May 9, 2016 10:30 am
Published by Kirsty Sharman
At Webfluential we have a global community of over 8000 influencers. As our community continues to grow we want to ensure that we keep you up to date with changes on social media platforms that may affect you. The most recent change to have taken place is Facebook allowing businesses and influencers to be verified. Being verified not only gives you credibility but it also ensures you are taking the necessary steps to meeting the Facebook guidelines of posting sponsored content.
The blue badge is the new symbol of Facebook approval – pages with this tick have been confirmed as authentic pages or profiles for a public figure, media company or brand. The grey badge indicates that the Facebook page is a verified page for a business or organisation.
So how can your brand get verified? It’s easy….
- Establish your status
If your Page is categorised as a Local Business or as a Company & Organization, then you will probably need a grey verification badge. The blue verification badge is only available in certain regions so you may not be able to apply for it at this stage.
- Find the verification
Go to the top of your Page and under the General Tab, click on Page Verification. Then select Verify this Page and Get Started. You will enter your publicly listed phone number for your business, your country and location and your preferred language. Then click Call Me Now and wait for Facebook to buzz you with the verification code. Enter this four-digit code, click Continue and enjoy the awesome new badge on your Page.
Hot tip: Link your Page to your website and ensure your About section is complete
- Need an alternative?
If you don’t fancy getting a call or you don’t have a publicly registered phone number, you can use a business document. Just follow the same steps as above and select the Verify this Page with Documents instead button, upload the picture of your official document and make sure it clearly shows both your business name and your address. This process takes slightly longer as Facebook needs to verify the information against public records.
Hot tip: You can use a driver’s license, passport and birth certificate as well as articles of incorporation
What happens if you don’t?
If you don’t verify your Page, then you can’t post sponsored content and for influencers and brands this is not a great thing. You can post your own content, sure, but you can’t link to someone else’s services or solutions unless you have a badge. The verification process is easy and critical for influencers with their own brand pages. If you read through the Facebook Branded Content Policies, you can see that posts which ‘disclose the content is sponsored or provided by a third party’ are only allowed for Verified Pages.
Instagram is also at the party
Instagram is undergoing a number of changes (some of which have caused utter social mayhem) and one of these is a Facebook-a-like type profile with a new contact button, a location tag and category for easier business classification and identification. It’s a pretty nifty new design which can mean a great deal for the brand and the influencer in terms of being easier to contact and increasing potential reach.
Facebook owns Instagram. Facebook wants you to verify your business. It seems only logical to assume that, once the dust has settled on the Facebook platform, Instagram will follow suit. Getting verified today could save you a lot of hassle down the line and may well see you sorted across multiple platforms from the start. While you’re at it, you may as well verify on Twitter too. It pays to be prepared!
Hot tip: Don’t pay someone to verify your brand or Page for you. This is the land of the con artist and will only waste your time and money.
This post was written on behalf of Webfluential by a Webfluential contributor.
