Regular Facebook users may have noticed that some Facebook Pages feature a ‘tick’ to signal the page has been verified as official. This is similar to the blue tick you see on Twitter accounts, to help you distinguish between the genuine businesses and celebrities from the parody accounts.
Unlike Twitter, however, you can actually ask to be verified on Facebook. Twitter’s verification process is very much at the whim of Twitter.
To start the process to get your Facebook Page verified, you simply visit your page and click the settings tab on the top right. This will take you to a page that looks a little like this.
One of the options says ‘Page verification’ – click it, and then click ‘Verify this Page’.
Method of verification #1
You now have two ways you can verify the page with Facebook. The first is by phone. Enter your business phone number, the one you use on your Facebook Page, and Facebook will call you with an automated message and provide you with a PIN to enter.
Why it might not work
Be warned, however, if you have an auto answering service on your business phone that asks people to press numbers to be transferred to the correct department, Facebook will not get through it. It will fail. If this is the case, you either need to switch it off while you verify the page, or use a different number, such as a mobile number.
Method of verification #2
The second option is to send in a file that proves you’re a genuine business. To choose this option, select the link at the bottom of the pop-up box that says ‘Verify this Page with documents instead’.
Facebook says you can use documents such as:
- Business utilities or phone bill
- Business licence
- Business tax file
- Certificate of formation
- Articles of incorporation
Why it might not work
Take care though, because these are manually checked by someone at Facebook and they’ll be looking for the business names and addresses to match up. Therefore, if your limited company name and the name on your documents is ‘X’, but your trading name and the name of your Facebook Page is ‘Y’, then your request may well be refused. Facebook will email you to say this, and you then have a chance to respond via email and explain the situation. If this happens, you should provide as much detail as possible to make the decision easy for them.
The outcome
Once your page has been verified, you’ll receive a tick next to your company name and, according to Facebook, you’ll rank higher in search results for searches made on Facebook.
The impact of this is unclear, but it’s a free and easy way to give your Facebook Page the edge over your competitors.
- New Year’s Resolutions for 2017, and why they fail - 25th January 2017
- Can I really get business from LinkedIn? - 18th January 2017
- What are you doing for Short Story Day? - 21st December 2016
Darren Jamieson
says:Darren Jamieson liked this on Facebook.