If you have a business or a personal brand, you should have a Facebook page.
Facebook has the capability to give opportunities beyond expectation. Through ads, you expose yourself and your business to over a billion of its monthly active users who may also be potential customers.
It’s cheaper and more convenient to advertise in Facebook compared to making physical efforts when marketing yourself and your company. Because of the same reason, many businesses create Facebook pages yearly.
A year on year report said there was a 33 percent growth in the creation of Facebook business pages. As of September 2016, sixty million entrepreneurial pages already exist. This shows how intense the competition becomes among businesses in Facebook.
Because Facebook is within arm’s reach even for small businesses and up-and-coming personalities, competition is getting bigger and more complicated. With a new wave of competitors comes the sprouting of fraudulent accounts and businesses who wants their share of customers.
How do you keep up with millions of competitors? How do you level up your personal brand or business page?
What Are Facebook’s Badges?
Account verification started in May 2013 when the blue badge was introduced. It was made to verify public figures and personalities with large audiences. After a while, many politicians and celebrities used this feature.
The latest one, the gray badge, which was launched in October 2015, is for local businesses with valid addresses. It was a no-brainer for companies, big or small, to adopt this one.
Because people notice badges first even before seeing the contents of a page, having it gives an advantage of a great first impression.
What Do I Get from Them?
Other than that cool tick you get beside your business or personal brand name, verifying your page gets you other benefits as well.
If you observe, more big businesses verify their Facebook account. The small ones should follow suit, especially when they can have that privilege.
Reaching customers, partners or investors has always been a challenge for businesses. Having a badge gives you a sense of importance to potential and regular customers. Whether big or small, you and your business appear more credible.
Badges set you apart from competitors. A business forecast made by eMarketer says that in 2015, 84.7 percent of companies—with more than a hundred employees and uses Facebook for marketing—will rise in number in 2016 (85.3 percent) and in 2017 (85.8 percent).
If you own a Facebook page, competitors will give you a harder time when attracting customers. With a badge, you stand out among unverified accounts; fraudulent ones and even legitimate ones. Some people may have ignored you before but now that you have a badge, the chance of them being interested in you or your products are higher.
Blue and gray badges have the power to attract trust. It’s the benefit brands should seek if they want career or business growth.
Ads are more useful when they come from verified accounts. With a badge, you guarantee that the product in the ad has a brand they can believe in.
In addition, a verified page ranks higher in Facebook’s search results. If you have one, you make it easier for people to find you and not be involved in any type of mishaps related to fraudulent accounts.
A sense of familiarity opens the possibility that a person browsing Facebook becomes a potential customer, a root cause for your product’s popularity by word of mouth or an entirely different benefit. Other than being trustworthy, badges make pages more familiar to people. Each time a person encounters your page, badges tell them you are a real brand. Therefore, they will remember you or your company as one of the few trustworthy brands out of millions of business pages.
Conclusion
Badges are just few of the advantages you would want to employ from Facebook. They give people the idea of legitimacy, quality products, and exceptional services. With them, you have power over those who doubt you and those that compete with you.
With all the benefits badges offer, you must think that acquiring it is nearly impossible. Believe it or not, having a badge is easier than commonly assumed. After preparing a number of documents, just follow a few steps to verify your Facebook page and you’re good to go.
Use social media that match your market. A reason why Facebook is one of the most trusted social media sites is because it caters to a variety of users, prominent ones even. Don’t miss on the opportunity, especially when it’s just a badge away.
Resources:
“Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 3rd quarter 2016 (in millions)” Statista. www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide
Yeung, Ken. “Facebook: 60 million businesses have Pages, 4 million actively advertise” VentureBeat. September 17, 2016. www.venturebeat.com/2016/09/27/facebook-60-million-businesses-have-pages-4-million-actively-advertise
“Here’s Why Facebook’s Verified Badge Is Good For You And Business Page Owners” RapidCloud. October 19, 2015. www.rapidcloud.sg/blog/heres-why-facebooks-verified-badge-is-good-for-you-and-business-page-owners
“Number of Companies Using Instagram To Nearly Double Next Year” eMarketer. October 20, 2015. www.emarketer.com/Article/Number-of-Companies-Using-Instagram-Nearly-Double-Next-Year/1013122
“Match Your Market: Knowing the Right Social Network for Your Business” SlideGenius. www.slidegenius.com/blog/right-social-media-network-business
“How do I verify my Page?” Facebook. www.facebook.com/help/100168986860974
Rick Enrico is the CEO and Founder of SlideGenius, Inc., a global presentation design agency. He regularly publishes expert presentation tips on the SlideGenius blog. He currently oversees an experienced team of designers, software developers, and marketing professionals that specialize in creating custom corporate presentations and cloud publishing applications. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
