Unofficial Facebook pages; do you know what they are? Do you know why they’re a problem? Do you know how to get rid of them? I’m Matt Jones with WebPunch and today we’re going to be discussing Facebook unofficial pages. Unofficial Facebook pages are pages that are created by Facebook without your permission, and usually they were created because someone went to check in to your business and your business didn’t have a listing. So Facebook said, “Hey, people have an interest in this business. I am going to go ahead and create a page for them.”
The reason this is a problem is that people will start to submit reviews to your unofficial pages and you’ll have no ability to respond to them, because you didn’t create it; you don’t have the credentials to log in and interact and customize your page. You don’t have the ability to add logos and pictures and all the things that we do to optimize a listing. Google wants you to optimize those listings too, in order to help rank with Google search. So, unofficial pages are a problem and we want to make sure that you have control over the message that people see when they’re looking at your listings.
If people are leaving reviews, you need to have the ability to go in and respond. The other thing that’s a big problem is that people are doing that (leaving reviews on unofficial Facebook pages) and a lot of business owners are unaware of the things that people are saying on those unofficial pages. We want to make sure that we get those resolved and tidied up, and here’s how you do it. There are three different things you can do. If you don’t have a Facebook listing, if you don’t have a Facebook page, you can actually just go in and search for your business. If you found an unofficial page that you can see — we’ll insert some screenshots here so you know what to look for.
The first thing you want to do with that unofficial page is claim it. Again, if you don’t have a business listing on Facebook, a business page, go ahead and claim it and it will say, “Is this your business?” Click it and there are just a few steps and you’ll be off and running.
The second thing is, let’s say you do have a page on Facebook but you also have an unofficial page on Facebook. In that case, we want to merge the duplicate page, so to do that you’re going to go to www.facebook/pages/merge. Once you’re there, you’re going to select the two different pages; your official page and your unofficial page. You’re going to click on those and you’re going to submit that to Facebook, and then you’re just going to have to wait a few days in order for Facebook to say, “Yes, you’re approved for the merging of those two pages.”
The third option is to remove that sucker. If you already have a Facebook page, you already have an official page, then you can remove that other page. Again, you have to have that Facebook page established in order to do this. But how you’re going do it is; you’re going to open both the unofficial and the official pages in two different tabs on your browser. On one tab you’re going to have your unofficial page and on the other tab you’re goning to have your official page. Then you’re going to go to your official page and you’re going to click on, towards the middle of the screen, “Suggest edits,” and after you click on that, you’re going to go to the bottom and you’ll see “URL” plus “Add Duplicate URL.”
So in that, you’re going to go the tab that has your official page and you’re going to copy that URL, you’re going to go back here and insert that URL. And then you’re going to go to the unofficial tab URL, you’re going to copy that and put that in here as well. And then you’re going to…again, you’re going to put those in there and you’re going to click the “Save” button. And we’ll insert screenshots so you can follow along, but that’s it. So after you’ve clicked “Save,” you’re going to check back in a few days to see if Facebook has approved your request. And if they have, then you’re good to go. And if they haven’t then call WebPunch because we can handle all of your reputation needs and help you knock out your competition, one review at a time.
