It was once believed that you could only get verified on Facebook if you were a celebrity, sports team, famous athlete, entertainer, big corporation, etc. You were basically concerned about someone taking on your persona, tarnishing your company’s message and posting in your name. That little Blue Checkmarkblue checkmark was the clear sign that you were the ONLY one posting, this was your (insert famous person here) account and Facebook could prove it. Then a little grey checkmark started popping up next to business pages. What is the little grey checkmark you ask? It’s the sign that you are the one true page for YOUR business.

Facebook allowed businesses a little while back to begin getting verified. The reason for this was because they wanted to ensure that the correct page is attached to a real business. Similar to Google with Google brand pages, Google+ and Google maps – they want to make sure that they have the right information and are not leading the billions of people on Facebook to think a business is real, and it’s not. Not only that, but depending on your Facebook presence there may be a few pages for your business. These pages could have popped up due to reviews from clients or customers and have yet to be claimed, or ones for previous owners that for some reason or another cannot be deleted or merged.

What does a verification get my business? It gets you a fancy little grey checkmark to state Verified Checkmarkthat you are who you say you are. If there are multiple pages for your business, this is important. But the real golden aspect of this checkmark is that it will bump you up higher in the search rankings. Since this is all fairly new in the grand scheme of things, it has yet to prove that this is a MUST need for your business, but considering how easy it is to do and that there is no downside, I highly recommend taking the 5 minutes to get it done.

It is very simple to get verified on Facebook. Go to your Settings on your Like page for your business. Under the General settings you will see Page Verified. Click the link and follow the instructions. There are two ways to get verified – you can get an automated phone call or you can send in your business documents. I have verified multiple businesses and it is rare if i can get it done through the phone call option. I have tried a couple of times, but at this point in time you will more than likely need to upload documents in order to get the verified distinction. I am hoping that Facebook will be fixing this issue very shortly.

Do you have any questions on verification? What is your experience?
Share in the comments below – I would love to connect!