Facebook | Forum « Can you change the name of your business/fan page? How safe is it?

Can you change the name of your business/fan page? How safe is it? (14 posts)

Topic tags: business page, Naming

Sheridan Mills said
6 months, 2 weeks ago:
I am currently working on merging 2 pages. There is another feed I posted earlier if you would like to find out about this.
I need to know if I ‘request a name change’ with Facebook for any of my business/fan pages, it will be successful or, if there are ANY problems with this?
Anyone?
I know you have to request the change and supply documentation in some cases like a screen grab etc…not sure if anyone has done this and if hard/easy?
Please help!

@sheridanmills | # | Top
Alexandra Briggs said
6 months, 2 weeks ago:
@sheridanmills I believe the stipulations on Facebook are based on how many likes the page has whether you can change the name simply. I would be curious to hear how the process works out for you, and hopefully some fellow campers can provide some insight!
One statement of general caution, make sure the name is still relevant to your business so followers don’t “unlike” because they aren’t sure what the business is due to name change.
@alexandrabriggs | # | Top
Howie Nguyen said
6 months, 2 weeks ago:
I’m not sure about merging but as far as changing the name I think you are allowed to only do this once.
@howwhowhen | # | Top
Ry Russell said
6 months, 2 weeks ago:
@sheridanmills Once you have created a name for your Facebook page and you can change it once without much hassel. In terms of merging two pages to become one, you want to be extremely careful from a branding perspective. I had worked with a college that had so many unofficial pages and wanted to create a network of official college pages. We had to make sure that all the official pages were linked together through applications to create a clear line between official and unofficial Facebook pages.
If you have control over both these pages you want to merge, (I don’t have all the details of the situation) I would consider creating a third page, with the exact branding that which you want to resonate with your customers and publish a couple of posts about the transition and then run some advertising exclusive to each page that send the user to the new page. It is likely some people will not make the transition, but if handled correctly you could make this transition fairly painlessly.
@ryrussell | # | Top
Sheridan Mills said
6 months, 2 weeks ago:
@alexandrabriggs @howwhowhen @ryrussell
I have successfully converted the personal page into a business/fan page (I haven’t done the merger yet).
The process was very easy and it has converted the number of friends to likes exactly. This took some time so don’t panic if the number is really low when you first hit the convert button and see your new page for the first time – just for your reference.
I immediately applied for a ‘name change’ and am now waiting on Facebook’s approval for this to proceed to the next step which is merge this page into my primary one (my established page) without loosing any of my primary pages data.
Will see how I go.
@sheridanmills | # | Top
Sheridan Mills said
6 months, 1 week ago:
@alexandrabriggs @howwhowhen @ryrussell
I just had my second business page’s name successfully changed via Facebook (a one time thing only they say) and so now both pages are exactly the same.
‘Merge duplicate pages’ hasn’t come up as an option on my primary page (despite being identical) as I had hoped and so am now stuck with two pages and can;t merge the second one into the primary apparently until I have more likes on my primary.
So I have received wrong information and am now stuck.
Please note, you can ONLY merge the smaller like page into the larger one and HOPE that your primary pages content is retained. Am now waiting again to see what happens at the next step once i have actually somehow collected enough likes on the primary and am eligible to merge the pages.
@sheridanmills | # | Top
Ry Russell said
6 months, 1 week ago:

@sheridanmills That is frustrating, well I do not usually recommend people to purchase “likes” but if it solves the problem and makes you able merge the pages sooner it might be worth considering. This is a scenario where Branding trumps all. You don’t want the wrong page generating any more likes than necessary.
@ryrussell | # | Top
Helena Zwarts said
6 months, 1 week ago:
I also changed my name (after the one time you are allowed). After requesting the name change and about a day or two waiting for FB response everything went smoothly for me. Luckily I didn’t had to merge two pages – in my case it was just a complete name change.
How many likes do you have to had on your primary page to merge the two. Is there a specific number?
@helenazwarts | # | Top
Sheridan Mills said
6 months, 1 week ago:
@ryrussell
The page was a personal page which needed to be merged into our business page. Branding/buying not part of this.
@helenazwarts
This is all about merging. The name change was purely to see if I could merge the two if the name changed to be the same. It didn’t. Now I am stuck with one page with 1350 likes and one page with 1200.
The 1200 likes page is my primary or official business page. The other one with more likes nothing. It was the result of converting my personal page (1350 friends) into a business page.
Now i need to wait until my primary page catches up to 1350 in order to merge duplicates as per Facebook standards. Apparently.
@sheridanmills | # | Top
Andrea Vahl said
6 months, 1 week ago:
You should be able to merge the pages of the larger Likes into the one with the smaller likes @sheridanmills Are you looking at the backend of the Page while logged in as your personal profile, not your Page? Does one personal profile have control over both of the Pages? Did my blog post on how to do this help? http://andreavahl.com/facebook/the-difference-between-facebook-places-and-facebook-pages-and-how-to-merge-them.php
@andrea-vahl | # | Top
Sheridan Mills said
6 months, 1 week ago:
@andrea-vahl
Facebook says very clearly that you need to log in from the page that you want to keep (if you are wanting/there is any hope of keeping that pages data).
Therefore, I can log in as Sheridan Mills only as an admin of the primary/official page in order to check for the merge option. Which, doesn’t come up.
IF, I log in to the other page (the one I converted) it brings up both pages and gives me an option to merge but then says – if i go to the merge option on that page/the secondary page – that if I merge I WILL LOOSE ALL DATA ON BOTH PAGES.
It also says clearly on Facebook’s merge information page above that you MUST MERGE THE LESSER LIKE PAGE INTO THE HIGHER LIKE PAGE.
There is no way I am going to try to merge from the second page and loose all of my data and right now all information tells me that this is what is going to happen.
Do you have other information on this?
@sheridanmills | # | Top
Andrea Vahl said
6 months, 1 week ago:
First, you need to make Sheridan Mills an admin of both Pages. Then go to the Page you want to keep and be logged in as Sheridan Mills. Then see if you have the option to merge the other Page into that page without losing the data. @sheridanmills
@andrea-vahl | # | Top
Sheridan Mills said
6 months, 1 week ago:
@andrea-vahl
I am an admin on both pages. I did this and added additional admins straight away.
As I explained above, If I log in as Sheridan Mills and go to my primary page it does not come up with an option to merge the two pages.
Facebook says this is because you can not merge a page with less likes into one with more likes (unless you want to loose all your data).
Is any other this making sense? I have tried everything trust me.
The only option I have left is to build the likes higher than the other page or:
Log in to the secondary page which admins both pages (not Sheridan Mills the other converted page), navigate to the page i want to keep and hit the merge pages from there (which is an option) and take a MASSIVE chance that this will keep all of my data.
What are your thoughts on all this?
@sheridanmills | # | Top
Sheridan Mills said
6 months, 1 week ago:
Answer – Yes you can change your name (I did successfully) and yes you can merge a page with more likes into one with less likes via a special link at Facebook – and keep all of the data/posts on the page you are merging into.
I just did it successfully.
@sheridanmills | # | Top