SOCi Launches Customer Advisory Council Committed to Addressing Critical Social Marketing Needs for Multi-Location Businesses

Unites 15 Top Brands to Focus on the Future & Growth of Localized Social Marketing

SOCi, the leading platform for social media and reputation management for multi-location brands, has formed a new Customer Advisory Council. This council is dedicated to addressing the critical needs of highly visible digital marketers who are challenged to create and manage the digital presence and online reputation of hundreds to thousands of local locations across top social and search sites. Announced at SOCi’s recent 2019 Summit, the council consists of 15 multi-location marketers from some of the largest, well-established franchise and property management brands across the U.S.

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“With the formation of our Customer Advisory Council, our goal is to accelerate the innovation and development of critical tools that directly address our customers’ needs in localized social marketing,” said SOCi CEO and co-founder Afif Khoury. “We know that in today’s competitive local marketing landscape, multi-location businesses that successfully manage their localized social marketing presence experience an average of three times more sales growth compared to competitors. Also, consumers are choosing to interact with a brand locally in many diverse ways, and by working with our customers to better understand these interactions, SOCi can continue to provide the platform that will capture those interactions at various junctures of the consumer decision-making cycle.”

Members of SOCi’s inaugural Customer Advisory Council include:

• Ace Hardware Corporation, Local Marketing Manager – Gary Drummond
• Sport Clips, Director of Marketing, Digital Services – Chad Jordan
• Self Esteem Brands (parent company of Anytime Fitness), Senior Manager, Digital Marketing – Christian Betancourt
• AmerisourceBergen, Senior Director, Good Neighbor Pharmacy Marketing and Advertising – Carla Frehn
• Neighborly (formerly The Dwyer Group), Director of Digital Marketing – Shaila Palamand
• OxiFresh Carpet Cleaning, President, CEO, and Founder – Jonathan Barnett
• Greystar, Manager, U.S. Strategic Property Marketing, Programs & Performance – Becca Hallisey
• Pinnacle, Digital Marketing Strategist – Jodi Mott
• Fogelman Management Group, Reputation Manager – Jeremy Lawson
• Waterton Residential, Director, Marketing and Branding – Tina Miserendino
• Case and Associates, Regional Vice President – Crystal Tolen
• Mindstream Media, Chief Operating Officer – Marti Janson

The council will be led by SOCi’s executive leadership: CEO Afif Khoury, CMO Monica Ho, CTO Alo Sarv, CCO David Marler, and Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales Jacob Chappell.

Thoughts from SOCi’s Customer Advisory Council:

• “I’m honored that SOCi asked me to serve on their Franchise Advisory Council. I’ve been impressed with SOCi’s ability to innovate ever since we began using them in 2017. They continue to provide value to our 1800 Sport Clips locations and 500 Franchisees, so I’m delighted to have the chance to help shape their continued growth.” – Chad Jordan, Director of Marketing, Digital Services at Sport Clips
• “Managing large social media programs for franchise systems can be a challenging task. From access control to mass content publishing and system-wide management, social marketers in our multi-location space require a technology partner with innovative and robust tools to help us succeed at scale. SOCi provides the tools to help our corporate teams and more importantly, our franchisees effectively and efficiently manage social media to drive business results.” Christian Betancourt, Senior Manager of Digital Marketing for Self Esteem Brands
• “Since our partnership with SOCi, we are able to scale our social efforts to save time. For Ace Hardware, we want to be helpful and provide convenience to our owners and our customers. Whether it’s Ace Corporate or the individual locations, together we can increase engagement levels, answer ratings and reviews fast, and know whether or not our collective efforts are working. We are very proud of our alliance with SOCi.” – Gary Drummond, Local Marketing Manager at Ace Hardware
• “We pride ourselves on finding the best vendors and partnering with them to accelerate our brand. SOCi is one of those vendors. Their innovative, easy-to-use, and affordable program will give us an edge in the social media game. As part of their Advisory Council, I look forward to helping them further advance their product.” Jonathan Barnett, President, CEO and Founder of Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning

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2019 marks a momentous year for SOCi, which was recently awarded a Street Fight Innovator Award for Best Social Media Platform of 2019, cementing the company’s dedication to streamlined, high-quality social media experiences for multi-location businesses. Street Fight’s annual list honors movers and shakers shaping the future of local media, advertising and commerce, and is an additional proof point to SOCi’s commitment to delivering the best in class technology to drive growth at the local level. For the second year in a row, the company was also named to the Inc. 500 and Entrepreneur Magazine’s list of Top Franchiser Suppliers.

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