How to Use FranBuzz in The Hub & Frannie AI

FranBuzz is a dynamic social media forum within FranConnect's The Hub, designed to foster open communication across franchise networks. It provides a central space where franchisees and franchisors can connect, share insights, discuss business strategies, and engage on topics that matter most to their operations. With its easy-to-use interface, FranBuzz empowers users to collaborate and build stronger networks, enhancing knowledge-sharing and community engagement within the franchise ecosystem.

Topics

• Using FranBuzz
• Setting Up Teams in FranBuzz
• Team Accessibility & Post Visibility
• Saving FranBuzz Posts to the Franchisee Support Agent

Using FranBuzz

To access FranBuzz, first log into your FranConnect environment. On the left-hand sidebar, click The Hub.

Next, click FranBuzz at the top of the page.

You will be taken to the following page:

From here, you will get a timeline of all of the posts that you can see. These include general public posts as well as any posts specific to Teams of which you are a part.

You can also make your own post, by clicking the text box at the top of the page. The following window will pop up:

From here, you can create the text portion of your post as well as attaching videos, pictures, or documents.

Setting Up Teams in FranBuzz

The Teams feature in FranBuzz allows administrators to create and manage distinct groups tailored to organizational needs or shared interests. To access Teams, navigate to The Hub and click Teams at the top of the page.

You will be taken to the following page:

You can create a new Team by using the Create Team button at the top of the page and filling out the following form.

You can also view any individual Teams spaces by clicking the View Team button at the bottom of the relevant Teams card.

You will be taken to a page that looks like this:

From here, you will be able to see every post that is a part of the team you have chosen.

Team Accessibility & Post Visibility

Every team has an Accessibility setting that is the single control governing both who can see the team and who can see the posts shared to it—no additional permissions are required. Where teams previously offered only Public and Private, there are now three options:

Worked Example: How Accessibility Controls Post Visibility

Jane and Alex are associated with Brand A, while Sam is associated with Brand B. Jane creates a post about a Brand A promotion.

In summary: Select Private for creator-only content, Public – Single Brand Members for brand-specific posts, or Public – Multi-Brand Members for posts intended for members across different brands.

Setting a Team’s Accessibility

Follow these steps to choose how a team and the posts within it are shared.

Go to The Hub › Teams, then click Create Team.

Enter the Team ID, Name, and an optional Description.

Open the Accessibility list and review the three options.

Select the option that matches your intent. For a cross-brand team, choose Public – Multi-Brand Members.

Add members under Team Filter Criteria, assign owners, then click Launch.

Saving FranBuzz Posts to the Franchisee Support Agent

Corporate users can now save selected posts to the Franchisee Support Agent. Each saved post and its response thread can answer questions cited as a community post, linked to the thread, and only for the audience the post’s Accessibility allows. Only saved posts are used; nothing is added automatically.

Frannie AI and the Franchisee Support Agent

Frannie AI is a set of purpose-built agents, each with its own approved data sources. Open it from the Frannie AI button in the top navigation bar and pick an agent. The Franchisee Support Agent handles day-to-day operational questions for franchisees and location staff.

Note: An agent answers only from its own data sources. Saving a post to the Franchisee Support Agent does not make it available to any other agent.

Reaching the agent’s data sources

1. Go to Admin › Frannie AI › Configure AI Agent Settings.

2. On the Configure Agents page, click the data source icon on the agent you are curating for.

3. Open the FRANBUZZ tab. It lists every post already saved to this agent.

The columns show POSTS, UPLOAD STATUS, DATE ADDED, ACCESSIBILITY, and ACTION.

Saving posts

1. Click ADD NEW DATA, then set Upload From to Franbuzz.

2. Find the posts you need using Search Posts or the Accessibility filter.

3. Select their checkboxes and click UPLOAD.

The posts appear on the FRANBUZZ tab with an UPLOAD STATUS of Completed. Use PREVIEW to open a post in FranBuzz, or the … menu › Delete to remove it from the agent — the post itself stays on the wall.

Note: Saving is available to corporate users only, up to 50 items per batch. A post is saved together with its response thread.

Note: If a post is deleted in FranBuzz, or is no longer visible there, it drops out of the agent on its own — you do not need to remove it here as well.

• Only saved posts are used, and each answers only the audience its accessibility allows.

• Where two saved posts answer the same question, the more recent one is used.

• Documents attached to a post are read along with the post and its replies. Embedded images and video are referenced, not described.

Conclusion