Brand Authenticity: Why Brands Need Verified Social Media Profiles

By Kara Holland, Social Media Lead – Tracer’s Centers of Excellence

In the vast and ever-evolving landscape of social media, safeguarding your brand’s integrity and reputation is essential. With the rise of online brand abuse, businesses face growing challenges like social media impersonation, employee impersonation, and executive impersonation, maintaining a strong and secure online presence is paramount for brands.

With Facebook and Instagram being two of the most prominent platforms for connecting with audiences, businesses need to ensure that their official pages are verified or properly connected with their other organizational pages. Doing so not only adds a layer of authenticity to your brand but also helps prevent your pages from being removed or flagged by Meta, the parent company of these platforms.

Here’s why verification matters:

1. Enhanced Credibility: Verified pages are granted a blue or gray badge, depending on the type of account, signifying to users that they are authentic representatives of a brand, public figure, or organization. This verification adds credibility and trustworthiness to your social media presence, reassuring followers that they are engaging with legitimate content.

2. Protection Against Impersonation: By verifying your Facebook and Instagram pages, you reduce the risk of impostor accounts attempting to mimic your brand. This safeguards your reputation and prevents brand confusion, ensuring that they interact with the genuine accounts associated with your company.

3. Mitigation of Content Removal: Meta, like other social media platforms, has strict community guidelines and policies in place. Failure to comply with these guidelines can result in content removal or even the suspension of your account. Verified pages are often given more leeway and are less likely to face penalties, making it crucial for brands to prioritize verification to maintain their online presence.

Verifying Your Pages:

Facebook:

1. Go to your Facebook page and click on “Settings.”
2. Navigate to “Page Verification” in the General tab.
3. Click “Verify this Page” and follow the prompts to complete the verification process. This may include providing business documents or receiving a verification code via phone.

Instagram:

1. Go to your Instagram profile and tap on the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the top right corner.
2. Select “Settings” and then “Account.”
3. Tap on “Request Verification” and follow the instructions to submit your request. You’ll typically need to provide your account name, category, and a government-issued photo ID or official business document.

Adding a Facebook Page to a Business Portfolio

To add a Page to your company’s business portfolio in Business Manager:

1. Go to Business settings.
2. Select Pages from the Accounts tab.
3. Click Add.
4. Select Add a Page from the dropdown menu.
5. Enter the Facebook Page name or URL.
6. Click Add Page. You should see your Page on the next screen. From here you can add people to manage this Page.

Anyone who had access to the Page before it was added to a business portfolio will still be able to access and manage the Page.

By following these steps, you can strengthen the security and credibility of your brand’s social media presence, reducing the risk of account removal or flagging by Meta. Authenticity and transparency are key in building trust with your audience, and both verifying and connecting your social pages is a crucial first step in your online brand protection strategy. 

Ready to learn more about social media brand protection? Go to the Tracer Social Media webpage and check it out for yourself.

About Tracer

Tracer is revolutionizing the brand protection industry with its advanced AI platform, setting new benchmarks in detecting, reviewing, and removing brand abuse with unmatched accuracy, speed, and scale. By leveraging over a decade’s worth of brand data with dynamically tuned Human-in-the-Loop AI and deep expertise of industry professionals, Tracer has become the chosen solution provider for some of the world’s most valuable brands.