Social Geek

Welcome to Social Geek Season 12! Kristen Pechacek, Chief Growth Officer at MassageLuXe and Vice Chair of the IFA’s Marketing and Innovation Committee, is back to kick things off. Kristen shares ideas on building or restructuring your Marketing Department based on size for emerging, growing, and national brands. *What roles are critical at each stage? *How much should be done in-hou...

Podcast host Jack Monson joins Mike McDowell, Certified Facebook Ad Buyer & Business Manager, to discuss Facebook tips for Franchises each week. With March 2021’s Apple iOS 14 updates, Facebook is losing data on users. This will affect how Franchise brands and Franchisees can manage and target ads. Mike shares great advice on how to get ready, how your reporting will work,...

Podcast host Jack Monson joins Mike McDowell, Certified Facebook Ad Buyer & Business Manager, to discuss Facebook tips for Franchises each week. Are your Franchise Development Ads getting flagged? Rejected? Has your ad account been shut down? Mike shares WHY is this happening and WHAT can you do about it immediately! If you are marketing a Franchise brand, do not miss...

Every Friday through the holidays we’re chatting with our industry friends in what we’re calling The Franchise Family Reunion. Joining me today are our pals from the Franchise Development team at American Family Care: Sean Hart, Paige Robinson, and Brian Robinson.  The team updates us on how they’ve grown personally and professionally this year, and they share trends...

The Franchise News Podcast for Wednesday, December 16, 2020.   In the news this week: Inspire Brands, Paul Brown Stratus Building Solutions, Afshin Cangarlu Denny's, John Miller Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery SPB Hospitality, Josh Kern The Barre Code, Matt Kurowski FranNet, Abby Gruber, Megan Allen CycleBar, Dawn Weiss Subway, Lorri Christou Church's Chic...

Larisa Walega is the VP of Marketing of Ziebart and joins the show to share how the brand and its franchisees successfully repositioned in 2020, shared helpful information & content, and set up a growth plan for next year.  Larisa also shares other trends she’s seeing in the automotive aftermarket area, legacy brand marketing, and franchising including refreshing your...

Podcast host Jack Monson joins Mike McDowell, Certified Facebook Ad Buyer & Business Manager, to discuss Facebook tips for Franchises each week. This week, we're talking about the announcement of Facebook's acquisition of CRM software Kustomer. What will this mean for customer service within Franchise brands? How will integrations with your pages, reviews, an...

The Franchise Family Reunion continues this holiday season with a chat with our friends from the IFA's VetFran Committee. I wanted to catch up with these folks and share with the #FranchiseFamily how they, their families, and their businesses are doing here at the end of 2020. Joining the conversation are: Steve White, PuroClean Alesia Visconti,  FranServe and Franchi...

The Franchise News Podcast for Wednesday, December 9, 2020.   In the news this week: McDonald's NPC International Wendy's Pizza Hut Flynn Restaurant Group Goodcents, Farrellynn Wolf Batteries Plus, Scott Williams Duracell Toys For Tots Interim HealthCare Inc, Jennifer Sheets RE/MAX Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Party City, Brad Weston Make-A-Wish East Coast Wings + Grill, Sam Ballas Ca...

Today we’re talking about Fran Dev and Health & Wellness trends with Sarah Moudry and Nicole Alburger of Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa! Sarah and Nicole share how the brand and franchisees quickly bounced back, reopened locations, and became an essential #AmazonProof business!   Thanks to Suttle-Straus, OneUpWeb, AnswerConnect,  and&n...

Social Geek podcast host Jack Monson joins Mike McDowell, Certified Facebook Ad Buyer & Business Manager, to discuss Facebook tips for Franchises each week. This week's tip is about some new limitations on Facebook ads.  Beginning in February, Facebook will limit the number of ads that a business can run at one time. While this a result of the 2020 Election,...

The Franchise Family Reunion continues this holiday season with our friend Karen Wenning of Suttle-Straus. Karen shares an update on her team, family, and marketing plans. Oh, and her chickens!  Then we'll discuss how some "old tech" has reappeared during the pandemic and we'll get into the upcoming future of local marketing for franchise systems including connecting...

Podcast host Jack Monson joins Mike McDowell, Certified Facebook Ad Buyer & Business Manager, to discuss Facebook tips for Franchises each week. It's Small Business Saturday and it's perfect time to discuss a great new feature for small businesses and franchisees: Facebook Shops! If you think your franchisees are too small for ecommerce, or don't have traditional...

Nancy Bigley is Chief Operating Officer of Painting with a Twist, a franchise concept that pairs hands on painting parties with wine, to provide a carefree escape for women.  As COO Nancy is responsible for training, franchisee relations and support, new program implementation, studio openings and supply chain for Painting with a Twist’s network of over 280 locations.   Prior t...

In this episode, we interview Tamra Kennedy!  37 years ago Tamra took a job as a secretary making $4.05 an hour- working for a franchisee of Burger King and Taco John’s. After 17 years as an employee, Tamra was offered the opportunity to buy the restaurants from the owner. She currently owns and operates 8 Taco John’s locations, primarily in the Minneapolis-St. Paul a...

Today we have a conversation about diversity and inclusion in Franchising with two people who are taking action with their brand, franchise owners, teachers, and students: Marianne Whitehouse and Shannon Truesdale-Curry of Creative World School.   Thanks to Suttle-Straus, OneUpWeb, and Photofy.  

The Franchise News Podcast for Wednesday, November 25, 2020.   In the news this week: Noodles & Company, Stacey Pool Franworth The Barre Code, Ariana Chernin, Jillian Lorenz Zaxby's, Zach McLeroy Little Caesars, Anita Klopfenstein California Pizza Kitchen, Jim Hyatt Donatos Pizza, Tom Krouse Red Robin Jersey Mike's Subs, Rich Hope FranConnect, Gabby Wong Fuzzy's Taco Shops, Jessica Wescot...

The Franchise Family Reunion continues with the Father/Daughter team of Thomas Scott of Home Based Franchise Group and Brand Journalists and Kayla Ryan, Brand President of Magnetainment. In our live recording in Nashville, we chat about the boom in Franchise Development that so many brands are seeing now and discuss the next generation of franchisees. H...

Podcast host Jack Monson joins Mike McDowell, Certified Facebook Ad Buyer & Business Manager, to discuss Facebook tips for Franchises each week! This week Mike discusses a rollout of Facebook's new Click to Call Ads. Now with Traffic Campaigns, you can run traffic directly to phone calls so customers can call your franchisees' locations with one click! It's a great way...

The Franchise Family Reunion continues with Therese Thilgen, CEO of Franchise Update Media. We’ll get an update on her family, her team, and her take on the current state of Franchising. Therese discusses Franchise Update’s new rebranding, rollout of new services, and plans for conferences in 2021. More questions? Reach out to Therese via  thereset@franchiseupdatemedia.com Than...

The Franchise News Podcast for Wednesday, November 18, 2020.   In the news this week: National Restaurant Association, Tom Bené Franchise Group Inc Buddy's Home Furnishings, Michael Bennett Bebe Stores Tropical Smoothie Café, Charles Watson Jersey Mike's, Peter Cancro Famous Toastery, Dennis Jackson Papa John's, Rob Lynch Schlotzsky's, #WorkFromHomeLunchUpgrade Brian Baumgartner, #TheOffice #...

Andrea Pirrotti, Chief Development & Marketing Officer at Office Evolution, shares trends for both Franchise Dev Marketing and Consumer Marketing that she’s seeing for 2021. Andrea also discusses how the pandemic has changed the Coworking space and created new opportunities for “Dreamers, Risk-Takers, and Doers.”   Thanks to Suttle-Straus, Photofy, OneUpWeb, and S...

Podcast host Jack Monson joins Mike McDowell, Certified Facebook Ad Buyer & Business Manager, to discuss Facebook tips for Franchises each week. This week Mike shares an important update on Facebook Business Manager that is a challenge for Franchisors and their Franchisees.  The connection of your Facebook + Instagram account, Franchisees' pages, your ability to approv...

The Franchise Family Reunion continues and today we’re catching up with our friend Tom Epstein, founder of Franchise Payments Network and POLN8.   Tom shares the latest monthly data showing an amazing 16.5% increase over last year in same store sales across franchising and more.   Plus we have a Health & Safety Update featuring Smoothie King and CEO&nbsp...

The Franchise News Podcast for Wednesday, November 11, 2020.   In the news this week: VetFran Authority Brands, STOP Restoration Premium Service Brands, Rubbish Works, Samantha Lin Pet Suppliers Plus, Chris Rowland Assisted Living Locators, Angela Olea Ziebart, Larisa Walega Noodles & Company, John Ramsay Your Pie, Mike Tillis, Kevin Altman Spray-Net, Jennifer Robinson IFA Women's Franchi...