By zack
Zombie Facebook Pages are out there, sucking the life from your funeral home’s branding and stealing away your visitors.
Don’t let your funeral home or cemetery fall victim!
What’s a Zombie Facebook Page?
Facebook’s real term for a Zombie Facebook Page is an unclaimed business page, or unofficial page. It’s a page automatically created for your firm when Facebook can’t find an official page for your business.
You may have seen these before. Here’s what they look like:
You’ll recognize these Zombie Pages because they look kinda lifeless. There’s no profile photo or cover photo, and very few posts. You’ll also see that they’re labeled “Unofficial Page” underneath the cover photo location, with a link, “Is this your business?” (we’ll talk about that soon).
What’s so Dangerous About These Zombie Pages?
These pages might look harmless, but they can actually do a lot of damage to your firm!
Steals Your Traffic – Facebook has among the best SEO on the web, meaning their pages will show up near the top of every Google search. When someone searches for your firm on Google or Facebook, they may wind up on your unofficial page. This prevents them from interacting with your message, keeps them from taking links to your website, and blocks them from engaging with your firm. It’s hard to win their business when they can’t access you or your message!
Poisons Your Branding – Often these Zombie Pages are created when someone wants to leave a review or check-in to your firm, but there’s no official page at that location. As a result, Facebook creates an unofficial page for your firm, which ends up collecting a lot of reviews and engagement without you knowing it. As a result, complaints go unaddressed. These complaints are then seen by others who search for your firm, resulting in a damaging hit to your brand!
Stunts Your Growth – When people take their conversation to a Zombie Page, they are preventing you from capitalizing from that positive engagement. Additionally, some Zombie Pages start gaining fans and followers who would have otherwise been fans of your official page!
How to Fight Back?
The good thing about Zombie Pages is they can easily be contained by claiming them and merging them into your official page. However, the first step is to find whether you’re affected. To identify any Zombie Pages affecting your brand, simply Google your funeral home with the word “Facebook” at the end and click through the Facebook results at the top to see if they are real or unclaimed pages. Here’s an example:
Once you’ve identified any of these Zombie Pages for your firm, you can either claim the page as your own and make it your official Facebook Page, or if you already have a separate official page, you can merge the Zombie Page into your official one.
Claim the Zombie Page
From the zombie page, click on the “Is this your business?” link near the top.
Then choose to claim and verify the page. You’ll have 3 options to verify ownership of the page: by phone using the number listed for the page, by email or through business documentation. Choose the option that fits best and you’ll have that Zombie Page tamed and under your control in no time.
Merge the Zombie Page
If you already have an official page for your firm, it’s better to merge the Zombie Page into your official one. The benefit is that all the fans, check-ins and reviews from the Zombie Page will be combined with your official page. To merge the page, first claim the page using the instructions above. Once you’ve claimed the page, ensure you are admin of both pages, and that they have the same address listed and similar names. Once ready, you can merge the pages following the instructions here.
You’re Not Alone. We Can Help.
Want help identifying any Zombie Pages for your firm, or do you need a hand claiming them or merging them into your official page? Contact us now and we’ll be happy to answer your questions and set you on the right path.
