How to Get Your Business Verified on Facebook
It’s all well and good having your business set up on Facebook, but if you don’t present and promote your work in the best light, this could be damaging to your brand. Poor quality posts containing bad grammar, dead links and grainy, watermarked images could (and let’s face it, probably will) give your audience the wrong impression about your business.
However, once you’ve tackled the main issue of a small base of likes due to publishing rich, unique content, you can look at upping your game and become Facebook verified. This will solidify your business and give an air of authority and establish credibility to those browsing for their next purchase. But how do you get that little tick next to your name?
Don’t worry, we got you.
Two types of verification on Facebook
It’s first smart to understand that there are currently two types of verifications on Facebook: blue verification badges and grey verification badges.
This blog is focusing on the grey verification badge, which is ideal for smaller or local businesses and organisations, rather than big corporate brands or public figures (ie. our pal, The Rock).
But why get verified?
To be blunt, you can now filter out your search results to show just verified pages; people don’t want to waste their time with pages that are not authentic. Think about when you’re searching for a brand or company on Facebook and what you do. Being verified helps your page show up higher in search results so potential customers can easily find your business even without this filter applied.
Best practices to ensure you’re ready to be Facebook verified
Before you should apply for verification, there are a few requirements your page must meet. Second to good content, you should ensure your Facebook page is professional. This means your page should easily be identifiable as the page associated with a business – and you are only posting on-brand content. It’s always worth looking at well-known brands such as Starbucks or IKEA to get a flavour of what your page should look like and what it should be ‘putting out there’.
You should make sure that all information on your Facebook is correct and up-to-date, filling in as much as possible. The more, the better. Even the little ‘about us’ and ‘company overview’ bit. This makes it easier for users (and Facebook) to understand what you are about, and contact you if needs be.
Finally, if you have an official website, be sure to link to your Facebook page and vice-versa. Whilst this is common practice, some businesses do forget to link up their social media with their website. Don’t be that guy.
How to apply for Facebook verification
Follow these quick, numbered steps to request your own grey verification tick and become business Facebook verified:
- You’ll want to be on the Business Manager section of your business’ Facebook page. To quickly access Business Manager if your page is not giving you a direct link, change “www” in your URL to “business”.
- From there click Settings > General > Page verification to begin the application; this should be the third option down on the right-hand side. Please note that if this option is not available to you (or it is not visible), it’s Facebook’s way of saying you haven’t done enough to your page, you don’t have enough likes, and you have not posted enough content to be considered yet.
- You then have a choice to make, you can apply for an instant verification or a detailed verification. The instant verification route sees Facebook call the telephone number you have listed on your business page, to which you’ll be given a verification code, to enter online. However, if you choose the more detailed option, you will be prompted to upload a picture of an official document that clearly shows your business’s name and address, such as a bill.
Once Facebook receives your validation request, they will review your application and either confirm or deny your request. Be patient, as this process can take anywhere from 48 hours to 45 days. It is worth the wait however, as once verified, you should see your page views increase and with any luck, your business grow.
