Today’s article is all about Facebook’s place feature and if it is possible to merge it with your current business page. There are two different ways to get a Place for your business. Firstly, we will look at how to create or claim a Place that has been created by another user.
How to check if your Place already exists
When a user visits your establishment they can Check in to that place when they post an update to Facebook. If this is the first time someone has checked in then Facebook will automatically add it as a place.
To find out if your business has already been listed as a place follow these steps;
1. Go to your search bar and type the name of your place
2. If you have a business page this may show up too but you’re looking for a result that has your address below it. Another way to distinguish a page from a place is an unclaimed place will have the Placemark image in grey/white.
3. Click on the result and it will take you to that place’s page.
If you have found your place and it hasn’t been claimed you can then follow the next how to.
How to claim a Facebook place
When you visit an un-claimed place you will have an option to notify the owner that they can claim this place. To do this click the Know the owner? button located on the top right. Once you have clicked this a pop up appears:
You can then type in the name or email of the person who owns the business. Obviously, this may be you so just type in your own name/email.
Once you have added this information and clicked submit an email will be sent to that person requesting that they claim there page. The email also lists competitors that are already using places, nice touch?
I have added a copy of the email I received when requesting to claim a business.
Once you click on the Claim page button you are taken back to that Facebook Place. All you have to do now is enter the address of your business and phone number (optional). You will then be asked to verify your position at your Place by confirming your work email address.
Congratulation! You have now successfully claimed your Place. You can add images, contact details and interact with people visiting your business. But there’s one problem, you already own page that’s doing the same job. Read the next section to find out how you can merge a Page and Place.
Merging Your Existing Facebook Page With Your New Facebook Places Page
So, if you have a Facebook Page and now a Facebook Place you have the option to merge the two. But why merge? It is a lot easier to manage your Facebook presence from one point instead of having to be active on both Pages and Places.
Go to your existing Facebook Page
Click on Edit Page and then on Update info on the drop down
On the left column, click on the Resources tab
Click the Merge duplicate Pages link.
This link will only appear if you admin two Pages with similar names and have the same address information..
A dialogue will show Pages and Places you admin that qualify to be merged. Select the Page(s) you wish to merge and Confirm.
This video will walk through the steps above:
