gray verifayed vs blue verifayed

Ok, firstly what does a verified account or page mean? Basically, its a pat on the back in the social media world, the BLUE tick is the crown of the social media world, but its now changing.
Facebook unveiled a new tick altogether recently, a few days ago I went on Facebook to check the Playhouse Films page and suddenly There was a strange gray tick next to our name, I had a WTF moment, what is this gray tick?! At first I thought in my excitement I had a momentary spell of colour blindness and what was actually in front of me was a blue tick, but then after visiting the Facebook help forum I found out what it all meant.

BLUE TICK
Some Pages and profiles have been verified by Facebook to let people know that theyre authentic. If you see a blue badge on a Page or profile, it means that Facebook confirmed that this is the authentic Page or profile for this public figure, media company or brand.GRAY TICK
If you see a gray badge on a Page, it means that Facebook confirmed that this is an authentic Page for this business or organization.
So this raised a couple of questions for me Firstly for those of you who dont know, on Facebook pages you can select a main category for you business, this will affect the type of tick you get Blue or Gray

  • Local Business
  • Place Company Organization
  • Institution Brand
  • Product Artist, Band
  • Public Figure Entertainment Cause
  • Community

Then there are sub-categories, usually next to the Page name youll see something like Film & Television Studio etc, but the main category will affect certain features for your page, and whether you can get that blue tick or not.
We (Playhouse Films) use the category of a Local Business, the key to finding out this is what happens when you move your cursor over the tick on your page.






So..
Blue ticks = Public Figure, Media Company or Brand.
Gray ticks = Business or Organisation.
As we (Playhouse Films) have selected the local business category we will not qualify for the blue tick, however It raised a lot of questions, well what do we want to be? A local business or a brand? Which is more beneficial for YOUR business Are you serving globally? or locally?

What do you have to do to be a media company or brand to get the blue tick?
First and foremost, you must select either Institution Brand, Product Artist, Band or Public Figure Entertainment Cause. Then its building your page, name and theres nothing YOU can do, its up to Facebook when they decide you get this.

If I change my page category to Brand, will this lose my gray tick?
I tested this, no it doesnt! You still keep your gray tick, BUT! You will lose your reviews, lose your ability to Check in to your location So I changed it back to local business to keep these features.

What does the gray tick actually mean? Is it good?
Yes, from my research finding out more about this whole thing, and what it means. I strongly recommend other local business do it, you have to contact Facebook and submit evidence that you are who you say you are, but its worth doing. Its letting people know you are YOU and just gives a bit more credibility.
It raises a lot of questions about your business, what direction is best for you? Well for now for us were sticking with the local business category, we need the review feature, also checking in at Playhouse Films is very handy and these two things are only available to us under the local business category.