Brent Leary recently wrote a post on the launch of Hearsay, the new social media company from former Facebooker Clara Shih (also author of The Facebook Era) and I thought it was most interesting to note that companies like State Farm and Farmer’s Insurance Group have already begun using the service. I’ll give a little upfront on Hearsay and then explain why I think it has found a real sweet spot that is missing in the Social CRM, Social Dashboard arena and why it makes for a perfect for tool for franchises and other similar business that have a head office and distributed local establishments.Hearsay says it is “the first social media platform for businesses with many local branches or reps.” It was built so that businesses and associations that have a head office location that wants to centrally control brand message can do so while still allowing local establishments of that business to leverage the social web with their customers, partners and prospects. This is especially important in regulated industries like finance, insurance and healthcare. With many local businesses and individual employees (including finance and insurance professionals) using social media with little to no oversight and when compliance is at issue you can understand why there is a need for corporate head offices to take some action and control.

With the ability to set corporate policies on social media accounts across the locally distributed businesses, companies have the ability to remain compliant while still allowing their employees to engage on social media. Further, by centrally distributing marketing content but allowing it to be localized by region, companies can run integrated campaigns and have real metrics upon which to build ROI and improve future campaigns. For the latest on Hearsay visit their Facebook page of course.

This is a big development in the area of Social CRM and Social Media Management because it really hits in a sweet spot, (that of a central command center for the enterprise that still allows for localization) that was missing a top notch product. While I can’t speak to the effectiveness of Hearsay in practice I can speak to the fact that it comes at a time when businesses in regulated markets are struggling for how to embrace social media in a way that is not cold and corporate while at the same time recognizing the ongoing usage by employees with very little corporate involvement. It may seem like a stretch but what if my broker “likes” a post on Facebook from a publicly traded company or favorites one on Twitter, did she just recommend that I buy that stock? While not every example is that dramatic there is a need for HQ to put controls in place and at the same time allow for individual usage. Hearsay seems to fit right in that niche.

Further, the ability to run a national social media campaign with localized content really gives companies the ability to tie social media metrics into their marketing and sales dashboards. The localization angle is important for many reasons. Of course language is among the top localization traits but it will be in the way that companies allow their local teams to utilize corporate assets where I think companies will reap the most benefit both in brand control and ultimately use of best practices.

Hearsay is an interesting company to watch and I think will be one that many companies – whether they be large enterprises, franchise or simply in regulated industries – will be looking to for unification and centralization of their social media marketing.

Check out the introductory video from Hearsay below.

If you enjoyed this post I recommend:

• April 22, 2012 -- Golden State Warriors – Using Social Media To Drive Ticket Sales
• July 16, 2012 -- Creating A Content Marketing Culture
• March 5, 2012 -- Why Your Business Should Be On Pinterest