Verified musician or band page on Facebook - does it help?

Updated - August 21, 2014

Click Here to request Facebook for verification if you are a celeb or notable person.

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F
ew years ago when I created a page for legendary American guitarist Eric Johnson on Facebook, I had no idea about verified pages as well as terms of creating a musician or band's page on Facebook. I created the page when I didn't find any official or a proper page giving details of the guitarist. Later, when I was contacted by the management of Eric Johnson to re-create my page as the official page of Eric Johnson on Facebook, I came to know few things.

What is an Official Facebook Page?

First, Facebook Pages are for musicians, bands, authors, celebrities, businesses, organizations and brands to share their stories and connect with people. Though many times I come across with pages which have no relevance to any of the above. Why do we need a page? Well, profiles are kind of private - mainly for friends and in some rare cases - for ex-girlfriends. A page is a public platform where one can share everything - including stories, events, videos, music and more for people to get engaged to. People who like your Page and their friends will most of the time get updates in their News Feeds. And you can build your audience gradually.

Now, according to Facebook - only an official representative of an organization, business, celebrity or band is permitted to create an official Page on Facebook. When I created the Eric Johnson page, I had little knowledge about this as I did not think of checking the help and terms and conditions pages before creating the page, like many. So, when I was told by Eric's management that when they tried to create an official page for the guitarist, they were diverted to my page, as my page was showing as the official page.

What is a Community Facebook Page?

If you like a personality or a band or a musician, you can easily create a community page of that topic. You can create multiple community pages about one or many topics. A Community Page is about an organization, celebrity or topic, but doesn't officially represent it. The Community Page label will appear below community Page names identifying it as a community Page about a particular topic.

Hence, as I did not want to give up my Eric Johnson page to his management, I changed it to a community page. I found out that community pages are useful too as there are many things an official page can't share due to copyright issues. My page of Eric Johnson has crossed 60,000 likes in 2013 - mostly because of the updates. There is now an official page of Eric Johnson as well as my fan page on Facebook. (Find the both Here)

What is Listen Button on Facebook Pages?

For musicians, before your page gets verified, you need to have a Listen Button. Listen button is a feature through which people can instantly play your songs in their favorite streaming apps - like Spotify, MOG or MySpace. The Listen button is added to musician Pages right next to the Like button. When the button is clicked, your songs will start to play in the frequently used Facebook music streaming apps.

Before the Listen button gets visible, your page should be eligible to request the addition of a Music Catalogue. How to do that? Well, first you must have an existing music catalogue on a supported service, such as MySpace, Spotify or Rdio. Second, according to Facebook - "only some music Pages with more than 5,000 likes are eligible to request the addition of a music catalogue." I found this not to be entirely true though. There are pages with less likes, infact some have less than 1000 likes which have music catalogues as well as a listen buttons.

Now how to find whether you are eligible? If your page is a Musician/Band page, once you click on the Help section in the top-right of your page, you will be able to see the Get More Features tab. If you have that and once you click on the tab, a new window will pop up stating that - "If you're the official representative of the band, let us know. You may be eligible for additional features such as the "Listen" button." After you click on the Submit button, someone at Facebook will review your request. Once approved, you can edit the music catalogues on your Page.

What if you don't find the Get More Features tab under the Help section? Than, you have to wait until you have that option on your page. Until then, you can link your Reverbnation or BandPage profile to your Facebook page for people to listen to your music.

What is a Verified Facebook Page?

Once you have an official page of your band or yourself and a Listen Button, it's time to get your profile Verified by Facebook. For your fans or people who want to follow you, it becomes easy to identify that your page is who you claim it to be. If you have a verified page, you'll see a blue badge () next to the page's name.

Why do you need a verified page? Well, if you are actually a popular figure, you will most likely to have more than one page on Facebook, which some of your fans must have created. Hence a verified page gives an authentic identity so that people can understand that rest of the pages are actually community pages and not official.

Which pages get verified? According to Facebook - "some well-known public figures and pages with large followings (likes or fans) are verified by Facebook as having an authentic identity. These profiles and Pages may include Celebrities, Journalists, Government officials, Popular brands and businesses."

So, how will your page get verified? You have to wait your turn.. Although not all official or pages with authentic identity gets verified and it happens automatically, you can still request Facebook for a 'verified badge'.

Click Here to request Facebook for verification if you are a celeb. (You have to be logged out of Facebook to access the form)

What I saw is, once you create the official page and link it to your websites and blogs, it almost becomes an authentic page itself even if you don't have the verified mark. You can complete the About section of your Page to provide more information. That way, it becomes easier to get your page verified. Most importantly, your page should be engaging and get likes regularly.

Once you have a good amount of fans, content and complete all of the above, suddenly, one day you will get a message on top of your Facebook page that your page is getting verified. That will turn out to be the most wonderful day of your life. Till then, Godspeed!