LinkedIn is one of the greatest social media sites for recruiting - both for hires and franchise owners.

Yes I know. You sell franchises & your leads are delivered to you.

But do you want LinkedIn to be a source of great and cheaply found new franchisees?

You and everyone else!

And that's unlikely to happen for your franchise, unless you pay attention to what I am going to tell you - experience I have gained by participating for more than 12 years on social media - blogs, forums and now social media sites.

The Franchisor Problem - Too much Content

You have all the social media buttons on your franchise recruitment website.

You put out press releases all the time.

You have automated your distribution of your releases, blogs and articles.

So why aren't the leads flowing in from all that effort?

Your Brand is 'out there', but You and your people are not Listening.

Let's face it, franchise executives and salespeople would rather go to a trade show to meet people, react to a lead that comes in from a franchise web portal, a franchise broker, a display advertisement that spurred a lead from your franchise recruitment website.

Might it make sense for you to try something else - using LinkedIn to augment all your other sales activities?

LinkedIn basics for Franchise Sales Executives who need to Listen.

1. Your LinkedIn Profile needs to say you sell franchises and connect with me. So make sure it's accurate, complete and inviting.

2. Put your LinkedIn business card on your franchise recruitment website. You're accessible right?

3. Join LinkedIn Groups. Not just the obvious franchise groups with other franchise salespeople, but the groups that your kind of franchise-buyers are in.

4. Comment first and continue to regularly in other people's LinkedIn Group discussions.

5. Connect with members of your target LinkedIn groups.

6. Check who's Looked at Your LinkedIn Profile once a day for 5 minutes and connect with those people.

7. Get LinkedIn connected with your qualified leads you meet at your next franchise trade show.

8. Your franchise sales administrators, qualifications specialists, marketing coordinators all need professional LinkedIn profiles as much as they need business cards. Maybe more so.

Master these 8 LinkedIn tips and you'll see a difference in your franchise sales.

All your other franchise recruitment marketing investments will work better for you when you are listening on LinkedIn.

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