Facebook, an international social-networking website, was founded by Harvard University students: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes in January of 2004. The previous October, founder and CEO, Zuckerberg, had launched the controversial Facemash, which the university shut down just a few days later due to security breaches, copyright violations, and privacy violations. Upon completion of the site, Zuckerberg and his co-founders offered The Facebook (as it was originally known) services to the Kirkland House online mailing list. Several dozen people joined from there, and then, word of mouth spread the rest. According to Dustin Moskovitz, “Within twenty-four hours, we had somewhere between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred registrants.” Today, this online tool serves more than 350 million active users, expanded from its original invitation only to students in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. Further, this website offers free services to anyone over the age of 13. For many consumers, Facebook provides the means of staying in touch with family and friends, without having to create a personal blog. ...

McDonald’s is one of the most established and successful franchises to ever operate. Since 1955, this fast food chain has been in business.  Though it started in the tiny town of Des Plaines, Illinois, this brand can be found in 122 countries around the globe, with more than 30,000 locations.  Eighty-three percent of all McDonald’s franchisers own more than one store, and rarely, do these franchises close because of poor sales. What makes this franchise business opportunity so successful?  And how do I start one? McDonald’s holds high expectations from the beginning with its franchise owners. Not only does this entity require a large investment, but it also must be a non-borrowed cash investment.  This company wants individuals who are serious enough about successfully owning and operating a McDonald’s that they are willing to put forth their own, personal resources.  A minimum of $300,000 is required to even be considered, though buyers are encouraged to have more liquid assets at hand.  Further, “the buyer must pay 25% cash as a down payment toward the purchase of a restaurant (1)”.  McDonald’s allows ...

Not every franchise is that of a McDonald’s, where it has been around forever and everyone knows its face.  Many franchises are brand new.  Because they start in an initial, local area, where they are only known to such, it becomes imperative to broaden a franchises marketing campaign.  The way to globalize a franchise is by using a universal marketing tool:  seo and sms marketing. SEO, short for search engine optimization, provides a way for consumers to find out about your franchise faster.  This is helpful to the franchisee in two ways.  When potential franchisees search the Internet to research franchises they may be interested in, this increases your chances of potential franchisees seeing your franchise first before others.  SEO is designed to prioritize websites in the order they appear from a search engine based on page edits and key words.  I won’t go into the technicalities of the process, but basically what happens is a person types in “franchise opportunities” lets say.  Hundreds of pages then appear from the search.  Have you ever wondered who or what decided the ...