Your Guide to Managing Social Media Profiles for a Multi-Location Business
When you have more than one location for your business, your brand must exist in multiple places both physically and digitally. You must run individual locations in-person and online.
You may even need both unique location and brand pages across social media and directory sites. That’s because having unique social profiles for each of your locations:
- Helps customer get to know your unique locations
- Generates reviews for each individual location
- Boosts local SEO and helps customers find you via search
- Allows customers to tag themselves and promote locations to their followers
- Segments promotions that are unique to each location
- Manages customer service messages
A social media strategy for a single location will look different than a plan for a brand with more than one location. Let’s look at what it takes to create and manage social media profiles for a multi-location business.
The Difference Between a Brand Page and Location Page
When deciding how to set up social media profiles for a multi-location business, start by considering whether you need a brand page, location pages, or both.
A brand page is a profile that represents your brand as a whole. All of the content on that page is related to your overall brand. Its audience is anyone interested in your brand.
A location page is a profile that represents a single location of your business. All of the content on the page is specifically related to the individual location. Its audience is anyone interested in that specific location.
For example, PDQ, a quick-service restaurant with more than 60 locations, has a primary brand Facebook page as well as individual location pages (sometimes referred to as place pages) on Facebook.
What Pages Do You Need?
Now that you know the difference between the types of pages and social media profiles for a multi-location business, how can you decide what is right for your business? Well, it depends.
As you determine how many and what type of pages your brand needs, consider these questions.
- What are your resources? You don’t want to overextend your brand. Only create pages that you know you have the resources for. Make sure you can create content for more than one page and ensure that someone will manage the comments and messages for all of the pages.
- Are your locations located in the same city? If your locations are all located in a close proximity to each other, you might be able to get away with just a brand page. Conversely, if your businesses are located in separate areas, cities, or states, you may need individual pages for each.
- Are each of your locations unique? When your locations are similar, it is more likely that the content you share from their social profiles will also be similar -- so you may not need individual pages. If your locations have strikingly different features, offerings, and audiences, you will need separate pages for each.
Related: Succeed at Multi-Location Marketing by Following These 7 Best Practices
Suggested Social Media Profiles for a Multi-location Business
Every multi-location business will have to decide for themselves whether or not they need brand pages, location pages, or both. But there are some best practices to consider. Use these principles to guide you:
Facebook: Brand Page & Location Pages
Set each location page as a place under the primary brand page.
Instagram: Location Pages
Encourage visitors to tag themselves at individual locations by adding a page for each of your properties.
Google My Business: Location Pages
Help your brand show up in nearby searches by creating a Google My Business page for each location.
Related: How to Use Google My Business for Multiple Locations
MyArea Network Local Area Sites: Brand Page & Location Pages
Feature your brand on MyArea Network Local Area pages as a brand and individual location to increase views for your business.
Twitter: Brand Page
Unless you have a large amount of resources, you can get away with just a brand page on Twitter (as it doesn’t include location tagging or reviews).
YouTube: Brand Page
Posting to YouTube also requires quite a bit of resources. Start with a brand page and expand to location pages when you have the resources to do so.
Tik Tok and Snapchat: Brand Page
For both of these highly visual platforms, stick to building one following for your brand page.
Tips for Running Multiple Social Profiles for a Multi-Location Business
As you create social profiles for your multi-location business, keep a few of these tips in mind.
Create consistent handles. When creating pages across your brand, use a consistent format for handles and names. If you have a brand page, stick to your main business name. Then for each location, use the brand name along with an identifier, such as “BrandNameStreetName” or “BrandNameNeighborhood.”
Create a brand guide to direct content creation. All of the content shared across the social profiles for a multi-location business should be similar in style, tone, and voice. To ensure that posts always sound cohesive, create a brand guide that is provided to each person or agency creating content on your brand’s behalf.
Create regional marketing guidelines. In addition to creating one primary brand guide, also create guidelines for regional marketing. Regional marketing is a way to approach your marketing efforts so it matches the unique environment, culture, and geography of your area. If your locations are spread across diverse regions, create marketing guidelines that are unique to each area.
Create engagement guidelines. One final guide for managing social profiles for multi-location businesses should address page engagement. Layout specific details for who is responsible for managing comments, messages, and reviews that come through your pages.
Link to connected social media profiles on location pages. Each of your locations should have their own page on your website. The pages should include details that are specific to each location, which includes adding links to the connected social media pages and profiles.
Related: How To Optimize Your Brand's Website When You Have Multiple Locations
Need Help Managing Profiles for Your Multi-Location Brand?
If you run a multi-location brand, you need strategies to market your brand as a whole and as individual locations.
If you need help with laying out plans for both, MyArea Network is here to help.
We are well-versed in helping businesses create brand-level marketing as well as unique local marketing for individual locations. Find out how we can help your brand stand out nationally and on a local level. Talk to our team today about our multi-location brand solutions.
