Facebook rewards brands that engage locally. They keep their algorithm’s secret sauce shrouded in mystery and speculation, but it’s clear from the restructuring of their local brand management that they believe the future is local. Here’s how you can benefit from it.

Facebook brand pages vs. local pages – what’s the difference?

Facebook’s structure for multi-location brands places a single, global Brand Page at the head of the brand’s online presence. That global brand page acts as a “parent” to the individual Location Pages and usually posts high-level brand content.

Some brands will also have brand pages at the regional level – e.g. pages representing a certain country, or U.S. state.

Alternatively, Facebook location pages represent a much smaller audience, usually a single location. These pages will focus on locally relevant info: if there’s a sale going on at the store if a library branch is holding a read-a-thon, and so on.

Brand page & local page post reach

When you post from your Brand Page, you have the option of mirroring those posts on your Location Pages. At first glance, this seems great – with one post, you could spread your message worldwide, to all of your locations!

But a closer look reveals that that’s not what’s happening: the Brand Page post may appear on the individual Locations pages, but it doesn’t appear in the feeds of those location pages’ followers, meaning that Facebook users won’t see those posts unless they go onto those individual Location Pages – and that’s where the majority of unpaid views happen.

The numbers

Let’s take a look at some numbers from one of PinMeTo’s customers, a home improvement retail chain. We’ll look at two sets of results: the results from their Brand Page post, and then the results from the Brand Page post combined with the 108 Local Posts that went with it.

Brand Page post only

By also posting the same message to their location pages, they generated an average of 318 impressions per local post. That may sound small at first glance – but the power of many small positive results will combine to give your brand one big positive result, and in total, this brand earned an extra 34.3k organic impressions.

You might be thinking: “Whose marketing team has the time to copy and paste posts to all their location pages?” But it can be simpler than that. Using PinMeTo’s Location Posts, this company was able to post to both their brand page and their location pages at the same time. Location Posts also support customization, so that each post can include location-specific info.

Local posts should be just one part of your larger strategy for local engagement. You’ll also want to:

• Make sure all your location pages are set up. Facebook allows users to check in and review specific business locations, and Facebook location info is also used in Instagram’s geo-tagging – but you only get this free publicity if you have the local page set up. (PinMeTo’s Listings service will help you do that across most major social, search, and maps platforms). If your location page isn’t set up and a user checks in there, a new page is automatically created, with that user as the admin. So be sure to…

• Claim your location pages, and delete ones that aren’t yours. At best, unclaimed location pages for your location might hide customer reviews, likes, and check-ins. At worst, these fake pages can be a source of misinformation and rogue content.

• Have value-providing content. Even if you’re able to get your message out everywhere, it won’t resonate unless it’s in line with your brand, and it’s of interest to your audience.

   

At PinMeTo, we can help you make the most of your time and maximize your organic Local Post reach, through Location Posts – it’s like having someone individually post on each local page, but cheaper and more efficient!

Book a free demo to see how your brand could benefit.