Local Business Facebook Pages – Verification Badge

By Alain Parcan, Market Hardware Inc.

If you’ve ever come across a Facebook page that is associated with a well-known company or person, you’ve probably seen the blue check mark next to their name. This blue check mark, according to Facebook, means that this page is a verified celebrity, public figure, sports team or other media and entertainment organizations.

Instead of a blue check mark, Facebook is verifying Local Business Pages with a dark gray check mark. Not only will this help people figure out what business pages are real and what is not, verified pages will show up higher in Google rankings.

Not to worry, this feature is not available to all Facebook pages just yet.  They are rolling it out on a limited basis to just a few pages for now.

If the option is available and you want to authenticate your business, you’ll need to go into your Page’s Admin settings and press “Verify Page.” There are two ways to verify your Facebook page:

1. Give Facebook your publicly listed phone number & they will call you with a code. Once you receive the code, enter it and you will be “verified”.
2. Upload one of the following documents and send to Facebook to verify your business;

• Business utility or phone bill
• Business license
• Business tax file
• Certificate of formation
• Articles of incorporation

Since Facebook is requiring you to enter your business’s publicly listed phone number, you’ll need to confirm the number you enter is the one listed on your page. Once you have received the call from Facebook, all you need to do is enter the 4 digit code and you’ll be set. Facebook offers an alternative verification method that allows you to enter a legal document to Facebook to verify your Business Local Page. Although they did clarify that this method could take longer than just using a phone call.

Keep in mind; although the option to “verify” your page is on your settings already, it’s not working for all pages just yet. Go ahead and try it – if it doesn’t work just check back in a few days to see if the tool is fully functional.

About the author: Alain Parcan is the Director of Marketing for Market Hardware, Inc. Market Hardware helps small businesses compete on the web and offers special discounts for NARI members. For more information, call 888-381-6925.