Originally published on Business Wire on December 3, 2019.

Parent Company of Anytime Fitness, The Bar Method, Waxing The City, and Basecamp Fitness Taps San Diego-Based Company to Drive Growth on a Local Level 

WOODBURY, Minn—December 3, 2019—Today, Self Esteem Brands announces it has appointed SOCi, Inc. as its new global platform of record for localized social marketing. A pioneer in the Health & Fitness category, Self Esteem Brands–encompassing Anytime Fitness, Waxing The City, Basecamp Fitness, and recently acquired The Bar Method–operates more than 4,500 global franchise locations across 57 countries. SOCi, the leading social and reputation management platform for multi-location businesses, will help simplify and streamline the management of the company’s social media platforms and local ratings and reviews, initially supporting locations across the UK, US, and Canada, and enable Self Esteem Brands to efficiently manage localized social marketing campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Google My Business, and LinkedIn. 

“We had an extensive search for a new partnership, as localized social marketing is a critical strategy to supporting and empowering our franchisees. Management and local-level adoption of social campaigns can be challenging enough for any company, and at our scale we needed a more innovative, supportive solution to drive brand awareness and engagement, for our brands locally,” said Kristen Pechacek, Digital Marketing Director at Self Esteem Brands. “A true category leader, SOCi has proven its command of the localized social marketing space with continued product innovations and an unparalleled level of support and transparency from the customer team.” 

According to SOCi’s latest state of the market report, consumers are placing an increased focus on social media, local search, and reviews to make purchasing decisions. More than nine in 10 consumers use search to find information about local businesses and ratings and reviews have become the top factor in determining which company to do business with. These findings further underscore the importance of a streamlined, localized social marketing strategy. 

“We are thrilled to partner with SOCi. Self Esteem Brands has had a tremendous year. Growth has skyrocketed and we welcomed The Bar Method to our rapidly-expanding portfolio of franchises, which also includes Anytime Fitness, Basecamp, and Waxing The City,” said Christian Betancourt, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing at Self Esteem Brands.

SOCi works with more than 300 companies to effectively manage local social campaigns for nearly 65,000 individual business locations. The company continues to invest in expanding its offerings and services and has recently been honored by Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine for its commitment and dedication to the localized social marketing industry. Most recently, SOCi was named “Best Social Media Platform” in the Street Fight Innovator Awards.  Continuing its dedication to empowering and supporting franchise owners, SOCi expects to expand its educational platform SOCi University, which offers online courses, webinars, and product training to customers. The company also hosted its annual SOCi Summit in early November, which gathered industry experts and thought leaders to provide key learnings to optimize social media marketing and online reputation management. 

“At SOCi, we are committed to providing clients a best-in-class technology to empower local franchise growth, said Afif Khoury, CEO and Founder of SOCi. “We know that brands that invest in localized social marketing see as high as three times more growth compared to competitors, and we’re eager to support Self Esteem Brands’ continued success”