It’s estimated that 1 in 3 Facebook users use the site to find recommendations and reviews.  On August 6, 2018 Facebook announced that they were redoing the “Reviews” section of their site and changing it to “Recommendations”. Naturally this made business owners wonder how this change would affect the reviews already on their site, as well as how people would interact with their business going forward.  Below is an explanation of everything you need to know about the switch to Recommendations as well as how it will impact your small business.

 

The following are the main differences between Reviews and Recommendations:

  • Recommendations appear in the right corner of your screen. A link for Reviews was always listed on the left hand side, and when you clicked on it it would take you to another screen to read the reviews.
  • The format has changed. Reviews allowed you to rate a business on a star system AND leave comments, whereas recommendations is just comments.  It’s based on a yes/no rating scale and does not include stars.
  • Reviews and Recommendations can be left on a business page for anyone to read, but Recommendations offers the option to hide the comment and only show it to specific users.
  • The network has changed as well. In the past, anyone was able to comment or like a review, but with recommendations you have to like the business page and be part of their network in order to leave a comment.

How to enable recommendations on your Facebook page:

Recommendations are not the default setting; instead, you have to enable them on your business page.  You can do this by:

  1. Clicking on “settings” at the top of your Facebook page.
  2. Click the “edit page” button on the left hand side.
  3. Scroll down until you see the “reviews” section.
  4. Click the slider next to “show reviews” so that it reads “on”.
  5. Hit Save and you’re done! Your business is now ready to receive recommendations. 

The key benefits of recommendations are:

There are a lot of perks associated with this change.  Mainly, it will give your business the chance to reach more people through recommendations.  This is because as soon as someone likes your page and leaves a recommendation, it will show up on their newsfeed for all their friends and family to see.  This will in turn influence that circle of people to go to your business page, and they’re much more likely to use your company if they see a friend has recommended it as opposed to just reading reviews left by strangers.  Facebook will also rank recommendations left by close friends higher than those left by people not in your network, so that should also lend strength to your recommendations.

In addition, with recommendations you are now able to post photos along with a recommendation.  You were not able to do this with the reviews feature.  Visual marketing is huge, and so you’re much more likely to catch the eye of a potential consumer by having a page full of recommendations AND photos as opposed to just text.

Finally, Facebook is offering the option to post “tags” within a customer’s recommendation.  For example, if a consumer was leaving a review for a coffee shop, they might be presented with potential tags to include like: “best coffee”, “custom lattes”, “fresh donuts” and more.  These tags work like hashtags and help customers highlight the best parts of their reviews.

So what if your business gets a negative recommendation?

 

It’s pretty well-known in the online world that it’s no easy task to flag and remove a negative Google review, but thankfully that’s not the case with Facebook recommendations.  Facebook is striving to make sure all their recommendations are authentic (ie: not fake or spammy), and so they give users the option to report a review for a variety of categories, including:

  • Recommendation not relevant
  • Unfair recommendation
  • Nudity
  • Violence
  • Harassment
  • Suicide or Self-injury
  • Spam
  • Drugs
  • Hate Speech

Over 1.6 billion people around the world are connected to a small business on Facebook. The platform is a GREAT way to spread the word about your business, interact with customers, and share your products and services.  Reviews play a huge role in customer purchasing decisions, so it’s definitely worth your time and effort to cultivate the new Facebook Recommendations feature.  Encourage your customers to like your page and leave recommendations; you could even hold a giveaway to boost their chances of participating! Monitor your recommendations often and respond to negative reviews promptly- this will show your customers that you value customer service and that you’re willing to take responsibility, and offer solutions for, any potential mistakes or errors.

What’s been your experience with recommendations?  Do you prefer this feature over reviews?  Comment in the section below- we’d love to hear from you!

Photo Credit: All photos taken from Facebook.com