Facebook has rolled out grey verification badges for local businesses since October 2015 – yet many brands have yet to verify their official pages. If you represent a local business, here’s 5 reasons why you should do it:

It gives your business credibility on Facebook
At present, Facebook has more than 50 million small business pages. Hence, it can be hard for people might to find your page amidst duplicate pages and fake accounts. By going through the verification process, you assure your followers that you are legitimate. This instills trust amongst them that they’re directing feedback to the correct channels.

It enables you to claim unofficial pages
Unofficial pages are created automatically by Facebook when people check in to a location with no page. If you find an unofficial page representing your business, it was probably created before your official Facebook page existed. Depending on the amount of engagement involved, these pages could be a rich source of customer feedback that goes under the radar. Verifying your official Facebook page gives you the authority to claim these unofficial pages and merge their content into your official page.

It helps you manage multiple locations under a single page
If your local business has branches, there are bound to be branch-specific events and feedback. This lends itself to unofficial branch pages with photos, reviews and customer grievances relevant to that branch. Although not immediately apparent, Facebook does offer location services to businesses. There, you can host a map of your branches with page links, contact information and reviews – which you can easily access, control and monitor from your main page.

It helps you stand out from similarly-named pages
With so many businesses worldwide, it’s possible to run into another business that is similarly named somewhere else. Having an official grey badge ranks your page higher in search results, which then helps sets your company name apart to potential customers. This also decreases the possibility of people accidentally checking in, reviewing or tagging the wrong page due to spelling similarities.

It helps redirect reviews and complaints
Despite often being seen as ‘free publicity’, reviews are usually written by people who are complaining about something – ‘rave reviews’ are hard to come by as a business grows and diversifies. However, when complaints are posted on people personal profiles, groups, and unclaimed location pages, it’s hard for you to engage with them. Verifying your official page makes in more prominent and helps redirect customers to it, where their complaint can be followed-up with.

How do you verify your Facebook page? Follow these three steps:

1. Go to ‘Verify this page’ in your page’s Settings.
2. Provide Facebook with your business information – either a publicly listed local phone number OR a snapshot of an official document with your businesses’ name and address.
3. Wait for Facebook to notify you of your verification status within a few days. That’s it – you’ve earned your grey badge!