our client's social technologies into our site, I have a few ideas and want to start testing them in Q1     
 

I think people, and companies, are still trying to figure it all out when it comes to where should we be online, what should we be doing, how can this make us money?  Everyone believes in the power of word or mouth or referrals over  any other type of sales approach- so look at social technology from that standpoint. It's time to start creating (or managing) your online reputation TODAY. It's all about transparency and honesty of your brand, it's all about continuing to raise the bar in business, and franchising.

See you on Twitter (@monrowan) & LinkedIn (michellemonroerowan) and who knows where else tomorrow...  

 

 

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Comment:
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Posted by Bryan O'Rourke on 06:36:29 AM on April 2, 2010

MIchelle, Scott's observations are spot on. Much of why we created our new franchise flywheel application is the lack of integration with social media tools. This is particularly the case for franchise lead generation among many other examples. Great content. Thanks

Posted by Chris Anderson on 06:43:24 PM on March 3, 2010

Thanks for the recap Michelle, I wasn't able to make the IFA unfortunately but this is great to see! A couple of other tools that are helpful and along these lines: tweetlevel.edelman.com - see your rating in various categories on Twitter hootsuite.com - great for managing multiple accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace)

Posted by Deb Evans on 08:52:46 AM on February 18, 2010

Michelle, I agree that Scott was a fantastic speaker! Each time I sit in his presentation I come home with a plan. You will love both the books but I must admit that Trust Agents is my favorite.