Facebook has made the shift to now allow stores with multiple Facebook Pages to tie those locations together and to show them as connected! This is GREAT news!
This formerly was only available to large brands and major companies in what was called the “Parent / Child” setup.
This is an awesome new feature for restaurant chains and other multi-location businesses! This means companies can have separate Facebook Pages for each location and have the valuable “check-in” feature enabled for that location, but the Pages can all be connected as well under one “main” or “corporate” page.
UPDATE: Seems like Facebook is back and forth on this. Currently this link is not showing any content on Facebook. STAY TUNED. Facebook outlines the details here and below are the key points and links.
The Details from Facebook
KEY DETAIL: Each store location Page will be linked to one designated main Page on Facebook.
Features:
• Creates authentic Pages for all of your store locations
• Updates all of your Pages with the right information
• Helps people find your business on Facebook
Once you have Locations set up, admins with Content Creator or Manager permissions on the main Page can add, edit, and remove locations all from the Locations settings.
Then, to access and manage Locations, the corporate company can go to the main Page and select “Edit Page” then “Manage Locations”, and edit any of the locations! A great upgrade!
How to request creating location Pages for the first time:
Complete PDF Guide of Instructions: Click here for a detailed guide about Locations.
STEPS:
1. Fill out the appropriate spreadsheet:
Click here for the Location Spreadsheet for new Location Pages
Click here for the Location Spreadsheet to convert existing Pages into Location pages
NOTE: You only need to follow this process to create location Pages initially. You can add and edit future locations from the location settings tab.
2. Follow the instructions on the spreadsheet.
3. Review the spreadsheet for accuracy and submit the completed spreadsheet at Facebook Help for Locations. UPDATE: Seems like Facebook is back and forth on this. Currently this link is not showing any content on Facebook. STAY TUNED.
4. Your request will be reviewed.
Once it’s approved, Facebook will create or update individual Pages for each location. According to Facebook, each location Page will be linked to the main Page within 48 hours.
Common Questions Answered by Facebook:
What information and settings will be added to all location Pages?
• The Page name, cover photo, and profile picture of the main Page will appear on all location Pages by default. Location Pages can choose to change or create their own profile and cover photos if they wish.
• Also, check-in data across all locations will be aggregated on the main Page, however other metrics (such as likes) will not be combined.
Can people post on newly created location Pages?
As a default setting, people will not be able to post content on location Pages that are created using the spreadsheet method. To change the default setting on each location Page, admins can click the Edit Page button, select Edit Settings, and change their settings in the Posting Ability section.
If there was already a Page for a store location, will it be removed after my spreadsheet is processed by Facebook?
No, but locations added from the locations settings page will be marked as authentic. Authentic locations rank higher when a person searches for your business, and through crowd sourcing we can direct people to your authentic Page.
Is it possible for the main Page to automatically post on all location Pages?
No, the main Page cannot publish to all of their location Pages at once. The main Page can publish to people who like the main Page, and the location Pages can publish to people who like the location Page.
How long will it take for the Pages to be created after I send the complete spreadsheet?
Approximately 48 hours after you’ve submitted the completed spreadsheet. The turn around time can be much longer if there are errors found in the spreadsheet.
After I set up my locations on Facebook the first time, how do I add or edit location Pages in the future?
After you follow the initial spreadsheet process, you’ll be able to view and manage your locations directly from the locations settings page. The PDF Guide noted earlier and linked to again below has instructions on editing existing locations once the initial setup is done and it also has instructions on adding additional new locations after the initial setup is complete.
Again, the instructions are in this doc: Click here for a detailed guide about Locations.
Hello Mike,
I am looking to implement this feature for one of our clients – a restaurant chain. However, in order to present this to the brand and get consent from all franchisees I need to have a better understanding of whether or not you must be a Facebook advertiser to access this feature and if so, what type of ad spend is required. The only contact provided by Facebook for more information on this feature is your “Account Manager” and currently we are doing FB advertising through a third-party vendor so I don’t have direct access to an account manager. Have you come across anything providing details on Facebook advertising as it related to using the locations feature? Thank you!
Best-
Megan
It appears that Facebook may have reversed course on allowing this feature to be open to anyone, not just brands who have Facebook Account Managers. The link to the Facebook Help page that contained all of the info you might need is now blank and no longer allows for submissions. If you find it has been relocated, please let us know!
yes, welcome to Facebook standard operating procedure! Seems like those links are not loading. I’ll keep watch on it.
I have not come across anything specific. At one point this was readily accessible and
now it seems it has been temporarily taken down.
Mike, thanks for the excellent post. I was pretty optimistic and thought – FINALLY, there’s a solution to the multiple locations conundrum. Though, I noticed that FB seems to be holding firm on its reversed stance on this. Any news on if the feature has come back (or will be back)? Thanks!
I found this link. Is this what you saw before, when you originally wrote this post?
https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/484355518286343
Hi. That’s not the original link but it does look like it has some association with multiple locations. If you try and please report back here how it goes.
No new news yet!
Mike, I have a Facebook business page with two “child” location pages. However, one of those “child” pages stopped appearing on the map of the main page’s Locations tab. Facebook has been unresponsive to my requests for help. Any suggestions?
p.s. I signed up for location pages using a page similar to that in Ms. Long’s link.
That’s a tough one Archie. I would fill out as many Facebook Contact forms as you can. Search “Mari Smith List of Facebook contact forms” and try some of those.
Hi Mike! Do you know what happens to the “likes” on the child pages when they become a location under the corporate page? Do those “likes” do a one-time transfer to the corporate page? (I know that you mentioned that the check-ins get aggregated to the corporate page, but the “likes” don’t. However, it appears that most location pages have a lower number of “likes” then before they became locations, so what happened?) Thanks!!!
Devon, it was my understanding that children would retain their “likes” since they are still unique pages. This is different than the “merge” option where something goes away. That being said, we can’t test at the moment since the access seems to not be available at this current time.
Hmm, interesting. OK – thank you for your quick response, Mike! It’s appreciated 🙂
HI there – I may be able to help answer this. When you attach a child page to the main corporate page there is no transfer of likes. The child page retains its likes exactly as before, and they do not roll up to the corporate (or “parent”) page. There should be no reduction in likes to a child page by implementing the framework.
This typically occurs when the address for the child page is not filled in to Facebook’s liking. I would suggest checking the local address of the page that has disappeared to ensure it is accurate. Note that Facebook uses Bing maps, so conform to Bing formatting.
Hi there. No, there is no requirement that you advertise a certain amount with Facebook to enable the Locations framework. You do need to go through a Facebook rep or an agency who has a relationship with Facebook, however.
I’m not optimistic, but I have to ask… has the multiple locations feature become available yet? And, how DO you get in touch with an Account Manager at Facebook?
I did have confirmation 2 weeks ago of a company having success doing this. They used the contact access point here: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/484355518286343
Could you help out with another question? Do you have any idea on how to add a map to a business Facebook page to show multiple locations? Ex: A restaurant with multiple locations throughout the city that are all shown on a map/tab on the Facebook page.
Abe it is pretty easy to do with a tab app from TabSite! See details here: https://tabsite.com/blog/tabsite-releases-google-map-enhanced-customizations/
Yea, I was able to find TabSite but was just trying to find a free app but doesn’t look like there is one so I will just go with this. Thanks a lot!
This is useful info – what’s your opinion though, for say a restaurant that has two locations. Is there really a need to have a parent page in this instance? I’m trying to decide the best route to take for my clients. Thanks!
Hi Daniel. I really don’t think it would be necessary for a restaurant with 2 locations. It really makes sense once there are 5+ locations and for chains. It is a matter of perspective and how the Pages are going to relate.
Mike Gingerich, Co-founder
TabSite
http://www.TabSite.com
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http://www.MikeGingerich.com
Can you tell me more about “available to large brands and major companies” how i can manage my franchising brand on facebook? Can i do the request for the activation of parent child?
Hi, is there any update on a roll out of this??
No recent news. The availability seems to have stalled.
Thanks, mike
Follow-up on this:
“Is it possible for the main Page to automatically post on all location Pages?”
When we set up our multiple locations with Facebook, our rep actually told us that this was possible. In fact, that’s the main reason we adopted the Multiple Locations model. Of course, once we get everything set up, we discovered it wasn’t possible. So now I have to manually push each piece of content to 90 different pages. A single post can take me as much as half an hour, and I think I’m getting a repetitive stress injury.
Does anyone know of a tool that will allow me to either:
1. Post it once, and share it to 90 additional pages. (These are
all individual agency locations that are part of our parent company.) -OR-
2. Post it to all pages at one time, with minimal fuss.
David, I recommend my friends at Post Planner. Add all 90 pages one time then create a group for them and then from then on simply select that group, create your post, schedule a time to deploy it and boom you’re done. Total sweetness.
Have you heard anything new about this feature? I see the link is not currently working. Trying to decide if it is worth it to manage multiple pages or just keep one main page and list the other locations.
I am using this feature currently for a group of restaurants, have you come right with it yet?
How to submit the Location Spreadsheet which i filled the stores details to facebook?
Are you still looking for a solution to your problems, David? Try out the Social Brand Amplifier by the guys at Reshift Media. Great tool that should satisfy all your needs. These guys are super-supportive, will show you a cool demo up front and help you with any issues even after the tool is set up.
I spoke with a company called ReShift Media yesterday that offers the Facebook Multi-Location platform and integration. They also provide a resource called Social Brand Amplifier that acts as a dashboard to manage all the location pages infomation, images, and posts. They also allowed clear analytics of each page as well as grouping if we wanted to post or gain reporting via region or sales team across multiple locations.
Has anyone heard of them? Currently use their services?
no update still within the last year? Do you know or has Facebook released any reason to not make this service easily available or why they retracted their support? I don’t see how being required to use a 3rd party to provide this service brings any benefit to FB.
Thanks for the update. Not familiar with them. Did you try the service?
Hi Mike,
Here’s more information about our tool, which allows you to cascade posts and aggregate notifications & Insights for pages on the Facebook Locations framework: http://www.socialbrandamplifier.com
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Hi I’d like to follow these steps but there is the page that located at this link “Facebook Help for Locations” still shows no content. What now? How can I submit my locations to be processed? Thank you in advance
If a business currently has 2 location pages, how would you go about making it a main page and then tieing those 2 pages to the main page? Do you create a new page as a brand or a company/organization from scratch to be the parent and then somehow tie those 2 existing location pages to it?
Hi Amanda, were you able to get the Multi-Location feature on your Facebook business page?
Just wanted to drop a note here that this feature is available to anyone who wants it. If you send a support request to the Facebook Advert Support team from the Facebook Advert Support page, asking them to “activate locations for my page” they will. Your main page can’t have an address associated to it for this to be turned on so ensure that any address/location on your main page is removed prior to you making the request.
You can not post content from a main page to a location page. Unless using third party software.
At the moment we’re using the main page as the content hub and the location pages as the check-in locations for customers with reviews.
We’re still learning and adapting but posting the same content from hubs > location pages seems like a waste of time. It should ideally be unique local content, which would be a much bigger job than we have time for at the moment.
Any questions, just ask, I should get an email notification for replies.
Appreciate this input Darren! Thanks.