Franchise company digital communication: use and presence on social media

Abstract

The article focuses on the study of franchise company presence on social media, analyzing business and advertising communication strategies that it carries out in platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. It starts from the hypothesis that franchise company still has limited presence on 2.0 spaces and that, in general, it is just confined to dump information from other channels, barely generating conversation with its followers. The method is based on documentary research of both, academic and professional publications, reviewing current situation of social media, on the one hand, and the analysis of case studies of major franchise companies, on the other. The results of the study compel us to talk about the limited use that franchise company is making of the benefits of 2.0 platforms; therefore, the initial hypothesis is demonstrated. The growth experienced by these channels in recent years and the advantages that, due to the franchise company peculiarities, Social Media Marketing can bring to its communication and advertising strategy, require the development of a clear and defined strategy from the franchise central that determines each of the franchisees presence on social media.