If you operate a multi-location brand, you need to be active on Facebook at both the brand and location level.
Thankfully, this is easier to do on Facebook than it is on other social media platforms. Multi-location brands can create a Brand Page on Facebook, as well as individual Location Pages under their corporate account.
While this makes Facebook marketing easier for multi-location brands, many brands still have trouble with Facebook marketing.
To help you develop a balanced strategy between your brand and your locations, we’ve created the following guide to Facebook for multi-location marketers.
Corporate vs. Local Control
The biggest question for any multi-location marketer on Facebook is how much control locations have over their pages. Some brands prefer to give each location a lot of leeway in how they operate their Location Page. Others prefer to control each page at the corporate level, ensuring a consistent brand voice and overall strategy.
Most brands find success with a middle-ground approach. On a corporate level, they create strategies, guidelines, resources for Location Pages. They also track and analyze Location Page data in aggregate.
But the day-to-day operation of the pages is usually performed by the location itself, and there’s room for each location to tailor uniquely tailor its content.
Location Business Information
Maintaining accurate business information isn’t the most glamorous task in the world. But it’s a crucial part of local marketing.
Every day, millions of users go on Facebook to check for local business information. If that information is inaccurate, you not only lose a sale. You also risk toxic feedback from unhappy customers. Incorrect local business information on Facebook can also re-appear on other websites, like Google, who scrape Facebook for business info.
To keep this information accurate, you’ll need to include Facebook in your local listings management strategy. You’ll also want to put protocols in place at the location level to ensure this information is always up to date.
Organic Content Creation & Scheduling
On Facebook, multi-location brands need to be active on a local level. The majority of Facebook engagement for multi-location brands occurs on Location Pages. What’s more, this engagement has a stronger correlation to purchase behavior than engagement on Brand Pages.
A popular approach is for Location Pages to share or repost the Brand Page’s content. While this is much cheaper than creating original content for individual locations, the content might not resonate with local consumers the way it should.
Some brands get around this problem by encouraging locations to mix it up. They provide branded content for all locations to post. But at the same time, they suggest that locations also post original content.
Another strategy is to create detailed guidelines and content templates to help locations create original content. This way, you can achieve a consistent voice and a high level of quality across Location Pages. But you’re still delivering unique local content.
Paid Advertising
In recent years, Facebook has begun to challenge Google’s dominance in paid advertising. And thanks to features like Local Awareness ads and Call-to-Action buttons, Facebook’s perfectly suited for multi-location businesses.
Local Awareness ads target users within a certain radius of a business, with the option of further targeting according to age and gender. If you have Location Pages set up for individual locations, you can run Local Awareness ad campaigns at the brand level or location level.
Facebook Ads also include the option of Call-to-Action buttons, which are great for local businesses. This button can be used to give directions to your location, prompt a delivery order, visit your website, call your business, or almost any other standard action that you’d want from a customer or client.
Reputation Management
According to one recent survey, roughly 93% of consumers say that user-generated content informs their purchasing habits. The most influential type of user-generated content? Online reviews.
Right now, Facebook is one of the top sites for consumers researching online reviews. What’s more, Google uses Facebook reviews to calculate the rating for Google Reviews. This makes Facebook one of the most important platforms for reputation management.
Your locations are in a much better position to respond to online reviews. They’re more knowledgeable about the location and they can quickly and directly address any complaints. Because of this, it’s typically best to have locations handle the actual responses to reviews.
However, it’s crucial that you have guidelines for how locations manage their reviews. Most customers who leave negative reviews will return to a business if their service issue can be promptly resolved. But to make that possible, you need to ensure that locations follow review management best practices.
