How to claim your dealership’s Facebook business page

“Help! A former employee is the only Admin for our Facebook page and now I can’t access it!” or “Help! A Facebook page for my dealership already exists! How did that happen?”

If you have said either of the above statements regarding your dealership’s Facebook page, don’t worry, we’ll be sharing solutions to help you get access to your page. 

In this post we are going to explain what steps you can take to either, gain access to a page that someone else was the Admin for, or a page that was automatically created.

How to reclaim access to your Facebook page from a former dealership employee

It can be scary when the employee who managed your Facebook page leaves the company and no one else has access. Hopefully, they are not disgruntled as it’s best to simply ask them to make you an Admin before trying the steps below. If that doesn’t work, here is what you can do. As a best practice in the future, we recommend that you have all social media logins and passwords saved. Here is a downloadable password recording sheet for you to keep track of your logins.

In order to reclaim your Facebook page, visit this link and select the following options…

• Other legal right
• Continue with your report
• Other legal right from the dropdown menu
• Fill out the form with the appropriate information
  • Be concise
  • Provide the link or URL of the page you are trying to claim
• Provide an explanation of how and why you think you should have access to your dealership’s Facebook page
• Select who owns the page in question
• Hit send

You may be asked to provide proof of page ownership. It could take a few days to receive a response from Facebook.

Once your page is claimed

Once you regain access to your dealership’s Facebook page, we recommend you make yourself the Admin. Everyone else should either be an Editor, Moderator, Advertiser or Analyst. All of the other page roles associated with your account cannot edit users or their access level, which will prevent this from happening again.

To manage these roles for your Facebook page, go to your page and select…

• Settings at the top right of the page
• Page roles from the left menu
• If you are Facebook friends with them already, you can type in their name and select their role from the dropdown item directly underneath where you entered their name. You can also add them via email if you are not Facebook friends with them.
• Hit Save.

Below is a chart from Facebook that explains what each page role has access to. Again, we stress that you make yourself the Admin.

How to claim or delete an automatically generated Facebook page

Facebook will automatically generate a page for your dealership, if one doesn’t already exist, and there is user activity at that location such as a check-in. Automatically generated pages will say “unofficial page” underneath the cover photo.

To request access to the Facebook page and become the Admin, select…

• Is this your business? Underneath the page’s cover photo
• Answer any questions relating to the process

You may be asked to provide proof of page ownership.

Claiming or reclaiming your dealership’s Facebook page can be stressful and it’s important to make sure the correct page roles are assigned. Hopefully your dealership doesn’t have to go through the process of gaining access to your page, but it’s comforting to know you have options when it comes to claiming what is rightfully yours.

Jim Jabaay is the vice president of Sales and Marketing for LotVantage, a leader in digital marketing for automotive, powersports, marine and RV dealerships.  Jim has grown up in the automotive industry with the family dealership in the suburbs of Chicago. Jim started at Manheim in sales and continued to grow his career running sales teams throughout Texas for nine years.  Following Manheim, Jim spent two years at Dealertrack expanding his career in the software side of the business.  LotVantage utilizes data to help dealerships understand which inventory to post and when to post it for a local, national and social presence.  Jim’s number one goal is helping dealers succeed in an ever growing and changing dealership world.

Website: www.LotVantage.com