Challenge

Despite maintaining active Google Business Profiles (GBPs) across its franchise network, Painting with a Twist (PWaT) wanted to validate a growing theory in local SEO: that connecting active local social media profiles to GBP could influence not just visibility, but real customer engagement.

PWaT’s franchise network is highly effective at converting customers into social media followers through multiple touchpoints during online checkout and in-studio experiences. They’ve also started viewing GBPs and Google Posts as an extension of their social strategy, another channel for engaging local audiences, but specifically, the marketing team at PWaT sought to understand whether social linking could drive measurable gains in:

• Local Search Impressions
  
• Customer actions (web clicks and calls)
  
• Online-to-offline engagement
  

Painting with a Twist partnered with SOCi to implement a test on the impact of linking Facebook, Instagram and other social profiles to their GBPs across 31 franchised locations. SOCi supported the rollout with a best-practices guide and instructional video to help franchisees implement the change effectively and measure results in their SOCi dashboard.

Test Objective: Determine whether social linking would improve GBP visibility and customer engagement versus a control group.

Solution

• Duration: January – March 2025
• Test Group: 31 franchise locations
  
• Control Group: Similar locations without linked social profiles
  
• Support: Best-practices guide and instructional video to walk franchisees through linking their GBP with local social profiles
  
  

Painting with a Twist partnered with SOCi to test whether linking local social media profiles to Google Business Profiles (GBPs) would boost visibility and customer engagement. Over a three-month period, 31 test locations with linked profiles outperformed unlinked locations in impressions and actions, like website clicks and phone calls. The test group saw a 9% increase in GBP impressions and over 10% more customer actions compared to the control.

Meet the Customer

Painting with a Twist is a nationwide franchise offering creative social experiences through instructor-led painting classes with hundreds of locations across the United States. Led by Marketing Director Skyla Souza, Painting with a Twist is continually exploring innovative strategies to elevate local visibility, drive engagement, and convert online interest into in-studio visits, which led them to a number one spot on the 2024 Local Visibility Index.

Meet the 

Visionary

Meet the Customer

Summary

Summary

Skyla Souza

Director of Marketing

The test revealed a consistent and notable lift for locations with linked social profiles compared to those without:

Results

“These results validate our hypothesis that local social activity influences visibility and engagement in search. We saw firsthand how connecting these signals can drive tangible business results,” noted Skyla Souza, Director of Marketing.

PWaT joined the pilot with a clear goal: to test the real-world impact of integrated social and search visibility. The outcome reshaped their understanding of local engagement.

• Active, local social media signals enhance discoverability in local search environments
  
• A modest change, like linking social profiles, resulted in measurable gains in both digital and real-world engagement
  
• The initiative has become a blueprint for broader rollout across the PWaT network

The Business Impact