It’s a late one and I’m not sure exactly how far I will get on this post tonight, but being as pissed off as I am I might not have a problem getting through it one bit. Many small business owners our there that utilize Facebook Pages and Places might have recently seen that Facebook is Encouraging Page Owners to Claim a Place, a push to increase Facebook’s share in the geo-location check-in based game.

Facebook’s latest Places push and the fact that Facebook is now encouraging Page owners to claim a Place shows their complete incompetence when it comes to understanding business.

Facebook Pages and Places Merge is a Fail

Visit Extreme Tan and Smoothies Facebook Fan Page with Claimed Places

1. No Support for Multiple Locations

I am a small business owner with a chain of six indoor tanning salons, all listed in Google Maps, Yelp, SCVNGR, Foursquare, etc. Over the last year we have worked to grow our fan page base into a decent one, it’s hardly anything major but it gets the job done. In any case now the entire existing fan base and any new fans moving forward will believe that we only have one location, this is because each Facebook Page can only claim one Place.

Hey Facebook, guess what? Some businesses have more than one location.

2. Failure to Complete Merge

Thanks to the “merge” with Places feature that comes in the process of claiming your Place being such a poorly written ALL of our custom FMBL stopped working, all coupons, special offers and rewards are also gone.

Just for the record Facebook, customers hate change. Stop making your business owners change designs and layouts that customers and page admins become comfortable with, your not doing anyone any favors.

3. Poor Warning

The warning to business owners about the effect and the fact that it is missing some key abilities should have been pointed out by Facebook CLEARLY before claiming a Place is complete. A quick warning about not being able to undo the changes isn’t enough when it comes to the fact that you can only merge one Place with one Page.

4. No Return

I now have a chain of six locations that now look to be represented by only one single location, thanks to FB failing to think things through there is currently no way for me to claim our other locations. This would be the same for any small business owner with multiple locations that claimed a Place. Basically, there’s no return at this point my five other locations have no real presence on our actual fan page until Facebook figures out this mess.

Click here to see my Facebook Fan Page without claiming a Facebook Place page.

5. No Tabs

I’ve been around long enough to know that when companies like Apple decide to remove a button or a function from something, regardless of the kicking and screaming anyone does it pretty much never changes. When it comes to Tabs on Facebook Pages it’s been obvious for a while that Facebook hates them, regardless of how kick ass we might all think Tabs are.

Tabs are gone in the new Page view and replaced with a weak left side nav. #FacebookFAIL

6. Left Column Fail

Ahhhh.. I remember the days of our TV commercial embedded neatly into the left column as it appeared before the giant row of up coming and previous events. GONE! Someone at Facebook must have decided that thing like that just aren’t needed, so the Facebook gods taketh away. I can understand that FB wants to avoid the cluttery jacked pages of the now dead MySpace, but business Facebook Pages should have a little more to offer.

At least a little more then the day-to-day baaaooorrrriiiiinnngggg Facebook design that we have all come to love and hate.

7. No Direction

Since everything in internet world has to be such a giant secret there’s no real answer to the direction that Facebook will take this, or when they might address the multitude of business owner complaints.

8. No Support

Don;t bother looking for someone to call or write in regards to your issues because there’s no one listening. OK, maybe me and a handful of others that might read this but I can assure you that Zuckie isn’t listening.

In Closing

I can safely say, as someone that agreed to merge our Facebook Fan Page with our Facebook Places that it’s by far the dumbest thing Facebook has done to small business owners yet. Facebook’s latest move to push Facebook Places is a nightmare for small business owners, especially small business owners with multiple locations.

I guess when it comes to claiming the rest of our Places on Facebook we will have to wait for Facebook to resolve the issue, something that can easily take them forever.

Leave a comment if you’ve claimed your Facebook Place and completed the merge with your Facebook Page, especially if you own multiple locations. I’m curious if this nailed anyone else the same way it nailed me.

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