Facebook Recommendations Have Replaced Reviews
Are you aware of the new Facebook Recommendations for Pages?
If you have a Facebook Page for your business you might have noticed the review section has been replaced with Recommendations.
Visitors will no longer have an option to rate your business on a star rating scale of 1 to 5. Instead, they will be presented with a simple question, Do you recommend “business name”? Yes or No?
In addition to a simple “yes or no”, you can share your experience and explain why you recommend the business using tags, text and photos (see below).
What is the Facebook Recommendations Score Based on?
Your new Facebook Page rating is now based on, how many people recommend or don’t recommend your page, as well as any past reviews and ratings you previously had. Your old reviews are still available on your Page but visitors can no longer read every review you’ve received.
From now on, positive recommendations will appear as a red recommended icon and any negative recommendations will appear as grey icons.
Why Have Facebook Reviews Changed?
We all know that the organic reach of Facebook posts have been declining for a while and some businesses have been forced to pay to get their content in front of their audience.
Recommendations might be just the feature that your business needs to get in front of customers searching for your services. By switching to Recommendations, Facebook wants to make local business pages more useful and attract more customers.
Here are some juicy Facebook stats to note…
- 2 in 3 Facebook users visit the Page of a local business at least once per week.
- 1 in 3 people on Facebook use the platform to look for recommendations and reviews.
The stats above show that Business Pages are still important and relevant to customers before they make a decision.
Another problem that Recommendation might solve is the accidental review of your business. Previously, when Facebook prompted for a review in the News Feed, it was very easy to accidentally tap on the stars and leave a review without a comment.
When managing client’s Facebook Pages, we would ask customers why they left a 1 star review and if they would like to comment. The majority of the time they didn’t realise they left a review and upgraded it to a 5 star rating.
Main Benefits of Facebook Recommendations
So how can Facebook Recommendations help your business?
1. Increase Reach
The good news is that Facebook Recommendations can remedy the decreasing organic reach issue. Recommendations are discoverable across Facebook when people are searching or talking about your business.
When someone creates a post asking for a recommendation and a friend replies recommending your business, your Recommendation score be visible in the post and the recommendation will also be visible on your page.
When a customer visits your page they will see recommendations from their closest friends first which will build more trust with your business and they will be more inclined to purchase from you.
2. Share Photos
When someone replies to a friends recommendation request, they have the option to upload a photo as well, sharing their experience of your business or the product they received.
Similar to above, the photo will appear in the Recommendations section on your business page, making it available for potential customers to see.
3. Tagging
When a customer leaves a recommendation they will have the option to add a tag which best describes your business. By using tags, such as “excellent customer service”, “free wifi”, “child friendly” or “great food”, will make it easier for potential customers to see why your business is good.
What Do You Think?
Do you think the new Facebook Recommendations feature will make a difference to your business page? Leave a comment below.
