Running and optimizing social media pages for a multi-location brand can feel like a daunting task. But what if I told you that you can manage all of your pages from one dashboard while bringing in new customers and sales?
You can do so with Facebook store pages. With these pages, you can schedule a post once on your corporate page and have it post to every location too. Having store pages is also one way to cut down on the existence of rogue pages published by Facebook suggestions.
In this blog, we will cover the best ways to optimize the setup of your pages, how to write localized posts and utilize insights to finetune your content.
A good rule of thumb is to set up Facebook store pages if your business has 3 locations or more. If you haven’t set up your pages yet, get started by clicking here.
Optimizing Your Setup
Now that we’ve established who should have Facebook store pages and what the benefits are, let’s talk about optimizing the setup of your pages.
The first thing to note is that you should work to maintain consistency across all platforms that publish your business information—Google, Bing, Yelp, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Your business name, address, phone number, categories and service area should match every other listing. Read more here about why it's important to maintain NAP consistency.
Once you’ve created your listings, you can also add photos and videos, a business description and a services list to add more background information on your business. Remember you’re serving two audiences: users and search engines. So be personal but don’t forget to include some important keywords.
Now let’s look at a few options under settings. If you find it too difficult to manage each page alone, there are a few things you can do. First, under the tab called “Locations,” you can check if you want posts from your corporate page to publish to location pages. Second, you can actually assign a local team member to manage posting on a specific location. You can do this under “Page Roles.” Just ensure that you have a consistent post schedule.
For general maintenance, try to create a quarterly cadence of requesting new reviews. How many and how often you get reviews play a part in your page’s ranking on Google. Also note, Facebook location reviews will pull onto your Bing listings.
The final point for you to know is that you must invite people to like your store location pages in order for them to rank. It isn’t enough just to have likes on your corporate page. The more likes you have, the higher your page will rank in Facebook search.
Facebook Post Ideas
So, your page is set up. What now? It’s time to get writing!
If you’re running into writer’s block, try featuring your team members in employee of the month posts, promoting your deals and promos by location or posting behind-the-scenes photos from each store.
Remember you’re trying to advertise your brand and make customers want to work with you.
If nothing else, do some research to see what types of local events or celebrations are going on. Check out the marketing efforts of other local businesses or even your competitors to see how they’re utilizing their store locations. The more localized your posts, the greater refined and more qualified your audience will be.
How often you post really depends on if you’re linking each location page to the corporate page and how often you plan on posting to your corporate page.
Aim to post at least once a week, but we recommend 3-7 times per week. This signals to search engines that your business is open and active plus it drives more engagement with your customers.
Leverage Facebook Insights
After you have a few posts, you can start checking your insights. You can see everything from which store location is bringing in the most traffic to how your audience differs across locations.
Utilize the data Facebook has gathered about how your posts are performing to inform future content.
For example, if you have a location in Miami and the audience is mostly Spanish-speaking, consider writing posts in Spanish. Or maybe you are headquartered in a big city, but a store location is in a rural area; these audiences differ greatly, so consider their needs and interests as well.
Also, keep in mind different time zones and posting locally when your audience is most active on Facebook.
Final Points
Once your business has established these basic optimization pieces, you can consider running Facebook ads as well. Though this strategy is beyond the scope of this blog, you can learn more by checking out our paid advertising services page on our site. Or read this blog on running ads for Facebook location pages.
In conclusion, Facebook store pages are a great way to simplify your social media marketing strategy while expanding your local reach. Many businesses choose to set up Facebook store pages for a variety of reasons but if your business has multiple locations, it’s a no-brainer.
If you’d like to learn more about Facebook marketing, you can check out our blog for more resources or fill out our contact form to learn more about our social media marketing plan for local businesses.