ITWire

The survey, conducted by FranchiseBusiness.com.au, of 600 Australian prospective franchisees, revealed that almost a third had no experience at all in social media, with most still slow to gain the necessary experience in managing social platforms for business purposes, and 89 percent believing social media was beneficial for business.

“Although there is a very obvious indication that social media is seen as a necessity in franchise business by prospective franchisees there is still very little action going on,” Sales Manager for FranchiseBusiness.com.au, Raffael Fernandes said.

“Although 60 per cent of those surveyed believe they should manage their own social media profiles as a franchisee, their actions just don’t seem to be matching their needs – it’s very contradictory.”

In addition to social media, 93 per cent of prospective franchisees believe a website is important for a business and almost 80 per cent expect to manage their own website as a franchisee. However, 87 per cent of those surveyed have little to no experience in managing a website.

“There seems to be a gap between the expectations of online strategies and what they can do for business and the skill sets people actually have when it comes to using online strategies and tactics for business,” said Mr Fernandes.

The survey reported that less than a third of prospective franchisees had managed a website previously and only 47 per cent of those surveyed choose to use social media for professional purposes.

According to Fernandes, prospective franchisees now need to start growing their experience in the areas of social media and online and he says “learning the skills that will be able to meet their needs of managing and running a social media profile and website for business purposes will be beneficial for their future endeavours as franchisees.”