You created a beautiful Facebook business page, featuring all your best company information and branding messages. You’ve even begun making posts and collecting followers among your employees, vendors, and customers. And then you notice it. The random Facebook page that your business already had. Maybe it’s an unclaimed page that Facebook automatically generated. Maybe it’s a page you forgot you created years ago. Maybe a former employee created it and now you have no way to access it. No matter how it happened, now you have to figure out how to merge Facebook business pages.
In theory, it’s a simple and painless process. Here are a few guidelines for merging Facebook pages, plus a few notes on what may go wrong.
If you are an admin for both pages:
- Change the name of one of the pages so that it exactly matches the name of the other. Do this by clicking “About” in the left column of the page you’re merging. Then under “General,” next to the company name, click “Edit” and change the name. It will take some time for Facebook to approve the name change.
- Once you are notified that the name change was approved, go to Facebook.com/pages/merge. You will have to reenter your password.
- Choose the two pages from the dropdown menus. The second page will be considered the one that is merging, and its posts and photos will be deleted during the process. Likes and check-ins will be combined.
NOTE: If you don’t want to lose the posts and photos from the page that’s merging into the other one, don’t start the process — it can’t be undone.
If you want to merge an “unofficial” page with yours:
- On the unofficial page, click “Is this your business?” at the top of the page just under the header photo.
- Select the option to merge the page into a Verified Page you manage. Hopefully you can now select your official page and wait for Facebook to complete the merge, but if not…
- If nothing happens when you click “Continue,” congratulations, you’re part of a Facebook glitch that has yet to be fixed. You must select the option to “Claim and verify” the page “with a phone call or documents.” Click continue.
- Now you will need to upload a .doc, .pdf, or .jpg of a business document that must contain two pieces of information—your business name and address. This will probably be one of these documents:
- Utility bill/Phone bill
- Business license
- Business tax file
- Certificate of formation
- Articles of incorporation
- Once this document is submitted, you can now wait for Facebook to complete the merge.
- In some instances, Facebook will allow you to verify by phone call—the automated call to your business number will contain a verification code you enter to complete the merge.
If you don’t have access to an official Facebook business page that is using your company’s information:
- One option is to click the three dots icon below the header photo and click “Report Page.” You can then select that “This Place has duplicate or inaccurate info” or “I think it’s an unauthorized use of my intellectual property.” Facebook will investigate and get back to you. Sometimes the duplicate page is removed in 24 hours. Sometimes you have to report the page many times before you get a response from Facebook. It can take a long time and be very frustrating.
- Another option is to fill out a form and contact Facebook. They have a specialized team that reviews Intellectual Property claims such as trademark and copyright infringements, and you can contact them directly here: www.facebook.com
Do you have more questions about how to merge Facebook business pages? Give us a call or shoot me an email.