Case Study: Five Guys achieves franchise-wide social empowerment and higher customer engagement with Hootsuite

How Five Guys empowers over 1,200 franchisees on social with Hootsuite

Five Guys, the family-founded burger chain launched in 1986, has grown to more than 1,200 locations worldwide and faced the challenge of scaling its multinational presence without losing the sincere, local “crew”-driven voice that resonates with customers. To reconcile broad brand power with a family-owned persona, the company shifted to a social-first strategy focused on customer service, franchise empowerment, and authentic engagement instead of traditional advertising.

Using Hootsuite, Five Guys established centralized listening and geo-targeting, mobile assignment workflows, and analytics to empower corporate and local teams to monitor mentions, respond quickly, and tailor content by market. The approach supported successful campaigns like #HighFive and #SayCheeseSweeps/#ShareYourShake, delivered measurable engagement (including 1M followers across platforms and 1,000+ mentions on a single campaign), improved customer service responsiveness, and strengthened localized outreach during international expansion.

Five Guys

Kenneth Westling

Online Marketing Specialist, Five Guys