Promote Your Franchise Brand Network on Facebook
How franchisees can engage with their local communities
Whether you’re a multi-location nail salon, auto shop, or restaurant, your regular customers think of the franchisee they visit most frequently as their location. Just like every business has its own physical address, every business should have its own social media pages, too — especially on Facebook.
Franchisees with their own Facebook pages can engage with new and loyal customers in their local communities.
Think about it: your customers want to interact with the business they visit every day, not just your parent or corporate Facebook page.
On average, a Facebook post from a local Facebook page reaches five times as many loyal fans as a post from a corporate page, and posts from a local Facebook page see eight times the engagement as any post from a corporate page.
Want to know more? Here’s why all of your franchise locations should each have their own Facebook page:
Responding to Reviews
Facebook ranks as one of the most popular review platforms along with Yelp, Google, and TripAdvisor. This means that right now, your customers are using Facebook to rate and review local businesses they’ve visited, and they’re researching new businesses before spending their money there.
So, make sure they’re able to find the right page! How? By having a Facebook page for each of your franchisees!
Tip! You can link all of your location pages together on Facebook so you can manage them all in one place.
This makes it easier for your customers to leave reviews and find information about the business they’re looking for. It also helps franchise owners respond to reviews about their location to let their customers know they’re being heard.
By labeling all of your locations online clearly, like Bob’s Gym — Cincinnati and Bob’s Gym — Cleveland, your customers can find you — so they can find directions to stop by and/or leave their feedback.
Want to see how Main Street Hub can help your business manage multiple Facebook pages and respond to your online reviews? Get started with us here!
Finding Your Business on Mobile
When your customers are trying to find your business on Facebook, they’re typically searching on their smartphones. According to one study, 79% of smartphone owners use mobile to conduct local searches, and 78% of those searches resulted in offline purchases.
When users search on Facebook for a business from their phone, Facebook uses that smartphone user’s location to determine which results to pull in and will display a map of where those businesses are located.
For example, if a customer searches for Jasper’s Market, their Facebook results will only include pages for the Jasper’s Market locations near them. If Jasper’s only has one corporate page, Facebook will not pull other locations into their search results.
You can see why having a Facebook page for each of your franchisees makes it easier for customers to find your business in their local area and encourages them to visit!
This is especially key if you’re a franchise owner. Why?
If you don’t have a location page for your Greek restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, your customers in Phoenix won’t be able find you when they search “lunch” or “sandwich” on Facebook because your corporate page won’t be local to them and won’t come up in their search results.
And, here’s another reason to create a Facebook page for each franchisee — Google will rank your business higher in local search results based on how many times your business appears online on legitimate websites, like Facebook! This makes your business easier to find when your customers are searching for “pizza in Jacksonville” or “Orange Theory Fitness in Houston.”
Managing Your Community
Owning a local business gives you a unique opportunity to connect with your local community in a variety of ways — including the content you share on your social media pages.
As a franchisor, ensuring that a Facebook page is set up and engaging for each franchisee will help show your customers how invested your business is in the local community surrounding it, and will allow each location to share content that speaks directly to their community.
Creating More Effective Facebook Ads
Facebook offers different ways for business owners to advertise their services to new customers, including ads and boosted posts, to get them in the door and keep them coming back.
When each of your business locations has its own Facebook page, you can run more targeted Facebook Ads to people who live in or near your community. And, on each ad, you can add a call-to-action for that particular business location, like a button to get directions, visit your website, or look at your menu.
Learn more about Facebook advertising and calls-to-action here.
Managing multiple businesses is no easy feat. From running your franchisees to staying on brand, creating an online presence for each, and extending your customer service online, we know your to-do list is always full.
