Facebook is a major player when it comes to a business’s overall marketing strategy. With almost 2 billion users, Facebook is an easy-to-use platform with high visibility, making it convenient for a company to effectively communicate with its customer base.
Facebook Locations isn’t a new feature but you may be considering it for your multi-location business. We’re here to explain what it is, how it works, and give you the intel you need to make an informed decision about whether Facebook Locations is right for your business.
Facebook Locations allows a business to set up “parent-child” Facebook Pages. You’ll start with the brand (parent) Page and connect all of your locations’ (child) Pages. If your business has multiple locations, such as a franchise business or a restaurant chain, Facebook Locations can help simplify your marketing efforts and enable you to create a cohesive and unified voice for your brand.
We know that America runs on Dunkin but decided to go with Starbucks images to give you an idea of what Facebook Locations looks like on the front end.
Above is the corporate Starbucks Facebook Page where you can see that they are set up on Facebook Locations.
When you click the Locations tab, it will bring up a map with all the Starbucks locations in your area, or you can search for the location you want. When you click one of the map markers, it will show the business details for that location.
If you click on Starbucks (Saint Johns, FL), you will be directed to that location’s Facebook Page.
This is an individual location Page, which looks like any other Facebook Page except Locations is a menu option and when clicked, will take you back to the locations map to search for a new location. All business names are exactly the same, however, a location identifier is displayed in parenthesis after the name (in this case, it’s the City, State).
Perhaps the best part of Facebook Locations is the ability to publish a post on your parent Page and have it populate to all other Location Pages.
How much time will that save you? Especially if your company is Starbucks and you have locations everywhere!
It’s important to note that Facebook’s tool does not create local posts; instead the local post mirrors what’s been posted on the corporate Page. This means that people who have “liked” their local Starbucks Facebook Page will not see the post in their Facebook newsfeed. Only fans of the corporate Starbucks Page will see that content.
From Facebook:
The post from the main location Page will be automatically shown on the location Pages. They are not separate posts, but rather one shared post with common metrics (likes, comments, shares).
It all sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Your free, one-stop shop for adding new location Pages, editing existing Pages, and managing them all in one place.
With Facebook Locations, a business can:
- manage all locations in one place, including local Facebook Ads.
- turn reviews on or off by location (if you only want to monitor reviews on the parent Page).
- turn messages on or off by location (if you only want to monitor messages on the parent Page).
- assign Page roles by individual location so locations can still post their own localized content.
- choose whether to post content across all, some, or no locations with a single post to parent Page.
- get brand Page notifications when people leave messages, ratings, reviews, likes, check-ins and posts on your location Pages.
Facebook Locations also makes finding one of your locations on Facebook easier and faster for your customers and potential customers.
Facebook Locations is an amazing tool to help a brand create a sense of unity. It can act as a megaphone for a consistent voice and seamless line of communication across an infinite number of locations.
For more information and how to get started, check out Facebook Business’s Location Q&A, here.
