Leverage Your Bank’s Branch Network With Facebook Locations

Brick and mortar branch locations offer great visibility for financial institutions both physically and online. Get more from Facebook by requesting access to the Facebook Locations feature!

Why Are There So Many Random Facebook Pages For My Bank?

For businesses that have multiple locations, managing your brand on Facebook can be a real challenge. As you search Facebook for your business by name you’ll likely notice the brand page you created, plus a number of Facebook “Places” or unofficial pages for various branch locations. These pages are created as a result of someone “checking in” to one of your business locations with their Facebook mobile app, or Facebook may have created the page after aggregating business data from another source.

What Should You Do About Facebook Pages Generated For Your Locations?

Claim them all! It can be a tedious process, but without claiming them you won’t be able to fix incorrect information or utilize the pages for marketing efforts. Each individual Location page represents a great opportunity for your financial institution to receive reviews and check-ins from Facebook users that visit individual branch locations.

In order to claim a Facebook Place page, you’ll need to click the link titled “Is this your business?” to get started. You’ll then be presented with the option to merge the page into another verified Facebook page, or claim the page and keep it active. Facebook verification requires an automated phone call to the number associated with the page, submission of an official business document, or proof that your account is associated with a business email address that matches the business name.

Using the Facebook Locations Feature

Once you’ve claimed all the Places pages you could find for your financial institution, you’ll need to request access to the Facebook Locations feature. Once Facebook approves your request, you’ll receive an email letting you know the feature is now available to you. If you visit the Settings tab of your main page you’ll now see a tab for Locations.

Within the Facebook Locations settings you can decide whether to automatically repost any updates published on your main page to every location page. You can also decide whether or not to make nearby location pages visible to users on your main page. The last setting is for your Location Descriptor, or the physical description of your location (city name, shopping center location, etc).

Benefits of Using Facebook Locations

It may seem like a lot of effort to verify all your branch locations on Facebook and apply for access to the Facebook Locations feature, but there are benefits!

Here are a few reasons to use Facebook Locations:

• Mobile Facebook users can more easily find your Location pages and check-in or leave a review; both actions provide your local branches with added visibility on Facebook
• Your bank or credit union will maintain brand consistency across various pages within Facebook
• Your marketing team will be able to better manage activity across various Locations pages and easily respond to customer reviews
• Your bank can run hyper-local ad campaigns on Facebook that include a user’s nearest branch location within your ads
• Your social media team can automatically post the same updates across all Location pages at once, or post hyper-local updates for individual branches
• Facebook users will be able to see all of your branch locations on your main Facebook page and easily get directions or click to call

Here’s an example of what Facebook Locations would look like for your bank or credit union:

Final Thoughts on Facebook Locations

With 1.65 billion monthly active visitors, Facebook remains an enormously powerful platform. It’s worth noting that currently 54% of those monthly active visitors access the site exclusively by mobile device. If your financial institution is not paying attention to how your brand is represented on Facebook, you might want to reconsider! Taking advantage of Facebook Locations for your bank is a smart way to improve the interaction Facebook users have with your brand, and boost local visibility especially with mobile users.